Barcelona: HTC on Sunday has launched its new One flagship, the One M9 at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona.
The HTC One M9, retains the naming strategy from the HTC One (M8) and HTC One (M7), and will be available globally starting mid-March. The Taiwanese company is yet to reveal pricing details.
The HTC One M9 is a premium phone that comes with jewellery grade dual-metallic unibody design. The phone will be powered by a top of the line octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage.
This phone will be the first to feature the HTC Sense 7 user interfaced based on Android 5.0 Lollipop and will give users a lot of curated options in everything from content to apps.
Under the hood, the HTC One M9 is backed by the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core (quad-core 2GHz + quad-core 1.5GHz) processor coupled with 3GB of RAM.
The One M9 comes with 32GB inbuilt storage further expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB).
HTC is also set to release a virtual reality headset in a tie-up with Valve, a leading PC video game publisher.
The HTC Vive will be paired with wireless controllers and tracking technology to let wearers explore computer-generated environments by walking round their rooms.
A test version of the kit will go on sale to developers shortly, followed by a public edition later this year.
It will compete with Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Morpheus VR headsets.
The machines let wearers view computer-generated 3D environments to give them a sense of being there.
 The headset features can display video at 90 frames per second (fps) – an important consideration as many developers believe a rate lower than 60fps can cause nausea.
It includes two 1,200 by 1,080 pixel screens to provide high definition – but not 4K – quality graphics, and allows existing sets of headphones to be plugged into its side.
HTC said that more than 70 sensors were built in to the machine, including a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a laser position sensor.