HTC vowed to be among the first adopters of the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip. Chialin Chang, the company’s President of Smartphones and Connected Devices, told Tbreak that the Taiwanese phone maker will continue its strategy of implementing new flagship chipsets into its smartphones as soon as possible. Chang’s comments were meant to reflect on the criticism the company faced after unveiling the HTC U Ultra which disappointed some industry watchers after it came to light that it’s packing the Snapdragon 821 instead of the Snapdragon 835. HTC’s executive said that the decision to implement the Snapdragon 821 into the HTC U Ultra was made last spring, adding that the CPU in question is still the best option original equipment manufacturers currently have available.
Chang explained the decision to launch the HTC U Ultra as an effort to gain some market share before the Snapdragon 835 hits the market. On Wednesday, he said that the Taoyuan-based tech giant is already planning to ship a smartphone featuring Qualcomm’s upcoming SoC, but added how such a device won’t be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. Chang reiterated how HTC isn’t falling behind its competitors by expressing firm belief that no other OEM will unveil a device packing the Snapdragon 835 at MWC 2017. HTC’s executive also reflected on the criticism about the 5.7-inch HTC U Ultra being powered by a 3,000mAh battery by explaining how the company wanted to create a symmetrical smartphone and that wouldn’t have been possible if it opted for a larger battery.
During his interview with Tbreak, Chang confirmed that HTC won’t be shipping an Android Wear smartwatch in the near future. He also said that the Taiwanese phone maker will likely integrate Google Assistant into its future offerings but provided no specific timeframe for that implementation. Finally, HTC’s official questioned some negative media coverage of the upcoming HTC U Ultra by describing how he recently found an extremely negative article covering the device whose author has never seen the company’s next flagship in person. In overall, it seems that HTC won’t be making any major announcements at MWC next month, but more information on its future plans will likely follow by spring.