Details on the follow-up to HTC's flagship One smartphone have been leaking out more and more frequently in recent months as we inch closer to the anniversary of the One's official introduction. Today that trend continues, as two new M8 leaks have trickled their way out of the rumor mill.
Prolific leakster @evleaks claims that the HTC M8 is currently slated to make its debut in New York City sometime in late March, marking the second time that the successor to the One has been tipped for a late March announcement. Obviously nothing is official until HTC says it is, but that time frame would follow the yearly release cycle that most flagship smartphones have tended to stick to lately. Plus, as Samsung has shown, New York City can serve as a good stage on which to unveil a new high-end handset.
The second M8 leak that's come out today concerns one of the major changes that HTC is expected to make in its move from the One to its successor. Less than a week after a rumor suggested that the HTC M8 will shun the capacitive navigation keys found on the One in favor of an on-screen set of keys, an image has leaked that claims to show what those virtual buttons will look like.
Shared by HTC Source, the image shows Home and Multitasking keys that look similar to buttons used by HTC in the past. However, the Back button has been changed quite a bit, going from a simple angle to a curved arrow that's reminiscent of the Back button used by Sony and Samsung.
HTC has stuck with capacitive navigation keys on all of its Android phones to date, so it would be pretty significant if the M8 does indeed end up launching with a set of on-screen buttons. Adopting a set of virtual keys would allow HTC to make the M8's body slightly smaller than it would be if it featured capacitive buttons, and with the rumor that HTC may move from a 4.7-inch display on the One to a 5-inch display on the M8, using on-screen keys could allow the M8 to be similar in size to its predecessor.
Are you looking forward to the debut of the HTC M8? If so, which rumored feature are you most interested in?
Via @evleaks, HTC Source