This year, Samsung went for a transformative new device with its Galaxy S6. It brought out new materials, a dual-edge variant, and even a few changes in philosophy, including the integration of a non-removable battery. The other big MWC debutant, HTC's One M9, went the other way by staying true to a design that is now two years old. Having the pedigree of 2013's One M7 and 2014's M8 to fall back on, HTC has refrained from trying to reinvent the wheel and instead aimed to combine its two best phones for an even better one for this year.

I spoke with the company's industrial design chief, Claude Zellweger, here at Mobile World Congress about the thinking behind the One M9's design and the company's future strategy. We also talked about the emerging trend of protruding camera bumps on flagship phones — his M9 joins Samsung's S6 and Apple's iPhone 6 in that group. Zellweger says that HTC is willing to make that small sacrifice to accommodate a larger and more powerful camera, but he also notes the central positioning of the camera in claiming that "our bump is minimal and it's elegant," integrating with the overall design instead of disrupting it. Watch the full interview to learn more about the decisions and trade-offs involved in designing the latest HTC One.