HTC’s upcoming U 11 flagship will be coming with a USB Type-C to 3.5mm adapter inside the box, according to prominent HTC leaker LlabTooFeR. The phone has already been revealed to lack a 3.5mm headphone jack, so having the adapter for those who don’t want to splash out on USB Type-C headphones or use the ones that are included with the phone is a nice touch. The shape and nature of the adapter is not revealed, so we could be looking at a stiff adapter that locks into place on the USB Type-C port of the phone and accepts a 3.5mm plug in that same spot, or one more like the adapter included with the older HTC Dream, which plugged into the phone and then had a wire leading down to the 3.5mm jack. The latter was used with the HTC Bolt, so that’s the more likely option in this case.
Putting the adapter in the box may seem like a moot point since HTC is expected to include some fairly nice USB Type-C headphones with its own USonic technology, but many extremely high-end headphones, including vintage ones, are only available in 3.5mm flavors. This move also helps out people who may accidentally break, lose, or leave home without HTC’s fancy headphones. HTC’s last 3.5mm-ditching flagship, the HTC U Ultra, did not include an adapter in the box, though a pair of USB Type-C USonic headphones were on board. HTC Bolt buyers were similarly left without an adapter on purchase, but were offered one for free later.
As a refresher, the HTC U 11 is shaping up to be HTC’s entrant to the 2017 flagship battle. The device is rumored to sport a 5.5-inch panel of 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5, under which sits a 2,560 by 1,440 display. The phone will reportedly have Qualcomm’s latest SoC on board, the same Snapdragon 835 that powers the Galaxy S8, alongside either 4GB or 8GB of RAM. Storage options 64GB and 128GB options, both of which are fast UFS storage. The phone will also feature the squeeze controls that have been making the rounds in the rumor mill for some time now, and a 3,000 mAh battery with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 on board. Finally, the whole thing will run Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) out of the box, which means that it will almost certainly see an upgrade to Android O in due course.