14 DAY TRIAL // After reporting less than satisfactory sales for the upcoming HTC 10, Taiwanese company, HTC decided to recycle an old model, the One M9, and upgrade its front camera. HTC One M9 Prime Camera Edition will come with incorporated UltraPixel capabilities, but it was launched only in Poland for now.
The new edition comes with a 5-inch screen and an FHD resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, the same as its predecessor. A 2840mAh battery will keep the battery running and under the hood, it will come with MediaTek MT6795 SoC with 2.2GHz CPU, instead of M9’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 810.
The major difference compared to the One M9 is found in the 4MP selfie snapper, which now comes with Ultra Pixel capabilities. The rear camera will have 13 MP f/2.0, with optical image stabilization, autofocus and dual-LED.
There aren’t any differences in design or shape, it will come with the same rounded edges and 9.6mm thickness, while a layer of Gorilla Glass will be protecting the display and make it more durable. The Prime Camera Edition is placed in the mid-range category of smartphones, similar to how the M9 was marketed in Taiwan.
Fewer RAM, but the same expandable memory
Another difference is found in the memory department, RAM capacity was cut from 3GB to only 2GB, while internal memory is set to reach just 16GB with the option to expand to 200GB using a microSD card. By comparison, the One M9 came with 32GB right out of the box and but the same amount of expandable memory.
Surprisingly, the Prime Camera Edition came with Android Lollipop 5.0, the same as the initial model. We can expect to see upgrades to Marshmallow 6.0.1, but it’s unsure why HTC didn’t provide the latest Android OS right out of the box.
Considering that pre-orders for the upcoming HTC 10 only amounted to 251 units at online retailers in China, it’s no wonder that HTC is considering other ways to make its smartphones more attractive to users.