HTC is preparing to launch its latest flagship smartphone, biding its time and avoiding launching direct against companies like Samsung and Sony MobileHTC
HTC is preparing to launch its latest flagship smartphone, biding its time and avoiding launching direct against companies like Samsung and Sony Mobile
HTC revealed the HTC U11 early in 2017, but then launched the HTC U11+ late in the year, making the move to an 18:9 display, with its new phone looking to build on that latter device.
But with a lot of the company’s talent moving over to Google there’s a lot of speculation about HTC’s future in smartphones. With the next phone due in the next few weeks, here’s everything we know about the HTC U12+.
We’ve had official confirmation from HTC in a tweet that says the launch will be “more than a sum of its parts”, and the HTC U12+ launch date is 23 May.
That will likely see the phone announced and then become available a couple of weeks later, although pre-orders are likely to open as soon as the announcement is made.
The price remains under wraps, but it needs to seriously undercut the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, for example.
Sadly, all the rumours are pointing to an expensive device. Firstly, Evan Blass reported that the “+” was being used to align the phone with the Samsung Galaxy S9+, notably in price.
We’ve subsequently seen another reliable source on Twitter saying that the pricing looks high, so people should be preparing themselves for an expensive handset.
While pricing is due to be confirmed, we should perhaps prepare for high prices – and with recent launches of the flagship-level Honor 10 or OnePlus 6, HTC has a lot of work to do.
The first suggestion that the new handset was going to be called the HTC U12 came from a DigiTimes report, although that follows the logic from the U11 in 2017. However, HTC then went on to launch the HTC U11+, which shifted the phone to an 18:9 display as is the trend in smartphones.
Logic suggests that HTC U12+ would be the name and that’s something confirmed by leaker Evan Blass and a report from Focus Taiwan. The leaks for the HTC U12+ are now complete and comprehensive.
HTC’s most recent devices have used Liquid Surface, that unique glass finish that gives a look that you won’t find anywhere else. It’s high quality and it looks great, shimmering and reflecting the light as you move the phone around.
We’ve seen it on the HTC U11, U11 Life and U11+. It looks like the HTC U12+ will carry the Liquid Surface rear too which appears in some of the leaked device photos we’ve seen, and leaked spec sheets. Colours are suggested as Black, Red Rose and Violet, with the translucent option from the U12+ also being available. A reveal from @evleaks gives three colours, black, red and what we assume is the translucent model, which looks more like grey.
Evan Blass then followed up with a full spec sheet, which looks legitimate and reveals all the specifics of the design and the specs and everything else. Read on, because we’ll put it all into context for you.
One of the interesting details is listed as “pressure-sensitive buttons” with a touch feedback experience. At the moment it’s not clear what these offer or how they are implemented.
IP68 water protection as found on the HTC U11+ is included, but we’re also expecting HTC’s focus to be on slimming down the bezels of its phone. That means it’s likely to stick to the 18:9 display of the HTC U11+, looking to move closer to the edges – something confirmed through various leaks.
The HTC U12+ will also have squeezable sides, as Sense Edge continues, enabling shortcuts and actions with just a squeeze – detailed as Edge Sense 2.0 with various functions.
The HTC U12+ might have made an appearance in the wild, spotted at an event in Taiwan, although recently we’ve seen complete sets of photos appear from the HTC Taiwan News Facebook profile, showing the phone in real life.
The images show HTC hasn’t gone down the route taken by other Android flagships this year and decided to not feature a notch in the display to house front-facing cameras and sensors – although there may be a mid-range device – the U12 Life – which does have a notch. Instead there is a traditional bezel, with two selfie cameras and the ear speaker.
On the back is the confirmed dual camera system and fingerprint sensor underneath.
The HTC U12+ will be a 6-inch handset and sport a QHD+ resolution. That means it will have the aforementioned 18:9 aspect ratio and a 2880 x 1440 pixel resolution.
These specs have been confirmed by leaks but an early leak for the outline of the new phone gave us a silhouette to impose an 18:9 display on to give a sense of the sizes of the bezels.
A leaked box also appeared suggesting a 5.5-inch display – could this be a standard HTC U12 instead of the also-expected 6-inch HTC U12+? It’s an anomaly at present, not really fitting with the rest of the rumours, so think we can ignore it.
It looks like HTC will stick with LCD, partly because of price, but also because HTC has a long history working with LCD – and the results aren’t too bad. Red ghosting in night mode is our biggest complaint on recent devices, but we have high hopes.
A detail we’ve spotting in the leaked spec sheets is that it will support HDR 10 .
Twitter user @LlabTooFer posted many of the specs on his Twitter page and fellow leakster Evan Blass concurred with a retweet: “True,” he simply wrote. Evan Blass has subsequently confirmed these specs on Venture Beat, but as we mentioned above, has subsequently shared what appears to be an official HTC spec sheet.
Like other 2018 flagships the HTC U12+ will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, with 6GB of RAM and up to 256GB of built-in storage with microSD expansion, making it a hugely powerful handset, although Roland Quandt has suggested it will launch with 64GB storage in Europe, which seems more likely to keep the price in check.
Original leaks said there will be a 3,420mAh battery, but more recently this is reported as 3,500mAh – both are in the same ballpark anyway.
Focus Taiwan claimed its sources said there would be a 64GB model and a 128GB model, with no mention of a larger 256GB but it reiterated many of the other specs previously suggested.
As HTC has already moved away from 3.5mm headphones, it will continue to offer USonic headphones powered by USB Type-C, offering active noise cancellation and custom tuning. BoomSound Hi-Fi edition is likely to be included for great on-device audio and again, all this appears on the leaked spec sheet.
There’s a fingerprint scanner on the rear of the phone.
HTC has been trimming down HTC Sense for some time, more recently moving to a position where it called the software build on its phones Android with HTC Sense. In many cases the bulk is reduced in favour of Google’s core apps and services, but you’ll probably still find HTC’s own camera, BlinkFeed launcher and few other HTC apps in place.
An interesting nugget gleaned from the leaked spec sheet is the mention that it will be upgradable to Android P.
