HTC's plan for One flagship smartphone leak before launch

Details of HTC's flagship smartphone have leaked one day before launch. Photograph: STR/EPA

The Taiwanese handset maker HTC will unveil the new version of its One flagship smartphone on Tuesday 25 March – but on Monday two more key details leaked, including its price and the US distribution of a "gold" model.

According to the @evleaks Twitter account, run by the American journalist Evan Blass, the new HTC One – codenamed "M8" - will have a sim-free price of $600 for a 32GB model, the same as the 2013 model. There will also be a version in gold, which in the US will be available only through the Best Buy chain of electronics stores.

Other reports have suggested it will cost about £580 sim-free in the UK. That compares with the expected pricing of about £600 for the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 and £549 for the 16GB version of Apple's iPhone 5S, or £629 for the 32GB version.

The pricing calls into question HTC's proclaimed aim to target the "midrange" of the smartphone business, where handsets sell for less than $400 sim-free. In February it said that it would release phones priced between $150 and $200 globally this year, as it struggles to recover from a lossmaking year in 2013 after its Android smartphone business dwindled in the face of aggressive pricing and promotion by Korean rivals Samsung and LG, and more recently Japan's Sony. HTC has already forecast that it will make a loss this quarter on revenues that it said would be smaller than at any time since 2009.

Analysts have queried how easy it will be to capture "mid-market" customers as the global smartphone business diverges towards high-end expensive phones and cheaper models which are highly popular in emerging economies.

The @evleaks account has a solid track record in leaking details about forthcoming handsets, having correctly shown details of Nokia's "X" handset - codenamed Normandy - in autumn last year, well ahead of its announcement at Mobile World Congress in February.

Other details about the new HTC One that have leaked include its use of two cameras on the back, expected to up the resolution to 5 megapixels from 4MP last year. The screen is reported to be 5in, compared with4.7in for the 2013 model. At the start of March one retailer listed details of the 2014 HTC One, suggesting it will have a 2.3GHz processor (compared to 1.7GHz for the 2013 model).

HTC is rumoured to be working with Google on a range of tablets, and has suggested that it will launch a wearable device this year