The upcoming HTC U12 flagship was apparently captured on camera during a recent ‘Taiwan 5G Industry Alliance’ conference where the smartphone seems to have demonstrated its networking capabilities, achieving almost gigabit-rate download speeds in the Speedtest benchmark. Assuming that this is indeed the HTC U12, this is the first time for the device to appear live on camera, though it’s worth reminding that the smartphone has been subjected to a variety of leaks so far.
At the OEM’s booth, the alleged HTC U12 was wrapped in a protective case covering most of its back panel, the top edge of the device, and all four corners, so its exterior design wasn’t really too exposed during the event. Nevertheless, it appears that the smartphone has relatively thin side bezels and rounded side edges, one of which accommodates the SIM tray. The top bezel is also mysteriously covered by a piece of protective fabric, but it’s unclear why HTC may have decided to hide this specific part of the phone from prying eyes. Presumably, the device is equipped with some sort of front-facing sensors that HTC felt should be hidden from the public during the event. Prior to this, the HTC U12 was envisioned in a 3D render while carrying a total of four cameras, two of which resided on the front panel right next to the loudspeaker. Then again, the same render depicted the device as having a front-facing home button on the lower edge and based on these new live photos, the HTC U12 could ditch this characteristic altogether. That is, at least judging by the presence of not three, but five on-screen software navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen.
The HTC U12 is expected to be equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 so it won’t necessarily be a full-fledged 5G device given the silicon’s limitations, however, the same chipset does incorporate the X20 LTE modem which supports speeds of up to 1.2Gbps and Cat.13 upload speeds of up to 150Mbps. The smartphone’s availability remains in question, but according to the information recently provided to Android Headlines, HTC might not bring its next flagship to the Mobile World Congress in late February and could instead unveil the device at a different event following MWC 2018.
