HTC U12, Samsung Galaxy S9 Rival, Coming In Early 2018: Report

Just a month after launching the HTC U11 Plus, there’s now information that the Taiwanese manufacturer is already preparing its next flagship device for 2018. The phone is believed to be sporting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, so it could be a handset designed mainly to rival Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S9.

On Wednesday, DigiTimes learned from sources familiar with HTC’s plans that the company is releasing a new flagship phone, possibly called the HTC U12, next year. The company’s roadmap does not specify if the device is coming out in the first half or second half of 2018. However, there’s enough reason to believe that it could launch in the first half because the U11 was announced this past May and released to the public a month after.

Based on the latest information about the U12, the flagship device could be powered by the Snapdragon 845. Qualcomm says its new chip is its most innovative design yet. The company also claims the processor has every forward-looking feature including the capacity to bring immersive XR (extended reality) experiences, support for intelligent digital assistants and an advanced vault-like security.

By securing the Snapdragon 845 SoC for its upcoming flagship, HTC could be bringing its A game in competing against Samsung’s Galaxy S9, which CNET claims is also debuting with the same processor. Though both handsets will be powered by the same processor, the implementation of the two companies could vary. Thus, it’s best to wait for the two flagship phones to launch before a thorough comparison could be made.

Apart from the latest Qualcomm chipset, HTC is also outfitting its upcoming flagship phone with a 4K display and a dual-lens camera module on its back. Other specs and features are going to be revealed in the near future, but so far the SoC, display and camera technology are already showing promise.

In addition to the U12, HTC is also reportedly enhancing its mid-tier segment by introducing a new version of the HTC U11 Plus next month. The bezel-less U11 Plus was just launched last month, so the news that a variant is coming this January 2018 seems a bit surprising. However, this is a bit understandable considering how HTC is working to improve its market performance.

For the first three quarters of 2017, HTC posted net losses of US$237.42 million. Industry sources claim that the losses are pushing HTC to focus its R&D and marketing efforts on a limited number of smartphones for release in the coming year.

Meanwhile, South Korea giant Samsung is already poised to announce its new Galaxy S9 flagship phone in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Previously, media outlets predicted that Apple’s biggest rival could be showing off its new flagship phone at CES 2018 this January. However, a representative for the company has already said that this is “unlikely.” This has since led many publications to conclude that Samsung is debuting the Galaxy S9 at MWC 2018.