Cape Town - HTC has unveiled its new One device at Mobile World Congress which gets under way in Barcelona on Monday.
The device builds on the previous generation with similar dimensions and dual front facing stereo speakers.
Like the One (M8), the latest HTC has a 12.7cm (5 inch) touch screen protected by Gorilla Glass 4.
However, the company has departed from its ultrapixel count for the camera and the One (M9) has a more conventional 20 megapixel main shooter with a 4 megapixel selfie camera.
The metal theme is repeated on the latest One and the firm has also punted its sapphire cover lens which was widely expected on the Apple iPhone.
The sapphire lens cover is expected to limit the scratches that often form on protruding lenses which significantly reduce the shot quality, especially in low-light conditions.
Like the previous generation, the latest smartphone also has a metal body, but HTC has doubled down on the bandwagon with gold, silver, grey and pink as seen on top-end Samsung Galaxy smartphones and iPhones.
Pricing and availability for South Africa at this stage is unclear, but it would not be unreasonable to expected the device to be featured in the June mobile operator catalogues.
Unlike smartphones from Sony, the HTC One (M9) is not waterproof, but a waterproof cover and upgraded Dot View case are available.
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