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Andrew Hoyle/CNET
For its next flagship in the One range — the M9, up from last year’s highly-regarded M8 — Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has gone for fairly iterative changes, doubling down on the premium metal finish and boosting the front facing camera, along with some other well-regarded tweaks.
You’ll also still find a MicroSD slot, which can bump internal storage by 128GB, and the port is future-proofed to accept cards up to 2TB in size as they become available. With Samsung ditching the MicroSD on the new Galaxy S series, external storage might be a real selling point for some buyers.
HTC has just announced Australia launch dates and pricing for the One M9. The handset will go on sale March 24, with telco pre-orders available from today.
Telco pricing
Telstra: The One M9 will be on a variety of plans with the AU$70 Mobile Accelerate plan requiring an extra AU$12 per month of handset repayments. That plan comes with AU$950 of call value, unlimited texts and 2.5GB of data, with a 1GB data bonus until April 27. Over a 24-month plan, you’ll pay a minimum cost of AU$1,968.
Telstra also points out that the One M9 is a Category 6 4G device, meaning it can get the most out of Telstra’s 4GX network. Telstra has the exclusive on the gunmetal grey version of the One M9 and a page for people to leave their details if interested in ordering the phone.
Optus: Over on Optus, the One M9 will be on the AU$80 My Plus Plan with AU$3 a month handset repayments. Until April 6, Optus will over 5GB of data, after that the inclusion returns to 3GB. The total minimum cost over 24 months is AU$1,992. Pre-orders can be made online.
Vodafone: On Vodafone, the One M9 can be found on the AU$70 a month Red plan, with AU$10 a month in handset repayments. That gets you 3GB of data, 300 minutes of calls and unlimited texts — along with a six month Spotify subscription. Total minimum cost over the 24 months is AU$1,920.
Vodafone has a pre-order page that, at the time of writing, was non-operational.
Virgin: This is the first time in a number of years that Virgin will be offering a HTC One-branded phone on plan. On the AU$60 plan, the One M9 will cost AU$13 per month in handset repayments, with 2GB of data and AU$700 of included call value. Total cost over 24 months is AU$1,752. Pre-orders can be made here.
Updated 10:00 a.m. AEST: Added Optus and Virgin plan information.
