Grab your grains of salt, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for a little rumor-mongering. The quite-often-reliable @evleaks has once again turned on the taps, and out has flowed an impressive stream of detail about an upcoming HTC phone codenamed 'T6.' The existence of the device, just so you know, has also been corroborated by Pocket-lint in the past.
This device is allegedly HTC's first super-sized smartphone, with a display measuring up at a staggering 5.9 inches. That display will be full HD, and a Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor (MSM8974) clocked at 2.3GHz will provide the power to push the pixels. 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (with microSD slot), a 3300mAh battery, and an Ultrapixel rear camera round out the purported specifications. The release time frame? Late summer to early fall.
Oddly, @evleaks' source suggests the device will ship with Key Lime Pie, though that seems a dubious claim at best to me - with Android 4.3 clearly just around the corner, and it quite obviously not being Key Lime Pie, something doesn't add up. If the summer / fall release timeline holds up, it seems all but a given that HTC's phablet won't be running any unannounced desserts, at least not at launch.
That one niggle aside, though, the level of specificity about some of the T6's features is pretty remarkable. The device will be equipped with a "premium" stylus, and HTC is actively working on getting a supporting cast of software designed to make use of the new tool. It's not clear if the stylus will actually be stored in the phone, though, as Samsung does with its Note devices.
As for the device's looks, @evleaks suggests it will appear quite similar to the standard One, albeit a lot larger - including the dual front-facing speakers. With the display already 5.9" across, I do have to wonder just how huge this phone is going to be once you slap on those big aluminum grilles at both ends.
On the kind of weird but interesting end of things, it's claimed that the T6 will have a fingerprint scanner. But not like the wonky drag-and-scan ones found on phones like the Motorola ATRIX - this scanner will be embedded into the back of the phone. Just get a finger over it, and the phone will unlock. If it works, this sounds pretty dang awesome.
HTC is also apparently working a specially-crafted "power jacket" case for the phone, which serves not only to protect the device, but supplements the internal battery with an additional 1250mAh of capacity. Also pretty cool.
In regard to Sense, the device will supposedly ship with a slightly refreshed version of the skin that adds significant updates to Blinkfeed.
All in all, the level of detail around this rumor makes it hard not to believe in some respects, though I still have my doubts about this Key Lime Pie business. As for HTC making a phablet in the first place, well, it's pretty obvious the jumbo-sized phones are an emerging high-end market, and HTC is looking to get in on the ground floor. It definitely seems plausible, even likely. We'll keep an eye out over the coming months for more T6-related news, obviously, but 'early fall' is still a ways off, and I doubt this phone is totally finalized.