HTC Is Going To Launch The U24 Pro On June 12th
HTC hasn’t been on hiatus, but in a sense, the company is only a shell of what it used to be. They no longer attempt to compete at the high end with flagship devices akin to the HTC One. They also don’t bother with releasing a large selection of smartphones each year. Instead, there’s a carefully curated handful that maxes out at the midrange.
The highest-specced device that HTC currently offers is the HTC U23 Pro, and it looks like this announcement will be for the sequel to that device; the HTC U24 Pro. We previously reported on the HTC U24 Pro being spotted on Geekbench back in April, and it looks like the device’s time to shine has finally come. HTC isn’t being too overt, but the #ALLFORU hashtag that accompanied the image gives enough away.
We don’t know too much about the smartphone beyond some basic facts like it is expected to come with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip along with 12GB of RAM. We also know that it is going to come with a similar FHD+ panel as its predecessor, with Android 14 and Bluetooth 5.3. The device launched in Europe at about €550, which comes to about $600.
The device will be unveiled on June 12th at 8 AM local time in Taiwan. However, don’t expect its release to extend past select Asian and European markets.
The HTC U Series Used To Be Flagship-Grade; What Changed?
I remember the HTC U11 came out some point after HTC’s flagship One line started to die out, and the U series seemed to be the likely replacement for that. For the most part, it really did seem that way as the HTC U11 and HTC U12 devices aimed for flagship specs, though they weren’t really big contenders in that market anymore. I’m not sure what caused HTC’s decline (or I’ve never really tried to figure it out).
HTC released the U19e as the only U device in 2019, and that seemed to be the decline of the series to less than flagship-level ambitions. In fact, you could say it was the decline of the manufacturer to less than flagship-level ambitions, as no HTC phone after that point has used a flagship chip.
Maybe this midrange strategy is working out for HTC, but it’s a bit sad seeing one of the former greats not getting as much spotlight as it should. Also, I think the “Pro” nomenclature gives the idea of a bit more power than what the U23 Pro delivered and what the U24 Pro is likely to deliver.
