How do you follow up a phone like the HTC One? It was only the third smartphone to garner a highly coveted five star TechRadar review and the Taiwanese firm has got a job on its hands to repeat the trick with its successor.
HTC is working on something though, as a myriad of leaks, rumors and suggestive benchmark results worm their way onto the web - all of which appear to reference the "HTC M8."
Why is this significant? Well, the codename for the original HTC One during development was M7, so the M8 moniker makes logical sense for the firm's next flagship smartphone.
The handset won't launch under the M8 name however; there's actually a bit of confusion over the name HTC will give it after backing itself into a little bit of a corner with its "One" brand.
Currently HTC One Two is being bandied about, but we reckon that's more for convenience rather than a hard and fast name for the market.
With 2012's One X, One S, One V and then One X+ followed by the One SV and headline making One in 2013 it's not clear where HTC will go next.
The HTC One+ perhaps? Or how about the HTC One Magnificent?
Bear in mind we also have the One Mini and One Max - variations HTC will no doubt want to exploit with its next-gen flagship - and we're left scratching our heads.
One thing is for sure though, the HTC M8 is going to have some stiff competition as the Samsung Galaxy S5 will also be rocking up in 2014, along with the iPhone 6 later in the year.
We've rounded up all the latest M8 chatter from around the web to bring you the best picture of what you may see from the HTC One Two.
HTC M8 release date and price
We have seen a mention of the HTC M8 release date, with perennial leaker @evleaks tweeting that the handset would be with all four US networks by the "end of Q1 '14."
In other words the HTC One Two should be hitting stores before the end of March 2014, which pegs an unveiling earlier that month, or even in February - could there be a MWC appearance for HTC's next flagship?
There's no mention of a HTC M8 price just yet, but if it does transpire to be the next flagship handset it'll carry a hefty price tag - so you might want to start saving now.
HTC M8 display
Big screens are the order of the day for today's flagship smartphones and various reports seem to suggest HTC will build ever so slightly on the 4.7-inch display found on the One.
It looks like the M8 will pack a 5-inch display, although one report says it could go as big as 5.2 inches.
There's been a lot of talk around 2K and 4K displays on smartphones arriving in 2014, but if an Antutu benchmark result is to be believed HTC will stick to the same full HD, 1920 x 1080 resolution for the One Two.
The 5-inch, full HD screen has been echoed by @evleaks - a usually reliable source of upcoming phone leaks.
HTC M8 power
The HTC One arrived on the scene with a relatively decent 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, but things have advanced since then and numerous reports are all pointing to the same chip for the M8.
That processor is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 SoC, and benchmarking results points towards the quad-core chip being clocked at 2.26GHz - the same as the LG G2.
There was a rumor doing the rounds claiming that HTC was looking to boost the One to an octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM, but the handset never materialized - has it been held back for the M8?
Several other leaks are quoting 2GB of RAM, which would be the same as the HTC One - but still plenty to run Android.
For those of you who love gaming on your smartphone there's some potentially good news for you, as the M8 has also been linked to the Qualcomm Adreno 330 GPU which will enhance the graphical output of the handset.
HTC M8 operating system
No surprises here, when the M8 finally launches under whatever moniker HTC has managed to bodge together you can be sure Android will be hiding under the hood.
The good news is that it's tipped to be the very latest version - Android 4.4 KitKat - and of course it will be coated in a heavy layer of HTC's Sense overlay.
Word is that the One Two will come with a brand spanking new version - Sense 6.0 - although we hope it doesn't deviate to much from 5.5, which we greatly enjoy.
If the details surrounding processor and RAM ring true then you can expect the M8 to run whatever version of Android it's rocking smoothly.
HTC M8 camera
HTC broke the cameraphone mould with the One as it introduced its Ultrapixel lens and proceeded to slap it on the Mini and Max variants of the handset as well.
The technology was met with mixed responses and questions were raised when the camera transpired to be equivalent to a 4MP snapper - albeit letting in a hell of a lot more light thanks to the larger pixels.
Some will be hoping HTC ditches the Ultrapixels tech in favor of the traditional megapixel approach and with the likes of the 41MP Lumia 1020 and 20.7MP Xperia Z1 on the market competition is fierce.
There's been little leaked on the camera front of the M8, but the one revealing benchmark result we keep referring to quotes the same front and rear cameras as the One.
HTC M8 chassis
Something which really made the HTC One stand out from the crowd was its all metal body - something only Apple had really fully embraced before, and it gave the handset a supremely premium look and feel.
A couple of images have already slipped out claiming to show the body of the HTC M8, and from first glance it appears almost identical to the One - no surprise, why change a winning formula?
The report reckons that HTC will keep the all metal body, but that the M8 will feature a slimmer form factor, making the handset even more pocketable - and hopefully a touch lighter too.
Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-m8-1202748
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