HTC One M10/Perfume: What’s the story on HTC’s next flagship?

HTC’s plans for its next flagship have been a little quiet on the quiet front. While we know, or think we know, plenty about Samsung and LG’s next smartphone launches, HTC has managed to avoid the rumour and speculation cycle to a certain extent. Well, until now that is.

With the HTC One M9 – 2015’s flagship – pushing design refinement, but falling short in other areas, it’s make or break time for HTC. The next flagship needs to assert HTC’s position, it needs to show its experience, and put HTC back on the map.

We’ve been watching and listening and here we’ve gathered together all the talk about HTC’s next flagship handset, going under the codename HTC Perfume.

HTC One M10/Perfume launch date

HTC has been fairly predictable over the last few years, falling into this pattern of early year flagship, and than late year secondary device. That pattern works for the One M7, followed by the One max, it works for the M8, followed by Desire Eye and it worked for M9, followed by One A9.

The normal time we’d expect a major HTC launch is at Mobile World Congress, in February 2016. However, it’s been fairly quiet on the HTC rumours, especially compared to Samsung and LG, throwing an MWC launch into doubt. Discussion coming out of China Taiwan forums suggests it might be pushed back to a March 2016 launch.

This timeframe of a HTC Perfume launch later in the year is supported by a report from Venture Beat, saying that the new HTC handset will have its own event, and SlashGear says that the launch event could be a “a week or two” after MWC.

The date of 11 April has been suggested, with a source suggesting that the HTC Perfume will be launched at an event in London. We have a good idea, however, that it will also be coming to AT&T, based on a tweet from @evleaks. 

Another tweet from @evleaks indicates the HTC M10 will hit retail stores in the US during “the week of” 9 May.

Next HTC One name

It’s a lot easier to talk about devices when you have a name. Logic has suggested that it might be called HTC One M10, although we’ve seen source on Twitter stating that this won’t be the case.

#M10 is NOT the CODENAME of the next #htc #flagship & the soc presented today is inside.. #talk #easy for #obtuse minority spread in #forum

— Ricciolo (@Ricciolo1) November 10, 2015

This source has been correct about a number of things, so perhaps HTC is ready to walk away from the “M” branding. Whether that’s the case or not, we suspect that in colloquial circles, the handset will be known by fans as the M10 until it’s officially named.

Moving away from the M10 name has also been suggested by a source talking to Portuguese website 4gnews.pt, who again suggested that HTC would be moving away from the M branding, looking to freshen things up with a new One.

Another rumour is the HTC O2. This was rumoured prior to the launch of the One A9, with a collection of high-end specs attached to it, but this O2 device will apparently account for nothing, with the latest rumoured codename being HTC Perfume.

Remember reports about next HTC’s flagship codename HTC O2? It’s dead… HTC Perfume is next flagship. Android 6.1 and Sense 8.0_GP…

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) December 8, 2015

As we stand at the moment, HTC Perfume is the best we’ve got to go on and this is from a source that’s provided a range of accurate details in the past. The HTC One Perfume codename also cropped up in a tweet from Evan Blass, so we’re pretty certain that this is HTC’s next flagship. For the sake of clarity, we’re also going to stick to using M10 until we know better.

HTC One M10/Perfume specs and hardware

There’s one event that sticks in the mind and that’s the announcement of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset. Qualcomm has been talking about its next-gen chip for some time and it’s due to appear in handsets in early 2016. 

One online source, as mentioned above, said that the next HTC flagship would appear with this hardware inside and that’s perfectly plausible as the schedules all fit. Talk of the SD820 appears again attached to discussion about HTC not being happy with the design, along with the suggestion that there will be a degree of waterproofing.

The same is ratified by a big specs leak on Venture Beat, who says that it will be Snapdragon 820, with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. We’re expecting to see a microSD card slot, with support for Marshmallow’s Flex Storage feature.

Pocket-lint/Evan Blass

HTC One M10/Perfume fingerprint scanner

We can say with some certainty that the next HTC handset will have a fingerprint scanner. The M9+ and the A9 are both very fast to unlock, and we wouldn’t really want a new phone without a fingerprint scanner for payment and security.

It’s also a hardware feature supported by Android 6.0 Marshmallow, so makes perfect sense to appear in future devices and it is again mentioned in some rumours. We expect it to be on the front and this detail has some corroboration from Venture Beat, as revealed in an image from Evan Blass.

The HTC One M10 fingerprint scanner (right above) appears to be the same as that on the One A9 (on the left in the picture above), so will likely act as a capacitive home button as well.

HTC One M10/Perfume battery

There’s been little word on battery life and HTC hasn’t put huge batteries into devices recently. What’s surprising, however, is that the A9 lasted well on a small cell. That’s down to optimised hardware and software, so we’re hoping HTC can give great life to the M10.

If the M10 sticks to a metal body, which we suspect it will, then you won’t be looking at wireless charging, however, you will be getting Quick Charge 3.0 support from the SD820 chipset, if that’s what it contains. There’s been a passing mention of a 3000mAh battery, a figure that’s generally heralded as capacious enough to give good endurance in modern devices.

There’s no telling if it will carry USB Type-C. With that new standard appearing on the new Nexus devices, we’re hopeful for wider adoption by other manufacturers.

hamdir

HTC One M10/Perfume: Design, BoomSound or no BoomSound?

One of the big changes that arrived with the A9 was the removal of BoomSound speakers. HTC instead turned its attention to the headphones, including a higher quality DAC and aiming to boost the headphone performance. This was all contained in a body that was flat, slim and minimalist, moving on from some of the visual identity of HTC handsets of the past.

If you like the A9, you’ll love the M10.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 26, 2016

Although little has been said about the actual design of the HTC Perfume, it’s suggested that it’s going to be following the One A9 design lines, rather than those of the M9. That could see the loss of BoomSound, but lead to a slimmer, more compact, overall design than in previous years. This is suggested by Venture Beat, there has been talk of some degree of waterproofing, and SlashGear says the measurements might be 144.6 x 69.7 x 9.6mm.

This shift to design closer to the One A9 has been backed up with a tweet, again from Evan Blass, showing the front design of the handset. Note the serrated standby button on the side, and the lack of BoomSound speakers.

https://t.co/PKvW63aF8L pic.twitter.com/zsyzQWbVAt

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 5, 2016

However, for those mourning the loss of BoomSound, it’s likely that HTC will continue to boost the audio capabilities. As we mentioned, the One A9 offered a higher-quality DAC, presenting “BoomSound Headphone” instead, and we’ve also learnt that the One M10 could offer high-res audio with MQA support.

XDA Developers Forum contributor hamdir created a great mock-up of what the HTC M10 could look like based on “insider information”. He claims the mock-up, which is shown above, doesn’t show the “hidden thing on the front”, and it also has no logo bar. Hamdir also says the device will be the “most symmetrical phone HTC has ever made”, as well as offer an improved screen to body ratio.

Evan Blass has once again shared a fairly clear image of the front of the phone in white, where the design closely reflects that of the HTC One A9. The absence of HTC branding simply could come down to these being pre-production models.

HTC One M10/Perfume display

Discussion about the HTC One M10 display have been rare, with one substantial rumour suggesting that it will feature a 5.1-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, and it will be an AMOLED display.

HTC has traditionally used LCD displays, but shifted to AMOLED on the One A9, with great results. HTC has used Quad HD LCD displays a 5.2-inches on the One M9+, but didn’t step up on the regular One M9 in 2015.

However, a second rumour, again from a reliable HTC source, suggests that the HTC Perfume will actually have a 5.2-inch display. This has also been suggested by XDA Developers Forum’s hamdir who claims the device will be the same size as the M9 but with a 5.2-inch display.

HTC Perfume is going to have 5.2” WQHD screen instead of reported earlier 5.1” screen 😉

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) February 8, 2016

There’s little between those displays, but we’re certain it will be Quad HD.

Pocket-lint

HTC One M10/Perfume cameras

HTC has presented a lot of camera options recently, from Duo Camera to 20-megapixel sensors to 13-megapixels.

We’ve seen the suggestion that HTC will plump for a 23-megapixel sensor as the rear camera. Alternatively, we’ve seen rumour that HTC has a 12-megapixel UltraPixel sensor.

HTC invested a lot in messaging around UltraPixel, but stuck to the original sensor, at around 4 megapixels. The quality and low light performance of that sensor was good, but it failed to deliver on resolution, which many people want. A step up to 12MP, while preserving the large 2µm pixel size of the original, would be a great jump for UltraPixel. However, it might be that HTC is keeping the UltraPixel branding and will be plumping for smaller pixels.

A tweet from LlabTooFeR has suggested that Perfume will come with a 12-megapixel Sony sensor with 1.55µm pixels, laser assisted phase-detection AF and optical image stabilisation. According to the information, it’s going to use the same sensor as the Nexus 6P.

Additionally, there’s mention of a 5-megapixel Samsung sensor for the front camera, suggesting that HTC might be moving on from the 4-megapixel UltraPixel sensor it has used in its recent devices.

Phonearena.com

China micro-blogging website Sina Weibo (via PhoneArena) leaked an image of the backside of the HTC One M10. It seemed to show the phone’s protruding camera unit (supposedly a 12MP UltraPixel shooter) as well as a dual-tone LED flash to the right of it. The black bit below it might be a vertically-positioned laser-assisted auto-focus system system.

We can also see antenna bands and a noise-cancelling microphone.  And at the left of the what looks to be a metal phone with lots of bezels, we can further see a power hardware button, then there’s a small cutout at the top of the phone. It’s likely a 3.5mm top-positioned audio jack.

Pocket-lint

HTC One M10/Perfume software

This is where HTC is perhaps going to make the biggest moves. HTC’s next flagship will launch on Android Marshmallow, and will almost certainly carry HTC Sense over the top.

However, Sense is changing and we’ve recently seen the software stripped down in the One A9, running Sense 7.0_g, that removes a lot of the clutter. 

HTC said that its aims were to stick closer to stock Android and only make changes where there was an obvious enhancement. The results are really good, as you have the native feel of Marshmallow, combined with the best bits of HTC Sense. We’re hoping that the M10 gets the same treatment in Sense 8.0 that it’s said to launch with.

Interestingly, the source on the information about the software refers to it as Sense 8.0_GP. That might suggest that HTC is indeed looking to strip Sense down a little to keep it closer to Marshmallow.

Want to know more?

We’ll be regularly updating this feature with all the details that are leaked, rumoured, teased and announced relating to the HTC One M10. You can always check out our HTC hub for all the latest news and reviews.