Reports of the demise of HTC high-end offerings appear to have been inaccurate. While the company has publicly stated it is focusing to a greater extent on budget and midrange offerings, its release of a second generation HTC One is showing that the Taiwanese Android OEM still cares about the high end as well.
The sequel to last year's strongly reviewed flagship smartphone is rumored to pack a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB of RAM. Past leaks have also shown a 3D camera capable that will also be active in 2D shooting mode to provide the capability to refocus 2D images in a postprocessing.
Now a fresh leak shows an eye-catching LED Smart Cover.
The slick battery-saving feature is similar to a rumor that popped up about the GS5, but this baby is the real deal. It also comes in multiple colors to suit your sense of style.
The front part of the case in the leaks shows an LED clock and a weather-icon indicator. There's rumored to be other possible alerts displayable, plus apps may be able to add even more exotic kinds of LED notifications.
Additionally the source of those leaks -- Twitter's top Android and Windows Phone leaker @evleaks -- says that a Google Play Edition will be available, for those who aren't fans of HTC's Sense 6.0. Both phones will come with the latest and greatest Google Android operating system, Android 4.4 "KitKat".
Between the premium construction with colored, brushed metal cases and ambitious new features like the 3D Ultrapixel camera and the optional case with LED display, you could make a strong argument that it's looking increasingly like HTC will once again have arguably the superior flagship smartphone compared to Samsung. It should be interesting to see if it gets overlooked, though, in the midst of Samsung's marketing savvy, as it largely was year.
