HTC plans the HTC 11 with Snapdragon 835, 6GB RAM, dual-camera and 3,700mAh battery!
Another leak for the HTC 11 has emerged, with a screenshot of the phone's display showing the device's "About Phone" screen in Android naming it as the HTC 11. The image show the handset has 6GB RAM and reiterates the earlier rumour of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. The claim of 6GB RAM contradicts earlier rumours of 8GB RAM, though it's plausible, if somewhat unlikely, that there may be multiple RAM variants.
Other key specs are also revealed, including a new Sense 9.0 UI overlay on top of Android "7.12" Nougat, 128GB of onboard storage, and a slightly odd 1556x2550 pixel resolution on the display. Could the display resolution mean that, like Samsung and LG, HTC is adopting an 18:9 aspect ratio for 4K multimedia? We should point out that we've not heard of a 7.12 build for Nougat before, so that's a little suspicious.
Interestingly, a leak picked up by HTCSource seems to indicate that US network Verizon is currently preparing to begin testing an HTC smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. Allegedly it also has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a dual-camera on the rear comprising both 24MP and 13MP sensors. The front-facing camera is said to be a 16MP setup and the handset will have a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, as well as the Sense Companion Assistant AI from the HTC U Ultra. Other features include Type-C USB and BoomSound speakers.
The HTC 11 has leaked in specs and rendered image form via Chinese social media, on the Weibo network.
For what it's worth, the tipster says the handset will have a 5.5in QHD display, up from the HTC 10's 5.2in screen size but preserving the resolution and NOT reaching for any of that fancypants, battery-draining 4K jiggery-pokery. Processing power is said to come from a 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, which makes a lot of sense considering most of HTC's power plants have been Qualcomm units; this chip is arriving in the first half of 2017 so that might be an indication that the HTC 11 might come around the middle of the year or thereabouts.
Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 tech is also on-board, allegedly. For memory there is a massive 8GB of RAM tipped, alongside 256GB of storage, considering 128GB storage and 6GB of RAM is yet to become the norm across the Android space this is the one set of specs that smells slightly off, but then again it's not outside the realms of possibility either, so we'll give it a pass for now.
And Qualcomm's next-generation chipset, which will be built by Samsung, is shaping up to be quite the monster as well.
"Qualcomm sort of announced the Snapdragon 835 last month but without going into specifics - Samsung will manufacture it on a 10nm process and it'll feature QuickCharge 4.0, that's about it. Good thing there's GFXBench to shed some light on the insides of the SoC," reports GSM Arena.
It added: "For one, it packs an octa-core CPU, clocked at up to 2.2GHz. The current Snapdragon 821 has half the number of cores, 2 of them clocked at 2.35GHz, the other 2 capped at 2.2GHz. We can only imagine what a beast the future chip would be with 8 Kryo cores."
The imaging hardware is claimed to include a 12MP primary and an 8MP front-facing secondary, the render supplied with the specs seems to show the rear setup has a dual-lens, but this is not confirmed by the spec sheet, so we just don't know for sure at this stage, feasibly it could be a different type of sensor or module, but at the same time, dual-lenses are all the rage.
Lastly, we're supposedly looking at a 3,700mAh battery cell, which is pretty hefty to say the least.
HTC's president of smartphones and connected devices, Chailin Chang has conducted an interview with tech news publication Tbreak, during which he revealed some interesting titbits about the firm's plans for the rest of 2017 and beyond.
According to Chang, HTC's U Ultra smartphone probably isn't the last flagship category device for the OEM to launch this year. We've previously heard from a Forbes report how Samsung's hoarding of the 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors it produces on Qualcomm's behalf has created a shortage - a shortage which means the LG G6 and HTC U Ultra were forced to make do with the Snapdragon 821.
Allegedly, supply of the S835 will increase enough for other OEMs besides Samsung to get in on the action after the Galaxy S8 launches in April. With all that in mind, Chang alluded to HTC launching an S835 powered flagship this year, which may well be the HTC 11.
"Every time there is a brand new CPU with power that we can leverage, we're always at the forefront doing that. Some people are talking about the timing [of our release] but timing was determined 9 months ago. This is the best CPU out there. When the next flagship CPU comes, HTC will be one of the very first tier doing that."
"When we will look back, it will be clear why HTC introduced [these new phones.] We want to have a couple of months of leadership before the next flagship CPU comes. But that will be in another period of time- not at MWC. Not for us or any other player. I can tell you that for sure. When the new CPU comes, HTC will have another flagship," he added.
Of course he doesn't explicity name-drop the HTC 11 or the Snapdragon 835, but reading between the lines that's likely what he's referring to. The long and the short of it is HTC wants to release a best-in-class flagship-level phone this year, and the S835 will enable that, but not until HTC can get hands on the chip after April. That would mean at the earliest we could see a launch perhaps in June, but even that feels a little generous as far as schedules are concerned. We could be looking at something towards the latter half of the year, perhaps August, more realistically.
On top of this, Chang talked a bit about a current hot topic - AI Assistants. Interestingly, having recently heard that the LG G6 might be the first Android handset apart from the Pixel series to pack Google's own Google Assistant, HTC might also be looking to implement Google's AI package rather than coming up with its own, as Samsung is doing with Bixby.
With LG having worked closely with Google on the Nexus project, it seems there may be something to do with OEMs who have a closer relationship with the Android creator. HTC, of course, helped create the Pixel series, and according to Chang there will be a deepening of that partnership moving forward; the use of Google Assistant, it seems, might form part of that.
"At some point it will come [to our phones] when its ready. Google wants HTC to do Google Assistant so it can spread to get big data and allow them many things. They want us to incorporate the Assistant in a standard, prominent way. We will use that, but that's on the cloud. Beyond that, there's a lot of device information that can be helpful to a consumer which we want to provide [with our AI]," said Chang.
This is all apparently in spite of HTC's emphasis of its own HTC Sense Companion AI assistant during the launch of the HTC U Ultra.
He added that HTC and Google are "working on multiple things," and that "there's always a different product."
Read into that what you will!
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