HTC is back in the smartphone market, unveiling its new flagship later this month

Despite major restructuring as a result of Google’s acquisition of its smartphone design and engineering teams, HTC isn’t out of the game yet. In fact, it looks to be re-entering the handset market this month with what’s believed to be the tentatively titled U12, the successor to its praised U11.

HTC officially announced that a new smartphone was arriving on the 23rd May, claiming that it will be “more than the sum of its specs.” The image behind the revealed date is believed to hint at what these specifications may be, indicating that the upcoming smartphone will house a dual-camera for both the rear and the front.

This information gels with previous leaks from Evan “EVLeaks” Blass, who has given a look at what he claims is the HTC U12+ ahead of time. This could mean that the standard HTC U12 houses a single front-facing camera, with the dual front-facing reserved for its higher-end handset.

This is the HTC U12+ https://t.co/LP9OX5xHlO pic.twitter.com/fi7BGkj6l5

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 15, 2018

The image also shows that HTC will already be distinguishing itself from competition by forgoing the trend of the notch in favour of the classic design.

It is unknown what will happen to HTC’s effort in the handset market once the launch of the U12 comes around, as this project is assumed to be the completion of a design that has been in the works for years rather than a brand new model. If the U12 does well against the tough competition it faces from the OnePlus 6, it’s possible that the company will reinvest a lot of effort into rebuilding its design team.

KitGuru Says: My first modern smartphone was a HTC One M9, which served me well for a few years aside from mild overheating issues. It’d be a shame to see HTC disappear from the smartphone market, but it always has a major foothold in the VR market to keep it comfortably afloat. Would you consider the HTC U12?

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