There have been rumors that HTC is planning to release a new flagship smartphone to make up for poor sales of the HTC One M9. Images have leaked, showing the HTC A9 (Aero) looking virtually identical to an iPhone 6.
HTC has been struggling to repeat the success of its last two flagship smartphones, the HTC One M7 released in 2013 and last year's One M8. Sales of its follow up handset, the HTC One M9 have been extremely disappointing and in an earnings call, HTC's new CEO, Cher Wang announced that the company would be releasing what she described as a "Hero" handset to replace the One M9. Wang also said that the smartphone would feature a "new design and impressive specs."
If a new set of leaked images is to be believed, the design of the smartphone will be new, compared to the One M9, unfortunately the design isn't old to Apple's iPhone 6. The leaked images show a gold HTC A9 (Aero) held up against a gold iPhone 6. HTC did manage to set its upcoming smartphone apart from the iPhone 6 by moving the camera to the middle of the smartphone, instead of completely copying Apple.
HTC also has appeared to borrow a few more deign details from the iPhone 6. Its antenna stripes have been placed in the same exact positions. The display of the HTC A9 (Aero) also takes its cues from Apple's current iPhones, which have rounded corners that appear to make the glass flow off the display to make for a smooth organic interaction.
The HTC A9 (Aero) is expected to go on sale at some point in November and will likely be HTC's first Android smartphone to ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It will reportedly boast a 5.2-inch 2560 x 1440 Quad HD display, will be powered by a 10-core MediaTek Helio X20 processor, and 4 GB of RAM. HTC is also said to include a large 3,500 mAh battery.
Recent reports have suggested the HTC A9 (Aero) will be announced in October, possibly to coincide with the release of Android 6.0 Marshmallow and hit AT&T and Sprint.
Are you planning to buy HTC's upcoming flagship smartphone replacement? Let us know in the comments below.
