HTC unveiled the U Ultra and U Play this morning, which led to many people wondering what the company may be doing with the One lineup, and would we see a HTC 11 or a successor to the HTC 10 this year, and it appears to not be happening. According to Android Police, who had a briefing with HTC ahead of the announcement, the company is shifting their focus to this new “U” brand, therefore all of their flagships and premiere devices will be part of that brand. This actually leaves a whole lot more questions than answers. For instance, is the HTC U Ultra the new flagship for 2017? Or will we be seeing yet another device from HTC a bit later this year, seeing as the HTC 10 didn’t get announced until around April last year.
The HTC U Ultra is a $749 device from the Taiwanese manufacturer, so it is definitely a “flagship” device, in fact it costs more than the HTC 10 did last year (which was priced at $699 when it launched). The HTC U Ultra is running on a Snapdragon 821 in 2017, which isn’t really a good idea for HTC, seeing as the majority of flagships that will be announced at Mobile World Congress next month will be running Qualcomm’s newest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 835. It does also bring a new hardware design for HTC, seeing as the U Ultra is no longer a aluminum unibody device, and in fact sports a metal frame and a glass backside, much like the other devices hitting the market these days (like the Galaxy S7, Honor 8 and others).
Basically what this means is that we won’t see a proper successor to the HTC 10 this year, as in it won’t be part of that brand, but instead it’ll be part of the U lineup. There’s no word on whether the HTC U Ultra will be the flagship for HTC for 2017, or if we may see a smaller device launch around the middle of the year. Basically, there’s still a ton of questions surrounding HTC at this point and what their plans are for 2017, but it may turn out to be a rather interesting year for the company.