HTC One Max may stretch out jean pockets before year's end

HTC One Max photo
HTC One on more steroids than the MLB

If the 4.7-inch screen of the HTC One wasn't big enough for you and the HTC One Mini moved things in the wrong direction, you may want to wait for the rumored HTC One Max.

The Taiwanese company is said to be crafting a 5.9-inch phablet version of its well-received flagship smartphone, and all signs point to it launching before the end of the year.

The HTC One Max, also known as the HTC T6, is said to be pictured in a "non-final artwork" render leaked this week ahead of an expected September announcement. HTC has denied this particular photo leak is accurate.

To that point, HTC told TechRadar that "HTC does not comment on rumor or speculation" when asked about the HTC One Max.

Phablet in the fourth quarter?

While the render can't be confirmed, the mere existence of the HTC One Max looks backed up by comments reportedly made by HTC Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho.

"The company plans to unveil ... a variant of its flagship One series in the fourth quarter," he said, according to Focus Taiwan.

Having already launched the HTC One Mini to compete with the Galaxy S4 Mini, the phone manufacturer is expected to go from small to big again before year's end.

HTC One Max specs speculated

There's a minimum amount of information available about the still-unconfirmed HTC One Max.

However, rumors suggest that it'll received bumped up specs in addition to the screen that's 1.2 inches larger.

It'll one-up the One's internals with a 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 3,200mAh battery, while sticking with 2GB of RAM and HTC UltraPixel camera, according to Phandroid.

Another move that makes sense is only offering the HTC One Max in 32GB and 64GB flavors of internal memory, dropping the puny 16GB version of the phone in the transition.

Finally, HTC One Max should cut to the chase and come loaded with Android 4.3 considering HTC launched its smartphone with 4.1.2 only to start upgrading it to Jelly Bean this month.

Matt Swider