It's not a mystery that HTC is getting ready to announce their next flagship smartphone. A few years back the company flagship smartphones were usually showcased at MWC but in the last couple of years due to financial loses and low-sales forces the company to delay their flagship smartphone announcement for months to avoid the direct clash with the premium smartphones from Samsung, Huawei, and other big giants.

In H1 2017 HTC announced their first flagship smartphone as U11, later on, the company announced their first bezel-less smartphone as U11+ in H2 2017. The company retained the goodies of U11 and brought few more refinements with the U11+. This year once again flagship smartphone is quite important for HTC especially when we are hearing reports that the company will be announcing the only a couple of smartphones this year.

Undoubtedly the success of HTC's upcoming flagship will play a vital role in the company's future in the smartphones industry. As the launch of U12+ is just around the corner and almost everything is leaked in last few weeks. Today we will round up all the details we know so far regarding the U12+. So without any further delay, let's start with the release and pricing details of U12+.

HTC officially recently confirmed the announcement of their next flagship smartphone on the May 23rd with a caption "more than a sum of its parts". The caption showcases the company is not only relying on hardware to make their smartphone powerful flagship. The device is expected to go up for pre-orders soon after the announcement with a release in next few weeks most likely in the first half of June.

Besides looking to establish parity with the Galaxy S9+, I heard that the U12+'s plus sign was also included partly to help justify/explain its price. Translation: don't expect this to be cheap.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 16, 2018

As far as the price tag is a concern all reports suggest the U12+ will be an expensive flagship. This is certainly disappointing when HTC fans are expecting a cheaper flagship device. The first info regarding the pricing was shared by Evan Blass, he stated the reason behind including "+" in the naming scheme is to make sure the device falls in the same category like the Galaxy S9+.

HTC U12+: Black, Red Rose, Violet and "Translucent" variants planned. Comes with 6in screen and 64GB in Euroland. Single and Dual SIM models planned. And it won't be cheap.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) May 9, 2018

Later on another reliable tipster, Roland Quandt confirmed the device will be available in Violet, Red Rose, Black and the special Translucent colors and the device won't be cheap at all. It will be available in Single and Dual SIM variants for the Europeans with 64GB native storage. HTC will have to justify the higher price tag especially when Honor 10 and OnePlus 6 are recently released with the top of the line hardware.

Initially, we have reports that HTC's upcoming flagship smartphone will be named as U12 to be in line with the last year U11. However later on reports suggests the company introduced 2:1 display with the U11+, they want to keep the trend for this year as well that's why the device will be named as U12+.

The name is already confirmed by the popular tipster Evan Blass and also a recent report from Focus Taiwan suggests the device will be called U12+.

This is the HTC U12+ https://t.co/LP9OX5xHlO pic.twitter.com/fi7BGkj6l5

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 15, 2018

Last year HTC introduced Liquid Glass surface with the U11 series. Undoubtedly it is one of the most unique glass finish on any smartphone in the market. It not only looks great but also feels quite premium in hands. The glossy finish reflects colors as well. From the look of the things, it seems like HTC will bring the Liquid surface rear once again and recently leaked images also confirms its existence.

Evan Blass recently shared the complete specs sheet of U12+ which reveals few details regarding the design as well. The first interesting thing is U12+ on-screen buttons are pressure-sensitive which means the users will get haptic feedback once they tap the buttons. It is still in dark how HTC implemented this but it will be certainly interesting to have this feature.

(Full specs) pic.twitter.com/tYHcHwG5iD

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 17, 2018

The U11+ was IP68 certified device which means we can expect same for the U12+ as well. Last year despite having 2:1 display the U11+ bezels were not trimmed enough to be called as a bezel-less smartphone. This year we can expect U12+ bezels will be further trimmed and the display panel will remain 2:1. Another exclusive feature HTC introduced last year was Sense Edge feature which allows the user to squeeze frame to perform certain tasks. The U12+ will bring Edge Sense 2.0 an improved version with a number of new features and customization options.

Recently the U12+ alleged images appear online in Taiwan which confirms despite trimming the bezels HTC didn't follow the route of bringing the notch at the top instead there is complete bezel at the top. The top-bezel includes dual selfie cameras and earpiece. On the rear side, the dual cameras are placed horizontally with fingerprint scanner below it.

The U12+ is featuring a 6.0-inches display with Quad HD+ screen resolution of 1440 x 2880 pixels. The display panel aspect ratio will be 2:1. It seems like HTC once again will adopt the LCD panel instead of AMOLED. HTC is amongst those OEMs who are bringing smartphones with LCD panels for years that's why you can expect a pretty good LCD panel from HTC.

The alleged specs sheet suggests the U12+ display also supports HDR 10, its certainly not something surprising but instead becoming a norm in new flagships in the market.

The well-known HTC source @LlabTooFer also reveal few specs details of U12+ but the Blass listing of U12+ confirms almost everything regarding the device specs sheet. Like most of the latest flagships, the U12+ is powered up by the Qualcomm's Octa-core Snapdragon 845 chipset with 6GB RAM and built-in storage of base variant will be 64GB. There will be a top-tier variant with 256GB storage. Its native storage will be further expandable using MicroSD card. These specs confirm the U12+ will be amongst the most powerful flagships of this year. As mentioned above the 64GB variant is initially confirmed for the European customers only.

HTC Imagine
CPU SD845
Display 5.99 QHD+
RAM up to 6GB
ROM up to 256GB
Dual Main Camera 12mp + 16mp (Sony IMX3xx)
Front Camera 8mp
Battery 3420mah
IP68
HTC Face Unlock
Edge Sense 2.0
Android 8.0 + Sense 10
Full treble support and A/B (Seamless) Updates
Single and Dual SIM version

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) March 4, 2018

As far as battery cell is a concern there are two types of reports. The first one suggests the device will be running on a 3,420mAh battery but latest leaks indicate the battery cell will be 3,500mAh. No matter which one is accurate but both falls in above average category.

As per Focus Taiwan report the U12+ top of the line variant will have 128GB storage instead of 256GB. However, they reiterated all other specs sheet. Last year HTC ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of USB-C port. We can expect U12+ will also have USB-C USonic headphones. For the top-notch audio experience, the device will feature BoomSound Hi-Fi edition. Considering the specs sheet we can claim the U12+ falls in premium flagships category.

HTC is cleaning their Sense UI for some time that's why with each new iteration we find less bloatware UI. HTC ditched many services and apps in favor of stock Android. However, you can expect custom camera app, few bloatware apps, and BlinkFeed. The leaked specs sheet confirms the arrival of Android P update but it won't be surprising considering its the latest flagship smartphone.

Last year Edge Sense feature was so liked by Google that they brought this feature to their Pixel 2 series. This year HTC will be bringing Edge Sense 2.0 so we can expect a number of new features. Apart from regular fingerprint scanner, the U12+ will feature facial recognition Aka Face Unlock. HTC introduced this feature with the U11 Eyes and this year it will be available on U12+.

Last year U11 was one of its kind smartphones with three Assistants on board including Alexa, Google Assistant and HTC Sense. So we can expect once again HTC will bring all three assistants.

Wallpaper #00 #HTCU12PLUS https://t.co/rJLRtDY9rs pic.twitter.com/liAo9UALwn

— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) May 9, 2018

Last year HTC confirmed they are bringing dual cameras setup once again in 2018. From what we know so far the U12+ will have dual cameras on both front and rear side. According to Blass, the rear primary sensor will be 12MP whereas the secondary sensor will be 16MP. The primary sensor is an Ultrapixel 4 sensor with f/1.75 aperture and the pixels size is 1.4µm whereas the secondary sensor aperture size is f/2.6 with Optical image stabilization up to 2x.

Back in 2014 HTC was amongst the first OEMs who brought flagship M8 smartphone with dual rear cameras. The specs sheet confirms the dual sensors brings bokeh mode and all other goodies of dual sensors. Up front the U12+ will also have dual rear cameras like the HTC Eyes. The dual front cameras will be 8MP modules with f/2.0 aperture.

Almost everything regarding the U12+ is know so we can't expect something extraordinary at the announcement. Most likely the company will reveal regarding the availability and price details at the launch on May 23rd. So stay tuned, we will keep you updated.