This year, HTC released what we considered to be one of the best smartphones ever made, in the HTC One. Then, a few months later, the Taiwanese company tried to appease lovers of smaller phones, with the One mini. Today HTC completed its One trifecta, as it pulled back the curtain on its first phablet, the HTC One max.
The well-leaked One max features similar specs and features to the standard One, but with a huge 5.9-in screen. That puts it on the larger end for phablets (though the ridiculously huge Xperia Z Ultra still wears the hugeness crown), and shows us that, apparently, major Android vendors still aren't finished super-sizing their screens.
Apart from its huge 1080p screen, the One max's most interesting new addition is its fingerprint sensor. Yep, just like the iPhone 5s, the One max lets you unlock the screen with your unique-as-a-snowflake fingerprint. Here the "Fingerprint Scan" sensor sits on the back of the phone, though, rather than under the home button. You can also assign different fingers to launch up to three different apps.
Otherwise there are a lot of familiar carryovers from the One, including its striking aluminum build, a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor (still clocked at 1.7GHz), UltraPixel camera, and BoomSound front-facing speakers. The One Max will be available in both 16 GB and 32 GB options, with a microSD card slot making an appearance this time around. The max packs a huge 3,300 mAh battery.
On the software side, the One max will feature the latest version of the Sense UI (5.5) on top of Android 4.3. Familiar features like Zoes and BlinkFeed return to the party, with a few upgrades in tow. BlinkFeed, for example, now includes Google+ and Instagram integration, and the ability to download feeds for offline viewing.
If you're itching to get your hands on HTC's first phablet, then you'd better live in the UK. The One max launches there first later this week, with global availability to follow in the coming months.
Source: HTC, via Android Central
