HTC One (M9) aka HTC Hima Launch Expected at March 1 Pre-MWC Event

HTC on Friday started sending out invites for its pre-MWC event on March 1 in Barcelona, where it is expected to unveil its next flagship smartphone, the much-rumoued HTC One (M9) aka HTC Hima. MWC 2015 will kick-off on March 2 and will continue till March 5.

The HTC invite doesn't reveal anything specific about the launch, and only reads "utopia in progress", and "join us to see what's next". The allusion to Sir Thomas More's coined-term for a society with highly-desirable or near perfect qualities is rather vague, leaving us to wonder just what HTC has planned for its device ecosystem.

The MWC period is traditionally when HTC unveils its flagship smartphone though, and it is expected to do so again. Notably, HTC had launched the One (M8) last year in March, but at a separate event from MWC. To remind you, multiple reports have so far pointed out that HTC's next flagship device can be called the HTC One (M9) and is codenamed HTC Hima.

Initially, there were rumours that the device will launch at CES 2015, which turned out to be wrong and we instead saw the company's first Desire series smartphone with Android 5.0 Lollipop, dubbed the HTC Desire 826. The pricing of HTC Desire 826 hasn't been revealed by the company, but HTC said it will first launch in China and then the other Asian markets in early 2015. The smartphone has already been listed as "Coming soon" on the HTC India website.

In December, a report had claimed the HTC One (M9) a.k.a Hima will launch in March-April, with HTC's Sense 7 UI.

The purported specifications of the HTC HTC6535LVW (hima) tipped in AnTuTu benchmarks last month had included a 5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display; a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with Adreno 430 GPU; 3GB of RAM; a 20.7-megapixel rear camera, and a 13-megapixel front camera.

The AnTuTu listing was in line with the specifications that were leaked by @upleaks earlier in December.

In the meanwhile, a Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the matter claimed HTC would also launch a smartwatch alongside the new flagship, one that is tied in with Under Armour's fitness service. HTC had announced its partnership with the fitness company back at CES.

Bloomberg also lists the purported specifications of the anticipated HTC One (M9) handset to include a 20-megapixel rear camera, an UltraPixel front camera, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, Dolby 5.1 audio, and HTC Sense 7.