HTC One M8i specs, features roundup: release date on March 1?

HTC One (M8)[Photo credit: HTC]

Aside from the high-end One M9, HTC will reportedly announce a mid-range version of last year's HTC One, dubbed as HTC One M8i, during its press event on March 1. 

Well-known HTC tipster Upleaks leaked the entire spec sheet of the HTC One M8i. According to the leak, the smartphone will sport the same physical design and form factor as the original HTC One (M8). It will sport a 5-inch Full HD screen display, Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) chipset with two sets of four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz and 1.0 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, 13-megapixel back camera, 5-megapixel front facing camera, and 3000 mAh battery. 

Other rumored features of the handset include BoomSound speakers, microSD slot in addition to the internal storage, and NFC and Bluetooth 4.1 connectvity. The smartphone will most likely run with Android 5.0 with Sense 7.0 out-of-the -box. 

The HTC One M8i will reportedly be available in gray, gold and silver. Since the handset is a mid-range one, it will most likely be distributed in markets in Asia, China and Europe. 

Meanwhile, the press event's star is the HTC One M9, which is the follow-up to HTC One (M8). The M9 is purported to be available in two models packing full HD and quad HD screen resolutions on its 5- to 5.5-inch screen. There is a possibility that the handset will be powered either by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 810 processor or MediaTek's MT6795 octa-core CPU with 64-bit architecture. 

Other rumored features of the HTC One M9 are Adreno 420 graphic chipset, 3 GB of RAM, Android 5.0.1 Lollipop OS with HTC Sense 7 UI, 20.7-megapixel camera and 13-megapixel front-facing camera or an Ultrapixel shooter. 

However, the official specs and features of the HTC One M9 are still under wraps and are expected to be revealed at the launch event.