HTC is eager to show their chops this year, and it started the year off with the HTC U Ultra, which is supposed to be their current flagship. Now, it’s rumoured that they will be making a second flagship slated to release sometime later this year with more updated specs to keep in with the current premium performance standard.
According to a recent report by Phone Arena, the president of HTC, Chialin Chang was addressed with concerns regarding the U Ultra’s outdated last-year specs, with it having the older Snapdragon 821. He confidently stated that there was no need to worry since the Taiwanese phone maker will be prepping its line-up for another flagship in the later part of 2017, which should feature the latest and greatest CPU of the current timeline.
As for why the U Ultra was released in 2017 despite its seemingly outdated specs, Chang replied that the release was already planned nine months ago, and that was when the flagship CPU had come out. With that understanding, if HTC were to plan ahead for bringing out its next flagship, it would then probably release a phone that might run the Snapdragon 835 – the current flagship CPU. By the time the phone would release, another better CPU might come out as well, right?
As of now the 835 will find its way to the Galaxy S6 – one of the first phones to receive the chipset. HTC will not be making any big flagship announcement at the MWC however. Instead, the company will wait it out and plan ahead so they can make a phone that packs the latest internals before everyone else in the market.
The tricky part about flagships is that the term only remains temporary – that lasts perhaps for a couple of months until the next best CPU comes out. Nowadays, due to the rapid increase in production and innovation in the development of chipsets, newer, more capable and smarter CPUs are being manufactured almost every 3-4 months apart, making it difficult for manufacturers to gauge how long their next big phones will last until they become redundant again.
Right now, it’s a waiting game for big players like LG, Samsung and HTC who are trying to make do with what they have at their disposal. It brings to mind what Sony used to do back then with their Xperia line-up – making two flagships every year so that they always remain up to date. Will that pay of for HTC though?
COMMENTS