Thanks to a few of our sharp-eyed readers, we thought that we could see a hint of buttons on that supposedly button-less handset from HTC which has been making the rounds — and sure enough, after adjusting the image levels a bit, we came up with a version in which the four circles are pretty clearly visible. (It’s more apparent as you move away from the image.)

Therefore, we’re now thinking that these are just unlit, capacitive buttons a la the Samsung Galaxy S line, and that this phone doesn’t represent some breakthrough, Honeycomb-powered design. Plus, as one of our editors astutely observed, if HTC really were to make a device without buttons, wouldn’t the screen bezel be uniform all the way around? This seems to be a case of group think gone awry: wanting to believe so badly that we ignored the common sense evidence.

Sorry, Virginia, there is no button-less phone.

Image: Mobile01