14 DAY TRIAL // Many smartphone makers will announce their flagship phones during MWC next month, but HTC won’t be one of them. In a recent interview to Tbreak, Chialin Chang, HTC's President of Smartphones and Connected Devices, said the company would launch a flagship running SD 835, but not during MWC.
HTC recently announced the premium HTC U Ultra and mid-ranger U Play. Some have wondered why HTC equipped the U Ultra with last year’s Snapdragon 821 SoC instead of the newer SD835, and HTC’s Chialin Chang provided a clarification on the matter.
He said that every time a new powerful CPU is announced, HTC is at the forefront. But the decision to incorporate SD821 in the U Ultra was made nine months ago. He added that the Snapdragon 821 chipset is currently the best option largely available to OEMs and that “when the next CPU flagship comes, HTC will be one of the very first tier doing that.”
HTC U Ultra’s symmetrical design didn’t allow for a bigger battery
This means that HTC’s upcoming flagship will be announced sometime over the next few months. Recent rumors say that the reason the LG G6 and other premium phones won’t be equipped with Snapdragon 835 is Samsung, which has first dibs on the chipset for its new Galaxy S8. Mr. Chang has also said that HTC has a couple of months of leadership before the next flagship chipset comes, “but that will be in another period of time - not at MWC.”
Mr.Chang also talked about the reason why HTC U Ultra packs a small battery of just 3,000mAh, considering its large 5.7-inch display and QHD resolution. “We could have done a bigger battery- but the design would have been impacted. We wanted to get a symmetric design and the trimming on the sides impacts the battery.”
He went on to say that the company wanted to find a balance between the design, software capabilities and fast charging features. In addition, he assured customers that the battery would last for a full day.