Update: Sprint has confirmed the November 15th date for the HTC One Max, as well as the $249.99 on-contract price.

If you love the HTC One but wish that it could be roughly the size of a toaster, you'll want to pay attention to the newest member of Sprint's smartphone lineup. The HTC One Max (technically "One max," but that's offending my fragile sensibilities) will be coming to the carrier this Friday, November 15th, according to this Best Buy listing. It will cost $249.99 on a two-year contract and a whopping $749.99 unsubsidized, but Best Buy tends to massively overinflate off-contract prices.

If you need more proof than that, Sprint has a software update page for the One Max ready to go. Sprint tends to release phones on Friday - just last week they launched no less than four. The One Max is very much an extended version of the One: if it weren't for the 5.9-inch screen and the rear fingerprint reader, you could easily confuse the two. It uses the same Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 4MP Ultrapixel camera (though optical image stabilization is gone), and the same front-facing speakers. There are a few notable changes to the basic unibody design: the power button has been shifted to the side of the phone for easier accessibility, and the One Max now includes a MicroSD card slot reached by removing the rear panel. The 3300mAh battery is still fixed in place. The Best Buy page doesn't say whether this is the 16GB or 32GB model.

The One Max will launch with Android 4.3 and HTC's updated Sense 5.5 overlay, matching Samsung's 4.3 build on the comparable Galaxy Note 3. While the initial announcement from HTC indicated that only Sprint and Verizon might be getting the One Max in the US, Evleaks posted compelling evidence that the phone is headed for AT&T as well. (The Best Buy page shows no annoying carrier logos on the façade of the Sprint version, by the way.) Given the general state of flagship devices and carrier relations, I wouldn't be surprised to see it head to T-Mobile eventually, but there's no confirmation of that at the moment.

Source: Best Buy, Sprint, via Engadget