One of the devices we’ve been most looking forward to getting our hands on at Mobile World Congress next month is the HTC M7, a new flagship Android smartphone that’s set to introduce HTC’s new Sense 5.0 user interface. If the latest rumor is accurate, however, the M7 won’t be at MWC; it’ll get its own launch event the week before instead.

We were almost certain the M7 would be unveiled at MWC. Rumors surrounding the device have ramped up in recent weeks, and almost all of them claimed the device would first show its face in Barcelona. Now one Italian insider is claiming that its get its grand unveiling the week before, on February 19, “probably in London.”

We certainly can’t blame HTC for giving the M7 its own event; that’s what most smartphone vendors do with their flagship devices these days. And the Taiwanese company has debuted a number of new smartphones in London before, including the Titan and the Radar, its first Windows Phone devices.

For those of you who have been looking forward to the M7, this could mean you won’t be waiting quite as long for it.

According to leaked specifications for the device, which surfaced back in December, the M7 will be HTC’s first handset with a 4.7-inch “SoLux” display sporting a full 1080p resolution. While HTC is already producing 1080p handsets in the Droid DNA and the Butterfly, neither of these employ the so-called SoLux technology, which is expected to offer better viewing angles, greater outdoor visibility, and improved color accuracy.

Other specifications are said include a quad-core Qualcomm processor clocking in at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. It’ll also offer 4G LTE connectivity, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 lens, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

One of the M7’s most interesting features, however, is it’s software. It’s expected to come with the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean release pre-installed, which will be accompanied by HTC’s next-generation Sense 5.0 user interface. Although we don’t know much about Sense 5.0, we have seen shots of a leaked M7 running it, and it looks completely different to previous Sense releases; it’s much more simplistic.

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