The HTC U 11 will go on sale in the company’s home country of Taiwan on May 19 and be priced at 19,900 New Taiwan dollars or just over $659, industry sources said on Saturday. The Taoyuan-based consumer electronics manufacturer previously confirmed it will officially launch its latest Android flagship on Tuesday, May 16, so the aforementioned retail release date likely only denotes the start of the pre-order period for the device, even though the source didn’t clarify on the matter. Regardless, with the HTC U 11 being only days away from its official unveiling, the handset is widely expected to launch in Taiwan by the end of the month and become available in a wide variety of other markets come June.
Following months of leaks and rumors, the HTC U 11 once again surfaced online earlier this week as part of a new Geekbench listing. According to that source and numerous previous reports on the handset, the company’s upcoming flagship will ship with the Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip, Qualcomm’s first 10nm piece of silicon that’s equipped with the Adreno 540 graphics chip. The device is said to boast a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 16-megapixel front sensor, as well as 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage space that will presumably be expandable via a microSD card slot. Furthermore, the HTC U 11 is said to sport a 5.5-inch display panel with a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, indicating that the screen of the handset will feature a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio. Apart from a 3,000mAh non-removable battery and IP57 certification, HTC’s next high-end smartphone is expected to ship with Edge Sensors that will allow users to interact with the HTC U 11 by touching the edges of its case in various manners. Finally, the smartphone is expected to launch with Android 7.1.1 Nougat running out of the box, coupled with the latest version of HTC’s Sense software suite.
Seeing how the HTC U 11 is scheduled to be officially announced in only three days, it won’t be long before the Taiwanese phone maker confirms or denies the aforementioned details on the device. It remains to be seen whether the company’s struggling phone unit finally manages to bounce back from its recent troubles with the HTC U 11, but an update on its efforts to do so will likely follow soon.