HTC’s flagship lineup for the year 2016 seems to have come full circle and the company’s next top-tier smartphone is likely to be set for a market release in the first half of 2017. For now, there are no details as to what we can expect from the HTC 10 sequel, but interestingly enough, recent rumors suggest that the Taiwanese company might want to bring back the “ThunderBolt” brand for the release of an upcoming flagship phone on Sprint’s network before year’s end.
The original HTC ThunderBolt was announced at the beginning of 2011 at CES and was launched in the US through Verizon Wireless as the carrier’s first smartphone to support 4G LTE as well as simultaneous voice and data over 3G networks with no Wi-Fi connectivity. The HTC ThunderBolt was succeeded by the HTC One X a year later, and HTC continued to identify its newer flagship phones with the “One” moniker since. Now, a new rumor fueled by an HTC trademark filing has started making the rounds lately, as the company appears to have reserved the “HTC Bolt” moniker for an unreleased, upcoming product. After HTC filed to trademark the “Bolt” brand, various media outlets have begun exploring the possibility that HTC might be planning to rename its flagship smartphone series once again, and possibly go back to its roots with the naming scheme of its upcoming top-tier handsets. On the other hand, there’s no clear evidence that the “HTC Bolt” moniker will be attributed to a smartphone or a premium smartphone at that, and it could just as well be reserved for a different type of product or accessory. However, not long after the story at hand emerged, prolific mobile reporter Evan Blass chipped in via Twitter and declared that the mysterious HTC Bolt “is coming to Sprint next month”, so there might be some truth to these rumors after all.
So to wrap things up, HTC might be working on a new smartphone called the “Bolt”, which could hit the shelves in the US via Sprint at one point by the end of October. Whether or not this will be the case remains to be seen, and we advise readers to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism at least until more evidence emerges. As a quick reminder and history lesson, the original HTC ThunderBolt launched in 2011 was equipped with a 4.3-inch TFT display with a resolution of 800 x 480, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 1GHz processor coupled with an Adreno 205 GPU, 768 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage, a 1,400 mAh battery, and Android 2.2 Froyo out of the box.