HTC M7 will be unleashed first quarter of 2013 but it remains unclear if the smartphone will be previewed on this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas following conflicting reports that the gadget is slated for a Mobile World Congress debut on February.

Citing its unnamed insider, HTC Source reported on Sunday that the M7 is definitely the beast that earlier blog postings have suggested. Touted as HTC's replacement for the Droid DNA and the One phone series, this new gadget from the Taiwanese firm will draw its power from a 1.7GHz Qualcomm APQ8064 quad-core processor, to be paired with a 2GB of RAM.

The M7 is a 1080p mobile gizmo that will beam an impressive screen resolution of 1920 by 1080 on its 4.7-inch Super LCD3 screen, with pixel density of up to 468ppi that easily beats out the current crop of high-end smartphones out in the market.

Internal storage capacity of the HTC M7 is 32GB with no expansion options, veering away from reports by Mobile Syrup that the handset will have a generous space of up to 64GB plus a 13MP back camera, a 2MP front camera, and a 2300mAh non-removable battery.

The phone's sex appeal purely rests on its physical design, which reportedly will assume the 'black is beautiful' attribute that was deployed by HTC with the Droid DNA.

"The physical design of the HTC M7 is said to carry a few design cues from the HTC Droid DNA with a black shell and a very nice looking bevelled edge along the screen," HTC Source said on its report.

This new information effectively contradicts earlier indications that the M7 would be wrapped in aluminium casing. HTC wants to use the same materials that came with the Droid DNA, HTC Source added.

The freshly-leaked specs also quashed previous rumours that the M7 will sport on-screen volume controllers. The phone is likely to come with a clean and simple interface, courtesy of the redesigned HTC Sense 5.0 that will be introduced with the device.

This Skin will initially collaborate with Android JellyBean 4.1.2 in governing the M7's behaviour but HTC Source suggested that by launch time, the phone will be powered by an updated mobile OS.

The same HTC Source report also indicated that M7 units are currently tested on Sprint's LTE network, strongly hinting that U.S. buyers of this top-notch Android smartphone will enjoy access to superfast internet connection.

Judging from the details available so far, the HTC M7 should generate considerable attention, experts said, despite the likelihood that it will have to compete with the Galaxy S4 that Samsung is widely-believed to push out by April or May this year.

But with a richer marketing war-chest starting on 2013, HTC is more than able to take on present industry leaders, Samsung including, said HTC chief executive Peter Chou in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week.