The HTC U11 was HTC’s flagship smartphone in 2017. Then, in November, HTC opted to release a mid-cycle refresh in the form of the U11+. The U11+ had a limited roll-out of availability and it never launched in the US. Since the last week, we have been seeing more rumors of HTC’s 2018 flagship phone, which had been termed as the U12.
Most of the phone’s specifications were leaked by @LlabTooFer, and last week, a rumor stated that the phone would have come in a matte white glass finish. Now, Evan Blass from VentureBeat has posted a leaked render of the device, which is now referred to as the U12+. The U12+ nomenclature is said to be intended to put it in competition with the Samsung Galaxy S9+. The U12 proper does not exist at this time and it may never exist.
VentureBeat also posted specifications of the U12+, which corroborate the ones that were leaked previously by @LlabTooFer. Of more interest here is the render. It’s obvious that the render isn’t an official one as the quality seems to be a bit low. However, it does give a brief idea about what to expect from the HTC U12+ with respect to design.
The front of the HTC U12+ is minimal with no capacitive buttons and two prominent front-facing cameras. On the back, we have a dual camera setup that is reminiscent of the LG V30’s design. In fact, along with the fingerprint sensor layout, the device looks a lot like the V30.
VentureBeat states that after the Google-HTC partial acquisition and another round of layoffs, HTC has been forced to cut down its portfolio. It will only release a few phones this year, and the flagship codenamed “Imagine” is the aforementioned HTC U12+.
With respect to specifications, the U12+ will have a 6-inch WQHD+ (2880×1440) LCD with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip and 6GB of RAM paired with either 64GB or 128GB of storage, along with a microSD card slot.
It has dual 12MP + 16MP rear cameras. Interestingly, it will also have dual 8MP + 8MP front cameras (similar to the HTC U11 Eyes). The phone will be powered by a 3420mAh battery (bigger than the U11, but smaller than the U11+). Finally, it will have the second generation of HTC’s Edge Sense feature that allows users to squeeze the phone to control various features.
VentureBeat states that development of the HTC U12+ has recently encountered “a minor snag”, which has pushed its expected launch date back several weeks from late April to early May.
Alongside the U12+, HTC is also developing full-screen lower-end phones. They are codenamed the “Breeze” and “Breeze+” and will come to market as the HTC Desire 12 and the Desire 12+ respectively. The notable feature of the phones will be an 18:9 full-screen display, but the rest of the specifications aren’t anything to boast about. The phones will have a MediaTek SoC, 2GB of RAM paired with 16GB of storage, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, and a 2730mAh battery.
We expect to learn more about the U12+ in the time leading up to its launch.
Source: VentureBeat