Beats Exec Confirms Existence of HTC One Max

Beats Electronics President and COO Luke Wood said in an interview that HTC is working on “several new devices” that will launch in the fall, including a “large-format HTC device.” We can only assume that he’s talking about the HTC One Max — HTC’s rumored take on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and other phablet-style smartphones on the market.

Speaking with Stuff, Wood discussed Beats’ relationship with HTC, and mentioned that while the company bought back all of HTC’s shares in the company, HTC “still has a 25 percent investment in the company, and additionally we still have a commercial deal with them,” meaning that the two companies are remaining friends and will continue to partner up on future products.

It seems Wood isn’t up to snuff with HTC’s future plans, as he doesn’t “even know if they’ve announced [the HTC One Max] yet,” but he says that they’ve at least been working on it, and while we’ve heard details of the rumored phone, it looks like it will come integrated with Beats audio, seeing as how Wood says the company will be involved with the new device.

The HTC One Max is rumored to launch later this month, and it’s said to be arriving with a large 5.9-inch 1080p display, a quad-core processor, an Ultrapixel camera (like the one found on the HTC One), Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on board, and Sense 5.5 running on top.

We’re not sure where availability and pricing stands with the HTC One Max, but it’s said that it’ll be coming to all four major carriers. As for price, that’s a big mystery, but seeing as how Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 costs $299 after signing a two-year contract, the One Max may not veer too far away from that price point, but we wouldn’t be surprised if HTC undercut Samsung and priced the One Max at $249.

It’s also rumored that the HTC One Max will come with a fingerprint sensor, just like on the iPhone 5s. Details on this are a bit scarce, but we certainly aren’t surprised if other phone manufacturers jump in on this. The iPhone 5s Touch ID fingerprint sensor has been a huge so far, even despite all of the privacy and security issues, but Apple is touting it as a huge convenience for those still wanting to keep a passcode enforced. HTC is looking to do the same.