HTC One M10 tipped to have Quad HD AMOLED screen and UltraPixel camera

Last year's HTC One M9 (shown) was a perfectly respectable, mostly excellent smartphone, but it was also one of the biggest disappointments of the year: a lightly evolutionary device that fell short compared to the big, bold Samsung Galaxy S6.

But with sinking fortunes, it sounds like HTC is ready to make a bigger leap with this year's expected HTC One M10, reportedly codenamed Perfume. According to a report from VentureBeat by noted leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks), the One M10 will be HTC's first wide-release phone to have a Quad HD (1440x2560) AMOLED display - just like the Galaxy S6.

It should be a notch larger too, with the report claiming it'll be a 5.1in display over last year's 5.0in LCD model. Expect it to run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow skinned with HTC's Sense 8.0 interface, and VentureBeat says it will also come with a physical home button the front that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. The trade-off? No BoomSound front-facing speakers, which had become a signature part of HTC's flagships.

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip is expected to power the device with an Adreno 530 GPU, along with 4GB RAM. VentureBeat's tipster used a device that appeared to have 32GB of internal storage, although it's unclear whether a larger storage option will also be available. In any case, a microSD slot should return for expandable storage.

After the underwhelming UltraPixel back camera on the HTC One (M8), the company opted for a more common 20-megapixel offering on last year's phone (with an UltraPixel camera on the front instead). But Blass says UltraPixel will make a comeback with a new 12-UltraPixel shooter on the back, which will use laser-assisted autofocus, and he claims that both cameras will have optical image stabilisation.

Also, while not part of the report, Blass also teased on Twitter this week that the HTC One M10 may look a whole lot like the iPhone-aping HTC One A9 (which makes sense, given the home button/sensor), so chew on that little tidbit until the next comes along.

When will we finally get a glimpse at the HTC One M10? Not at next month's Mobile World Congress, the source claims - purportedly, HTC will hold its own event sometime thereafter, although given the expected launch of the Samsung Galaxy S7 in the coming weeks, surely HTC won't want to wait too long to fire its next major salvo.