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HTC One max heading to Verizon today for $300 on-contract
HTC's 5.9-inch One max is comparatively modest when it comes to the oversized smartphone horserace; it's actually dwarfed by Sony's monstrous Xperia Z Ultra. Still, if your hands are big enough to accommodate the One max's bulk and you're a Verizon subscriber, today's the day you can call it your own. The Big Red operator's offering the device for $300 with any new two-year agreement, or for $25 monthly installments on its Edge upgrade plan. Verizon's even bundled in a special SIM that's "ISIS-ready" so you can take advantage of the carrier's contactless payment (read: Google Wallet) alternative. The One Max offers mostly everything we love about the OG One it shares a heritage with, just in a heftier metallic chassis and with an oddly-placed fingerprint scanner. Sure there's plenty you can do with a big 'ol screen, but in this case, we'd argue the size of your hand matters more.
Sprint's HTC One Max pegged for November 15th release by Best Buy (update: official)
HTC's new supersized smartphone, the One Max, already passed through the FCC on its way to Sprint, but a launch date has yet to be announced. The phone's Best Buy page, however, notes that it'll arrive on the carrier -- and thus, in the US -- on November 15th. While The Now Network's been largely silent about timing, its website lends credence to the retailer's claim by listing the HTC One Max's initial software release as arriving on (you guessed it) the 15th of the month. You only have a couple more days to prepare if this turns out to be true, but if you're not a Sprint fan, you can always wait until the One Max lands on AT&T and Verizon. [Thanks, Carlos] Update: And just like that, Sprint has now officially announced the device, confirming that it will be available this Friday, November 15th for $249.99 on the usual two-year contract.
Sprint introduces Spark enhanced LTE, promises unprecedented speed, futuristic app support
Sprint may have lost 360,000 customers over the last quarter, but it's looking to stem that tide with the introduction of Sprint Spark, an enhanced LTE service it says will deliver "unprecedented speeds" to its cellphone users. The company demoed the service running at 1Gbps this morning, however, customers can expect "50-60 Megabits per second (Mbps) peak speeds today with increasing speed potential over time." Sprint says the service will not only enhance video and bandwidth-hogging apps, but says it's ready to take on virtual reality and "futuristic apps" -- whatever those might be. Spark is dependent on tri-band wireless devices, which are intended to seamlessly switch between Sprint's 800MHz, 1.9GHz and 2.5GHz cellular bands, depending on your location and which apps you're using. The rollout begins today with limited availability in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa and Miami, though Sprint promises to extend that service to 100 US cities by 2016. The first Spark-supported phones, Samsung's Galaxy Mega and Galaxy S 4 mini and LG's G2, will be available on Sprint's network on November 8th. Software updates for Samsungs' handsets will enable tri-band "shortly after launch," with a similar update scheduled for early 2014 for the G2. The HTC One Max will also support Spark, but Sprint has yet to announce availability. Update: This post originally listed tri-band support for all Spark-enabled handsets as November 8th.
HTC One gets bonus Google Drive storage as Sense 5.5 update rolls out abroad
Google is taking a page out of Dropbox's book and offering free extra storage for certain HTC One handsets. The HTC One Max got 50GB of storage space out of the box, but we've been tipped that those with the handset's smaller sibling will net an additional 25GB of room in the cloud, all thanks to the international Sense 5.5 (and Android 4.3) update that readers have already started receiving in Europe. These expansions are in addition to the complimentary 15GB of Drive space available to all Google users, bringing the allotted storage totals to 65GB and 40GB for the One Max and One, respectively. There are a few caveats, though. According to Mountain View, the HTC One Developer Edition isn't eligible for this due to its unlocked bootloader. Furthermore, you can only activate this promo once per Google account, which rules out gaming the offer to get even more space. Got all that? Good -- there's a quiz later. [Thanks, Jakub]
HTC's One Max ratted out by the FCC again on its way to Sprint
Now that we know HTC's One Max is likely to be living large at AT&T, another variant for Sprint looks to have also been unmasked by the FCC. An OP3P700 version of the 6-inch, 1080p device has just passed the US regulator with Sprint's LTE bands 25, 26 and 41, a likely sign that it's bound for Big Yellow. We're still not sure how much it'll cost on contract or sans SIM, but we did see it priced in the UK at a hefty £600 ($952) with no carrier strings attached. If you're now looking to take advantage of Sprint's new upgrade program for the behemoth handset though, you'd better check out our One Max review, first.
HTC One Max with AT&T-friendly LTE sneaks past FCC
HTC's latest supersized handset might be making its way to the land of the supersized meal, if this recent FCC listing is any indication. The documents show a HTC handset that bears the model number OP3P500, a slight variation of the international One Max's OP3P510 model number which you can see here. Further, the OP3P500 appears to support LTE band 17, a clear sign that the phone is compatible with AT&T and could be making its way stateside some time soon. Of course, no pricing or availability information can be gleaned from the filing, but you can check out our full review of the One Max before you decide if you want such a giant phone in your life. At least it's smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, right?
HTC One Max to reach Vodafone UK this week, costs £600 unlocked
Brits won't have to wait long to get their hands on the HTC One Max. Vodafone UK says that it will be offering the gigantic smartphone this week as a carrier exclusive in the country; customers can pick it up for £49 if they're willing to subscribe to a £47 monthly plan. An unlocked version is also available, although it's not cheap at £600 ($958) for a 32GB model at MobileFun.co.uk. We expect pricing to come down as competition heats up, but HTC's massive handset currently demands an equally large premium.
HTC One Max review
The debate around giant smartphones is over. Manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and LG have amply demonstrated that it's possible to build a pocketable, phone-like device with a screen bigger than five inches. Now it's HTC's turn. But instead of re-imagining the much-praised One for this new category of device, HTC's designers have mostly just cloned it, while adding a drop of Miracle-Gro to produce a 1080p panel that measures 5.9 inches diagonally, versus the One's 4.7 inches. The result is the One Max, a product that carries over some good things from the One while also finding room for a few notable extras like a fingerprint scanner and expandable storage. At the same time, it also introduces some major snags -- not least of which are the its intimidating size and weight. The job ahead of us is to somehow find the upper body strength to weigh it all up.
Daily Roundup: LG G Flex revealed, HTC's One Max, FIFA 14 for Xbox 360 and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
HTC launches One Max with huge 5.9-inch display and fingerprint scanner
The bigger the phone, the harder it is to hide. After a slew of detailed leaks, HTC is finally ready to announce the HTC One Max: an enlarged version of the original One that boosts the size of the 1080p LCD panel up to 5.9 inches while attempting to keep the One's classy aluminum look and feel. This attempt is made regardless of the impact on general portability -- the One Max weighs 217 grams and is over 16 centimeters long and 10.3mm thick, thanks in part to the front-facing BoomSound speakers. And the phablet only gets phatter if you squeeze it into something like HTC's $90 power case, which contains a bendy 1,200mAh battery to add to the capacity of the built-in (and non-removable) 3,300mAh battery. Aside from its size, the One Max brings other big changes, including a fingerprint scanner on its rear side. We've had the chance to use the scanner and, while it isn't as neat as the iPhone 5s's, it does the basic job of letting you log in with a swipe of your fingertip. We'd have happily swapped it out for optical stabilization on the UltraPixel camera, however. The back cover is now removable, letting you expand the 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage with up to 64GB more via microSD -- a feature that was missing on the One and on the One X before that. The One Max sticks with a Snapdragon 600 (with 2GB of RAM) for processing, rather than the superior Snapdragon 800 used in rival devices like the Sony Xperia Z Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The supported bands suggest healthy support for LTE networks in Europe and Asia, and as well as for Verizon and Sprint in the US, and HTC says global availability will start rolling out as early as this week. On the software side, we're looking at a significantly revised version of HTC's Android skin, Sense 5.5, which runs on top of Android 4.3 and provides a new level of customization for the BlinkFeed news-glancing widget, as well as a list of other features that are summarized in the press release and spec sheet below. Check out the gallery below too, and standby for our review coming very shortly.
HTC One Max specs reportedly include Snapdragon 600 chip, Android 4.3 and Sense 5.5
The One Max is far from being HTC's best kept secret -- we've seen leak after leak of the rumored larger-than-most device over the past few weeks. To make things better (or worse, depending on who you ask), Nowhereelse.fr editor Steve Hemmerstoffer has tweeted an image which includes what could be the HTC One Max's full spec list. Aside from mentioning the same 5.9-inch, 1080p display and 3,200mAh battery we heard about not long ago, today's leak suggests the One Max is set to feature a quad-core, 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600, 2GB RAM, Android 4.3 with Sense 5.5, Bluetooth 4.0 and options for 16, 32 or 64GB of built-in storage. If this turns out to be true, then there's no doubt the Taiwanese company will have an Android powerhouse in its hands, right there alongside Samsung's Galaxy Note 3. The good news is that it looks as if we won't have to wait much longer to learn all there is to know about the HTC One Max; in the meantime, head after the break to check out the purported spec sheet in its entirety.
HTC teases 'big things ahead,' likely referring to One Max (updated)
Remember when HTC decided to add its own contributions to the One Mini rumor mill by using its own infographic? It seems the Taiwan-based company is following the same trend with the HTC One Max, a device that we've heard about for what seems like months. On its official Twitter account, it posted a teaser in the form of a six-second Vine, three simple words and a hashtag: "big things ahead. #HTChange." Take from that what you will, but it seems to us that this particular tease means we'll be seeing the larger variant of the One sooner rather than later. Update: There's now a YouTube clip showing a similar teaser, but it's not clear whether the phone featured in it is actually the One Max. See for yourself after the break.
HTC One Max reportedly surfaces in photos with 5.9-inch display
Word of the HTC One Max surfaced in a leaked document from UK carrier O2 (although we've lovingly referred to it as the T6 for some time now) but now the phone finally seems to be making an appearance in the flesh. Taiwanese site ePrice has gotten its collective mitts on two photos of what's claimed to be the retooled flagship, which boasts a 5.9-inch 1080p display. Differences in the hardware don't exactly jump out at first blush, but the relative distance between the lower speaker grill and its buttons hint at a larger screen. While the One Mini's grate doesn't extend as far as the full-sized smartphone's, the grill on this jumbo device stretches past that of both handsets.Though this model also sports traditional China-specific tweaks such as dual SIM slots, the most notable changes include an upgrade to a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 processor and a 3,200mAh battery. ePrice says an official One Max appearance is rumored for next month at IFA, but we'll keep our eyes peeled for invitations to special unveiling events.
