HTC plans the HTC 11 – or HTC U, as it is now being referred to – with Snapdragon 835, 6GB RAM, dual-camera and 3,000mAh battery!
So far in 2017 HTC has already released a handful of phones, most notably it has introduced the new HTC U series including both the higher end HTC U Ultra and the lower end HTC U Play. The HTC U Ultra is quite a capable device with some premium-grade design and features. BUT, crucially, it's not actually a flagship handset. A true flagship from HTC for this year remains elusive.
The HTC U Ultra uses last year's Snapdragon 821 processor, and although it's feature rich, it just doesn't have that flagship swagger. HTC knows this and isn't trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, to be fair...the firm hasn't dubbed it a flagship or even priced it as such, and has also said on record that it will launch another, flagship-grade model inside the year.
HTC U Release Date: May 16 Confirmed
HTC has now confirmed that it will launch a new flagship model on May 16. The company took to its official Twitter account with a video teaser which also confirms a number of other previously rumoured points on the device. Firstly, we can now confirm it will be a "U" branded device, and second, we can confirm it will have a pressure-sensitive surround which will allow control input, so-called Edge Sense technology. How do we know this? Well the teaser Tweet states "Squeeze for the Brilliant U," before giving the May 16 date.
In all likelihood this means the handset will be dubbed the HTC U as per earlier rumours, although given that capitalisation of the word "Brilliant" we do wonder if the flagship may be called the HTC Brilliant U. That would be weird, but kind of interesting.
HTC has now issued another teaser for the HTC U; once again, the teaser focuses on the handset's pressure-sensitive edge surround which allows the user to issue certain commands and controls by squeezing the frame.
"Natural. Intuitive. Effortless. A new way to interact with your smartphone is coming. Save the date. May 16, 2017 BrilliantU," says HTC.
Amidst the various snapshots of people squeezing various squeezable objects, there are one or two brief glimpses of a phone's frame, presumably the HTC U itself. It seems to have a metallic blue finish, previous leaks have shown it will come in five colour choices; black, blue, red, white, and silver.
HTC's president of smartphones and connected devices, Chailin Chang, conducted an interview with tech news publication Tbreak, during which he revealed some interesting titbits about the firm's plans for the rest of 2017 and beyond.
According to Chang, HTC's U Ultra smartphone isn't the last device for the OEM to launch this year and apparently we can still exepct a flagship to arrive in the coming months. We've previously heard from a Forbes report how Samsung hoarded all of the initial run of 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors it produced on Qualcomm's behalf, a situation which created shortage - a shortage which meant the LG G6 and HTC U Ultra were forced to make do with the Snapdragon 821.
Allegedly, supply of the S835 will increase enough for other OEMs besides Samsung to get in on the action after the Galaxy S8 launch in April. With all that in mind, Chang alluded to HTC launching an S835 powered flagship this year, which may well be the HTC 11.
"Every time there is a brand new CPU with power that we can leverage, we're always at the forefront doing that. Some people are talking about the timing [of our release] but timing was determined 9 months ago. This is the best CPU out there. When the next flagship CPU comes, HTC will be one of the very first tier doing that."
"When we will look back, it will be clear why HTC introduced [these new phones.] We want to have a couple of months of leadership before the next flagship CPU comes. But that will be in another period of time- not at MWC. Not for us or any other player. I can tell you that for sure. When the new CPU comes, HTC will have another flagship," he added.
Of course he didn't explicity name-drop the HTC 11 or the Snapdragon 835, but reading between the lines that's likely what he's referring to. The long and the short of it is HTC wants to release a best-in-class, flagship-level phone this year, and the S835 will enable that, but not until HTC can get hands on the chip after April.
According to Evan Blass (leak further detailed below), HTC will launch the flagship in early May as the HTC U, with the handset being announced sometime in April.
HTC U: Design, Specs & Hardware
According to blurb circulating on May 4, the HTC U will be joining the ranks of the iPhone and a few notable others, such as Motorola's Moto Z, in ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack. The word comes via the Twitter account @LlabTooFer, which has been a reputable source on such things in the past.
"#HTCU11 will have USB-C -> 3.5mm adaptor inside the box...
It's not clear why this move has been made. In Motorola's case it was to make the phone as thin as possible, while with Apple it appears to have been a bid to push its own bespoke headphone brand. In HTC's case, as it has pushed tailored audio experiences on other members of the HTC U line-up we can only assume it's the same here. I
n other words, HTC wants you to be able to get your sound delivered just how you like it, and to do that it has customisable audio profiles built in, together with dedicated amps and other whizzy tech; all of this would go out the window with a regular pair of headphones via 3.5mm, but a specialised set via Type-C USB will retain maximum quality.
The HTC U has been spotted in a Geekbench benchmarking listing, listed as the HTC CBP. It's shown sporting a Qualcomm MSM8998 processor - the Snapdragon 835 - and Android 7.1.1 Nougat. A new spec for the phone is the 4GB of RAM revealed by the database.
And now a leaked image shows what's alleged to be the graphics from the HTC U's retail box, specifically the part of the packaging which breaks down the specs and features in a neat little table infographic. The details confirm the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, but instead of the 4GB of RAM we saw in the benchmarking leaks this appears to be a model with 128GB onboard storage, 6GB of RAM, and dual-SIM capabilities. It's likely the 4GB of RAM model will have 64GB of onboard storage.
Other confirmed specs include a 5.5in QHD display, IP57 water resistance, microSD support, a fingerprint scanner, NFC, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, and HTC's BoomSound together with its typical slew of audio enhancements.
Also of interest is the Edge Sense pressure-sensitive surround, and a 12MP camera with optical satbilisation, and f/1.7 aperture and something called "UltraSpeed" autofocus. The front-facing cam is a 16MP f/2.0 setup with Selfie Panorama mode, presumably also including a wide-angle lens.
A bunch of new leaks in April have revealed all kinds of new and tantalising information about HTC's next flagship. First and foremost is the handset's name; as it turns out it might not be called the HTC 11 at all, instead the HTC U brand the firm already established with the HTC U Ultra may reappear, with the flagship model now being rumoured as simply the HTC U. The word comes via Evan Blass, who has also revealed images of the device; official-looking press renders no less.
From the images we can see the phone is completely button-less and has no 3.5mm headphone jack, indicating that HTC is keen to streamline this handset into a sleek slab of metal.
Specs have also leaked, revealing a 5.5in display with a 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution and covered in Gorilla Glass 5. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 CPU is still tipped together with an Adreno 540 GPU.
Likewise we're allegedly looking at variously 4GB/6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of storage. A 3,000mAh battery is mentioned, with Quick Charge, and there's a fingerprint scanner in the Home key, which appears to be the only button. Although the 3.5mm headphone jack is gone, the phone has a Type-C USB port and there's HTC's signature dual-stereo speaker arrangement.
Yet more leakage has occured for the HTC U. Evan Blass has once again Tweeted some images showing the front and back of the phone in a black colour option.
The image quality isn't exactly the best, so we can't see a great deal of detail, however, the front-facing speakers are just about visible and we can see a single-sensor rear camera.
Another leak for the HTC 11 has emerged, with a screenshot of the phone's display showing the device's "About Phone" screen in Android naming it as the HTC 11. The image show the handset has 6GB RAM and reiterates the earlier rumour of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. The claim of 6GB RAM contradicts earlier rumours of 8GB RAM, though it's plausible, if somewhat unlikely, that there may be multiple RAM variants.
Other key specs are also revealed, including a new Sense 9.0 UI overlay on top of Android "7.12" Nougat, 128GB of onboard storage, and a slightly odd 1556x2550 pixel resolution on the display. Could the display resolution mean that, like Samsung and LG, HTC is adopting an 18:9 aspect ratio for 4K multimedia? We should point out that we've not heard of a 7.12 build for Nougat before, so that's a little suspicious.
Interestingly, a leak picked up by HTCSource seems to indicate that US network Verizon is currently preparing to begin testing an HTC smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Allegedly it also has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a dual-camera on the rear comprising both 24MP and 13MP sensors.
The front-facing camera is said to be a 16MP setup and the handset will have a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, as well as the Sense Companion Assistant AI from the HTC U Ultra. Other features include Type-C USB and BoomSound speakers.
The HTC 11 has leaked in specs and rendered image form via Chinese social media, on the Webo network.
For what it's worth, the tipster says the handset will have a 5.5in QHD display, up from the HTC 10's 5.2in screen size but preserving the resolution and NOT reaching for any of that fancypants, battery-draining 4K jiggery-pokery.
Processing power is said to come from a 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, which makes a lot of sense considering most of HTC's power plants have been Qualcomm units; this chip is arriving in the first half of 2017 so that might be an indication that the HTC 11 might come around the middle of the year or thereabouts.
Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 tech is also on-board, allegedly. For memory there is a massive 8GB of RAM tipped, alongside 256GB of storage, considering 128GB storage and 6GB of RAM is yet to become the norm across the Android space this is the one set of specs that smells slightly off, but then again it's not outside the realms of possibility either, so we'll give it a pass for now.
And Qualcomm's next-generation chipset, which will be built by Samsung, is shaping up to be quite the monster as well.
"Qualcomm sort of announced the Snapdragon 835 last month but without going into specifics - Samsung will manufacture it on a 10nm process and it'll feature QuickCharge 4.0, that's about it. Good thing there's GFXBench to shed some light on the insides of the SoC," reports GSM Arena.
It added: "For one, it packs an octa-core CPU, clocked at up to 2.2GHz. The current Snapdragon 821 has half the number of cores, 2 of them clocked at 2.35GHz, the other 2 capped at 2.2GHz. We can only imagine what a beast the future chip would be with 8 Kryo cores."
The imaging hardware is claimed to include a 12MP primary and an 8MP front-facing secondary, the render supplied with the specs seems to show the rear setup has a dual-lens, but this is not confirmed by the spec sheet, so we just don't know for sure at this stage, feasibly it could be a different type of sensor or module, but at the same time, dual-lenses are all the rage.
Lastly, we're supposedly looking at a 3,700mAh battery cell, which is pretty hefty to say the least.
HTC U: Special Features
One really interesting thing is the phone's frame, which is allegedly pressure-sensitive and will allow users to activate certain features with either soft or hard squeezes at different points on the edges; things like opening the camera or activating Google Assistant. A couple of other tipped features include so-called USonic tech which enables a user to plug an analogue headphone into the Type-C USB port and create a customised audio profile tailored to their inner-ear. HTC Sense Link is also tipped to allow you to see mobile notifications on your PC.
Another Twitter tipster, LlabTooFer, has revealed that the HTC U will be available in single and dual-SIM editions, though didn't specify whether this will be market dependent, they also added it will be IP57 water and dust resistant (up to 1m of water for 30 minutes) and will NOT feature a 3.5mm headphone jack.
HTC U: Software & AI Assistant
Speaking in his interview with TBreak, HTC's smartphone president, Chailin Chang, talked a bit about a current hot topic - AI Assistants. Interestingly, having recently heard that the LG G6 might be the first Android handset apart from the Pixel series to pack Google's own Google Assistant, HTC might also be looking to implement Google's AI package rather than coming up with its own, as Samsung is doing with Bixby.
With LG having worked closely with Google on the Nexus project, it seems there may be something to do with OEMs who have a closer relationship with the Android creator. HTC, of course, helped create the Pixel series, and according to Chang there will be a deepening of that partnership moving forward; the use of Google Assistant, it seems, might form part of that.
"At some point it will come [to our phones] when its ready. Google wants HTC to do Google Assistant so it can spread to get big data and allow them many things. They want us to incorporate the Assistant in a standard, prominent way. We will use that, but that's on the cloud. Beyond that, there's a lot of device information that can be helpful to a consumer which we want to provide [with our AI]," said Chang.
This is all apparently in spite of HTC's emphasis of its own HTC Sense Companion AI assistant during the launch of the HTC U Ultra.
He added that HTC and Google are "working on multiple things," and that "there's always a different product."
Read into that what you will!
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