<div>The Mobile World Congress, where all the action on new smartphones and wearables happens, did not even truly kick off in Barcelona when new gadgets started arriving.</div><div> </div><div>Much loved for its beautiful metal design, the HTC One M8 is now succeeded by the even prettier One M9. There isn't a departure in basic design - and that's probably a good thing - but the metal is even more premium and duo-tone in silver and gold, looking classy and smooth.</div><div> </div><div>The HTC One was the original anti-Samsung phone, designed to contrast with the then up and coming Samsung, with its hot-selling Galaxy S smartphone series, all in plastic, all practically the same tired design. Now, even though Samsung's design has moved on and is shedding the plastic, it's not difficult to see HTC fans being misty-eyed at the new satin-finish M9 beauty.</div><div> </div><div>All specifications have been bumped up on the M9, of course. There's the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage plus micro-SD slot, even better sound than before, and the annoying power button on the top of the phone has moved to the side, where people more readily expect it to be.</div><div> </div><div>The main camera is now a 20 megapixel shooter with more feature-rich software to it, and the selfie camera is the controversial 4 "ultrapixel" which is not so great at enlarging but very nice at low-light pictures. The combination could just work out well for this flagship phone.</div><div> </div><div>The battery is a 2,840mAh, which seems a little less than it should be, really.</div><div> </div><div>On the software front, HTC's own interface has moved on to the next version, Sense 7, and that sits on top of the brand new Android Lollipop OS. There are lots of additions such as apps that are used more or that relate to certain times of the day showing up front. Other suggestions also come up via BlinkFeed, it's magazine app, and elsewhere. The device is also very customizable.</div><div> </div><div>Those trying out the smartphone at Barcelona report a smooth and flawless performance from the M9.</div><div> </div><div>There's no word yet on when the HTC M9 will be in India and what it will cost, but from previous patterns, the gap with its availability elsewhere shouldn't be too big.</div>
