Judging by HTC’s usual launch cycles, the Taiwanese smartphone maker will likely unveil its upcoming flagship phone within the next 4-to-6 months. The sequel to this year’s HTC 10 has already been the subject of several leaks and rumors in the past several weeks, revealing its possible design philosophy and hardware characteristics. In any case, there already are numerous clues out there in regards to what HTC’s next flagship phone will have in store for consumers, and below you will find a wrap-up of all the worthwhile information emerging so far.
First things first, HTC’s upcoming flagship has been referred to by the codename “Ocean”, but it is likely that the product’s final name will simply be “HTC 11”. Either way, the nametag “Ocean” appears to be associated with multiple devices, suggesting that the HTC 11 will be released in multiple variants with different characteristics. As yet, three codenames have been mentioned by industry insiders, including “Ocean Master”, “Ocean Note” and “Ocean Smart”. As for the smartphone’s exterior design, the so-called HTC Ocean was previously spotted in a concept video (below) demonstrating the “Sense Touch” user interface, and showcasing the terminal from all angles. Once again the video is supposed to showcase a concept design, meaning that this may not be how the final product will look like. Either way, the concept shows a design similar to the HTC 10 enclosed in a full metal chassis with chamfered edges, featuring a rear-facing dual-camera setup and a new user interface lacking navigation buttons in favor of adopting gesture and voice-based navigation.
As for the hardware driving the HTC Ocean, there haven’t been many leaks in this regard but there is a possibility that the flagship will make use of a System-on-Chip (SoC) that’s part of Qualcomm’s 800 series, specifically the Snapdragon 821 chipset driving the ongoing Google Pixel lineup. Then again, the Snapdragon 835 is poised for a market debut next year and it wouldn’t be out of the question for HTC to adopt a newer chipset. In any case, the CPU will operate alongside a minimum of 4GB of RAM, and we expect at least 32GB of on-board storage to be available to users. In terms of screen size, things are a bit more uncertain due to the idea that the HTC Ocean will be released in three main variants, and possibly three different sizes. It remains to be seen whether HTC will rely on LCD or AMOLED display technology, but it’s worth noting that the HTC 10 has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 on a 5.2-inch diagonal, and it’s likely that at least one HTC Ocean variant will support a similar resolution. As yet, concrete details on fingerprint recognition and I/O (including the type of USB connector) are lacking. This wraps up the HTC Ocean for now, but keep in mind that HTC is expected to unveil its next flagship early next year which should give new leaks and rumors plenty of time to emerge. Stay tuned.