HTC isn’t a name that’s been relevant in the U.S. and global smartphone market since 2019. After a peak of 10.7% of the market in 2011, the company suffered a massive decline to 0.05% in 2019 and largely discontinued phone sales in the U.S., China, the U.K., and elsewhere. HTC even pulled its devices off e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and JD.com. But now, in 2024, we may be set to get a new HTC phone, at least in certain markets.
HTC Taiwan just posted a teaser on Facebook featuring a promo image clearly showing a side profile of a phone with a June 12, 2024, date. The translated text reveals that the event or launch will take place at 8 a.m. and that readers should check HTC’s website when the time comes, presumably for preorders.
We already have a sense of what device may be in the pipeline since the HTC U24 Pro was spotted on the Google Play Console in April. It’s likely to be the same device that’s coming next week. The phone is a successor to the HTC U23 Pro, which launched in May of last year in Europe and Taiwan, so the timeline for a new generation lines up.
We’ve also gotten a look at the specs from the Console leak. We’re expecting a 2436 x 1080 screen with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip paired with 12GB of RAM. The phone is expected to run Android 14 when it launches, and it’s likely to support Bluetooth 5.3. For its design, the phone is expected to have a curved display and a centered punch-hole notch for the selfie camera. The power and volume buttons look to be on the right, though MySmartPrice cautions that sometimes the listings on Google Play Console are simply placeholder images.
For context, the last HTC phone Digital Trends reviewed was the HTC U12 Plus in 2018. It received a middling three-star rating, and we disliked the dull, bloated AI, the finicky digital buttons, and the poor viewing angles of the display. On the flip side, the phone offered excellent overall performance, a daylong battery life, solid camera capabilities for the time, and great audio.
It remains to be seen if the HTC U24 Pro can help revive HTC’s fortunes in the mobile market. The U23 Pro got a limited global release in just Taiwan and Europe and the U24 Pro is likely to get the same. It’s hard to see how HTC can rebuild its market without competing in China or the U.S. It’s also not a phone that’s on par with flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or the OnePlus 12, which makes it hard to see where HTC fits in even in the markets it still sells in.
Expect to learn more about the HTC U24 Pro and its availability next week.
