Here’s absolutely everything we know about the HTC U12

HTC’s star is on the rise at the moment, with the company having put out two great flagship phones in consecutive years with the HTC 10 and the HTC U11. The Taiwanese company is probably hoping to continue that winning streak with the HTC U12 — the direct follow-up to the HTC U11. But what can we expect from HTC’s likely follow-up? Here’s everything we know about the HTC U12.

Launch and release date

HTC is clearly wanting to set a new tradition for itself, as sources inside the company let slip to Android Headlines that it would not be revealing the HTC U12 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, echoing competitor LG.

It seems likely that HTC is choosing to ignore the event because of the looming shadow of the Samsung Galaxy S9, which is due to be revealed during the opening days of the conference. Saying that following Samsung’s act is tough would be an understatement, and given the relative lack of hype built for HTC’s upcoming phone, it makes sense to avoid one of the most anticipated phones of 2018.

That said, HTC avoided MWC last year despite the absence of a Samsung flagship, so it may be that HTC is simply moving away from announcing its biggest phones at industry events, where the danger of a distracted media is much higher. If that’s the case, then it’s far more likely that we’ll see HTC announce an event of its own closer to the U12’s release date — most estimate we’ll be seeing the phone in March or April.

Design

HTC has been tight-lipped about possible design choices for the HTC U12, but it’s safe to say that we’re likely to see a return to the bezel-less design we saw in the U11. Early renders of what the U12 could look like were uncovered by Trusted Reviews, and show a phone that’s … er, slightly boring, to say the least.

Trusted Reviews

With the increased use of edge-to-edge displays, it’s fair that face-on renders of a phone would be underwhelming. An interesting question would be the new location of the fingerprint scanner, which had previously taken residence underneath the display. Could HTC have cracked the under-screen fingerprint scanner that Vivo has managed, or would we be seeing the scanner move to the rear of the device, like the OnePlus 5T?

Whether or not Edge Sense will return remains to be seen. The “squeeze-to-activate” function was well-enough received on the HTC U11 for Google to request the feature in the Pixel 2 range, and so it seems likely that it would return in the U12. However, HTC may decide to try something new instead.

Specs

A leaked list of phones that contain the upcoming powerful Snapdragon 845 immediately answers our question of the HTC U12’s likely processor. With many 2018 flagships tipped to contain Qualcomm’s latest chip, it would be odd if HTC released a flagship without the newest thing in processing power.

Other specifications don’t have such a clear answer. It would be odd for HTC to release a flagship phone with less RAM or storage than the previous flagship, so it’s safe to assume that the U12 will have an option for 6GB of RAM and  128GB of storage space. Whether the U12 would see the end of a 4GB/64GB model remains to be seen, but we reckon that while the model with 64GB of storage will remain, a lower-priced model with 4GB of RAM will be given the heave-ho. Still, that’s pure speculation at this point.

Software

The HTC U11 launched with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, but was upgraded to Android 8.0 Oreo in fairly short order. With Google’s I/O conference in May, we think the HTC U12 will launch with the latest version of Android Oreo, and will be upgraded to the newer version of Android a few months after it’s released by Google. Either way, the U12 will have HTC’s Sense UI laid over the top of whatever version of Android it’s running.

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