HTC One to be the only 'One' device this year: Report

HTC introduced its much famed One series devices at last year's Mobile World Congress, which consisted of the HTC One X, One S and One V. More recently, these were joined by the One X+, the One SV and the One VX. But this year, the newly announced HTC  One will be the only 'One', according to Omio.

The mobile news blog cashed in on the opportunity to speak with Phil Roberson, head of HTC UK and Ireland and directly cut to the chase by asking him if there were multiple One handsets expected this year.

In response to their question, Phil simply stated, "HTC One is the flagship device. Last year we had the X and the S, where people had different personal preferences between the two. We just said, let's just create one flagship device for this year."

The blog also claims that it had confirmation that the codename HTC M7 was always meant to be the "internal name of the handset" and not the official one.

In order to spell things out even more clearly, folks at Omio rephrased the question again, "So, there won't be any more HTC something's this year?" Roberson made it crystal clear once again replying, "No; this is The One".

So that's that. The only high-end Android smartphone from HTC this year is the HTC One. It does make us wonder, what about the 35 HTC device code-names that were leaked earlier last month? While some of them were known, the mysterious ones included Pulse, Apollo, Era, PDLU, Jet and CP3. The M7 aka the HTC One was spotted with 8 different names. But hearing it from the horse's mouth, it seems these were just rumours and nothing more.

The HTC One was made official last week at a special event hosted by the Taiwanese company. The smartphone comes with a 4.7-inch full-HD display (468ppi) sporting an aluminium unibody. It is powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor alongside 2GB RAM. Both front and rear cameras come with full-HD video recording capabilities as well as Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). HTC One is powered by a 2,300mAh battery.

HTC One is skinned with the new Sense 5.0 UI atop Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with some rather nifty features like HTC Zoe (automatically capture up to 20 photos and 3-second videos), HTC BoomSound (enhanced sound thanks to dual frontal stereo speakers powered by built-in amplifiers) and HTC BlinkFeed (live updates on home screen). The power button doubles up as the IR port that converts HTC One into a remote control.

HTC One will come in Grey, Black and Red colours with 32GB and 64GB storage options, but without expandable storage. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC, Infrared and Micro-USB.

The device will be available globally through more than 185 mobile operators and major retailers in more than 80 regions and countries beginning in March. India is expected to be on the list of countries with Reliance Communications listed as one of the 185 operators though there's no official confirmation from HTC on the exact date of HTC One India launch.

The HTC One is available on pre-order now in United Kingdom via Clove Mobile and will likely start retailing from March 15. The online retailer has shared unlocked price of 425 pounds plus VAT for this smartphone (510 pounds including VAT). HTC One will be available with multiple carriers such as T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint in the US.

HTC One key specifications

• 4.7-inch full-HD display
• 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
• 2GB RAM
• 32GB/ 64GB internal storage
• UltraPixel camera
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, NFC, Infrared, Micro-USB
• 2,300mAh battery
• Android 4.1
• 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm
• 143g