HTC's 2009 haul seemingly leaked, packs all sorts of gorgeous

It's no secret that HTC wants to step up its Android game, and if this new stuff is to be believed, 2009's shaping up to be a banner year. Some cat over on PPCGeeks seems to have leaked a pretty believable '09 roadmap for HTC, showing tons of glorious hardware that appears -- at least on the surface -- to go toe-to-toe with the best Palm, Apple, and the rest of the gang can bring to the table. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all have dedicated stuff in here, including a "Jasper" that looks to combine the Touch HD with the Touch Pro, a successor to the monster Athena called "Ihoth," and this little guy, a garishly pink Android handset dubbed "Hero." We'd expect at least some of these to be announced at MWC next month, so we don't have long to wait -- assuming they're real, of course.

[Via wmpoweruser.com]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 1:12PM]

I gotta say, the Hero looks even worse than the Dream. STOP WITH THE CHIN!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 5:08PM]

All your post is saying to me is that you've never seen a G1 in real life. It looks fine and the chin is barely noticeable and not ugly at all. And if it's a Dev Phone 1? That thing is just sweet with the custom plate.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 1:41PM]

Good job, the load killed the site. LOL.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 2:20PM]

A Touch HD with a slide out keyboard? Please tell me it has a capacitive touchscreen!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 3:13PM]

a lot of them look like duplicates

Topaz looks like the Citrine
Rhodium looks like the Tungsten
Willow looks like the old fat blackberry of 2 years ago
Cedar looks like it's mom was a fat TREO 800W and its dad was a Moto Q
Beryl looks like a rounded version of the topaz/citrine
firestone looks like the topaz but very rectangular
Whitestone looks like the Beryl
Saphire looks like G1
Jasper looks decent
Hero looks like the saphire
Memphis looks like the AT&T tilt.. but could be close to a G2

So there's only like 6 or 7 phones here, but they have similar siblings that they renamed

Maple is the only thing that really interests me due to its thinner body. All these fat ass phones are killing me. I guess a few of the larger screeners are gonna be the touch hd equivalents but unless they all get an upgrade in proper finger scrolling, they will suffer the same wrath new look, same problems

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 4:25PM]

Looking at the 2 for Sprint and the few for T-mobile i hope they aren't running WinMo 6.1.
I want to either stay with Sprint or go with T-mobile, whoever gets the best Android phone.
I also like the Palm Pre but the reports i hear about Palm denying access to the OS's root makes me wary.

These phones look ok and all, but until we know some specs the pictures mean nothing

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 5:01PM]

"packs all sorts of gorgeous" is an overstatement. I don't know about you guys, but that G1 is pretty ugly to me, and some of these like the Hero, Willow, Maple, and Firestone (which I can't see keeping that name without getting sued), are just as bad. What the hell is HTC smoking? These designs are ridiculous looking.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 12th 2009 10:03PM]

I love the look of the Jasper. Not shabby at all. Should be a popular device. I'm almost willing to hold off on the Pre for that, but given it'll likely replace the Touch Pro in their lineup and not come out until late '09...sorry, my ancient Treo and I need to part ways sooner rather than later...and I like my keyboards to slide down, not out. If MS could actually get WM7 out for that device, I'd consider holding out. I saw the Pre at Palm's private room at CES and that's one dang impressive device. If Sling can create a player for that I'll be very happy.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 13th 2009 2:20PM]

GORGEOUS!? .... WTF are you smoking!?


For android, gimme the jasper, barium, rhodium, or tungsten. The memphis is barely acceptable (only has a 4 row keyboard, not 5).

The Hero, though, is the worst looking monstrosity I've seen in a long while.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 16th 2009 10:02AM]

I love my touch, and never missed the qwerty on my old wizard. I wish they would make a touch HD equivalent for the US! Maybe powered with Nvidia Tegra? Oh, and since its got such a beautiful screen might as well bring SDXC a long as well for movies, and all my music!! Put it on sprint and continue to leave out the Wifi since it drains a ton of power, and isnt that useful with ulimited data plan.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 8:58AM]

Also looking at the leaked pictures - still no headphone jack. I love my G1, but give me a reason to get rid of this thing.