14 DAY TRIAL // HTC has already introduced its flagship smartphone for the first half of the year, the U Ultra. As a matter of fact, the device has already made its debut in some markets, including the United States.
However, HTC officials suggested soon after the U Ultra's reveal that the company wouldn't hesitate to announce a new flagship when new technologies become available.
The reason HTC would want to quickly pull out another high-end device would be the fact that the current model, the U Ultra, does not include Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 CPU.
Although HTC U Ultra hit the shelves a few months ahead of the Galaxy S8, the first smartphone to pack the Snapdragon 835 chipset, as soon as Samsung's flagship is released, it will be very hard for the Taiwanese company to compete with it.
That's one of the main reasons HTC will try to launch another high-end Android smartphone that would successfully compete with the Samsung Galaxy S8.
Another HTC U Ultra model with Snapdragon 835 CPU inside?
Surprisingly, HTC's new flagship might come much earlier than expected. Since the Snapdragon 835 CPU won't be widely available until late April, we thought the Taiwanese handset maker wouldn't announce a new flagship until May.
However, HTC Taiwan published a teaser hinting at a launch event for March 20. Unfortunately, there's no telling if a new high-end smartphone will be unveiled next week, or the company plans to introduce a mid-range handset.
The teaser says that “spring is coming” and that “HTC will give you an unexpected surprise.” We doubt that HTC will announce a new flagship immediately after the U Ultra was released on the market, but we don't rule out the possibility.
The next flagship smartphone coming from the Taiwanese company could be launched as HTC 11 or HTC Ocean. We'll just have to wait until next week to learn what the handset maker has in store for us.