HTC One Max may be the phablet you didn't know you wanted
Culture
KARYNE: Hey, I�m Karyne Levy.
Welcome to Rumor Has It! The show that rounds up the
week's biggest tech rumors.
You can vote on what you think about the rumors, too, in
the interactive player if you're watching on CNET.
Today it's all about phones, but noticeably lacking from the
hype this week? The iPhone. Imagine that?
Lets get started.
KARYNE: First up, Japanese tech site RBMen discovered a
PDF manual on Samsung's Web site showcasing a device
it's calling the "Galaxy Folder."
It looks like a standard flip phone from the front, but actually
comes with a dual-sided touch screen and it would allow
you to control it on both sides of the handset. It would be a
flip-phone/smartphone hybrid!
Other than that, this seems to be a pretty midrange device:
3.7-inch AMOLED display with a 800x400-pixel resolution. It
would also run a dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor and
would support 4G LTE. And, of course, it'd be running
Android.
Flip phones such as this one are nothing new to Samsung.
It's been selling devices with similar form factors in China
for years. But it's nice that in this all-touch-screen world we
live in, there's still some variety.
Could this phone possibly make it to the U.S.?
I say, welcome back, ye flip-phones of yore. I dig my iPhone
and all, but you know what I really loved? My Moto Razr
from 2006. There's something really satisfying about the
sound made by flipping your flip phone closed.
KARYNE: Speaking of phones, less than a month after
rumors began circulating that HTC was building a phablet to
take on Samsung's Galaxy Note series, images of the
purported device have popped up on the Taiwan-based
ePrice Web site.
We talked about a similar rumor a year ago, and the result
was the HTC One. Back then, we oohed and ahhed and
laughed about the "huge" 5-inch screen. If this new rumor
pans out, that screen is about to get a whole lot bigger.
ePrice hints that the HTC One Max, as it's known, will sport
a 5.9-inch, full 1080p screen, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800
processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.
According to German mobile site Mobile Geeks, the One
Max is expected to be released next month.
I think I'm changing my mind about screen sizes. HTC has
the One, the Mini, and now the Max? Give the people what
they want, and if they want a huge tablet-size phone that
they need two hands to use, more power to them!
KARYNE: What do you guys think? Will the HTC One Max
take on the Galaxy Note? What do you think of phones with
5.9-inch screens? Don't forget to vote and leave a comment,
and I'll ask the CNET Council what it thinks.
KARYNE: And the CNET Council's verdict is... YES. All five
editors think that HTC is probably working on a phablet.
One editor said "Definitely... maybe." So he's no help.
KARYNE: That�s our show everyone, share your rumors at
rumorhasit@cnet.com or call us at 1-800-750-CNET. And
tweet us! And tune in next week for more tech rumors.
