Verizon prematurely listed HTC’s upcoming U12 Android flagship on its Open Development website, with the listing seen below revealing a number of specs and features of the still-unannounced handset. The image attached to the listing is a placeholder that depicts the Sapphire Blue variant of the HTC U11 and not its successor that’s expected to be officially advertised as the U12 Plus, with the Taiwanese phone manufacturer reportedly already deciding against releasing a smaller U12.
The listing mentions a “frameless” LCD 6 panel with a WQHD (1440p) resolution, Corning’s Gorilla Glass protection, and a 3,500mAh battery. Bluetooth 5.0, IP68-certified elements resistance, and Android 8.0 Oreo are also part of the package, together with 4K video recording capabilities, the HTC Sense Companion app, HTC USonic earphones, and LTE Category 12 support, as per the same source. Verizon stated the HTC U12 (Plus) is compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 1.0 technology, though that’s likely an error seeing how the device is widely expected to ship with the Snapdragon 845 chip which already offers Quick Charge 4.0. While not every original equipment manufacturer leverages the full capabilities of Qualcomm’s silicon, HTC will likely at the very least do what Samsung did with the Snapdragon 845 variants of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus and deliver Quick Charge 2.0 support while possibly also including an alternative solution such as Adaptive Fast Charging. The listing itself also indicates the HTC U12 Plus will be carried by Verizon once it’s released in the United States.
HTC is lowering the number of its annual smartphone releases in 2018 after experiencing the worst year in its history, having lost some $580 million in 2017. The U12 Plus is hence expected to be the company’s only Android flagship of the year, with recent reports pointing to a late spring reveal. The high-end mobile offering should begin retailing on a global level by late June or early July, with the lineup likely consisting of two models with different memory configurations. The base version of the HTC-made device is expected to offer 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space, as per previous rumors and benchmark sightings.