HTC M7 live images, render leaked; gives us first real look at Sense 5.0

HTC M7

It’s that special time again. The Mobile World Congress looms, and HTC fans wonder what design philosophy they’ll live with for the next year. Earlier today, AndroidPolice reported that a helpful tipster provided them with real images of something that more than likely is the rumored HTC M7.  Arriving at MWC 2013 in Barcelona, the HTC M7 is still an enigma, but now thanks to today’s leaks; we have a fair idea of what the phone’s actually going to look like.
The design appears to take some inspiration from the Droid DNA, although the different front camera and rear flash positions that suggest it’s not a carbon copy. On the software side, the M7 appears to be running Sense 5.0, and screenshots of the same suggest a major redesign.

Although this is just a preview of what we’ll see in Barcelona, there are some glaring uncertainties beyond just the lack of internal hardware details. The capacitive buttons sit unusually high on the front as in the pic. This version of the M7 features the home button on the far right, instead of the middle (weird)

The handset photographed lacks any FCC logo or other product certification marks, perhaps signaling this is a prototype version. For starters, the flash is on the other side. The HTC logo also appears to be a glossy black, unlike a shiny embedded chrome that previous leaks might have suggested. Also the Beats logo lacks any accompanying text.

A few screenshots of Sense 5.0

As we can see in the render, HTC has planned quite a revamp of its Sense UI in version 5.0. The old style of icons are gone. HTC has also changed the Android button placement (in this case virtual, but we might see in the same in phones with physical buttons too). Now, coming to live images, these images confirm what we have seen in the render, the same set of icons is present here. Company has also worked on a new lock-screen and the following screenshot also shows us the new widgets. As you can clearly see from all this HTC has responded to much needed refresh to its Sense UI, considering it still looked very much like the very first HTC Android smartphones leaving odd changes aside.
Until the device is officially announced, though, there will always be a possibility that this is an elaborate hoax. We have seen people go to extreme heights to create a fake *cough* Sony Nexus X *cough*
What do you think? Looks real? Will you be buying it? Let us know.
Pics and Source: AndroidPolice