Last month, HTC teased an upcoming announcement, offering few hints at what it had lined up, aside from saying that it was "for U". That product is due to be revealed tomorrow, January 12, and HTC attempted to generate some fresh buzz around the event this week by releasing a similarly cryptic teaser video yesterday.
But it seems HTC couldn"t hold on to its big secret for quite long enough, as images of its new handset, said to be named the "U Ultra", emerged on Weibo.
The most interesting feature of the new device is immediately noticeable at first glance. The U Ultra has a tiny secondary display, positioned above the main screen, and to the right of the front-facing camera. Of course, that"s a feature that we"ve seen before - you may remember it from LG"s V10 flagship in 2015, and it was evidently successful enough for the company to carry it over to the V20 that it launched in September.
Just like on the LG flagships, HTC"s new handset can apparently use the secondary display to show tidbits of information, or icons and buttons.
The U Ultra features slim metallic bodywork, along with a rear camera that includes a dual-LED flash, and laser auto-focus, according to HTC Source. It also appears to have dual microphones, along with a single speaker grille positioned on the bottom edge of the device.
Below the display, you"ll find two capacitive touch buttons, along with a physical home button with an integrated fingerprint sensor.
However, the new HTC device is lacking one significant feature - like Apple"s iPhone 7, as well as HTC"s own 10 evo / Bolt, the U Ultra doesn"t have a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack, relying instead on the single USB Type-C port.
It look like the U Ultra will be offered in at least four colors, including what appears to be white/silver, deep blue, black, and rose gold/pink.
Of course, we"ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out how accurate these images and the various details revealed about the U Ultra actually are. Many key specs of the device remain unknown - let"s just hope that HTC doesn"t decide to launch this device with a three-year-old chip.
Source: Weibo via HTC Source