Last year, HTC released two high-end smartphones: the U11 (in May), and the U11+ (in November). Neither handset has attracted a significant number of customers, and perhaps that’s why HTC is reportedly trying a different strategy this year.

According to HTC Source, the recently seen HTC U12+ will be the company’s only flagship (high-end) phone of 2018. Thus, as previously assumed, a non-plus, regular HTC U12 doesn’t seem to be in the making. Instead, HTC is allegedly planning to launch a U12 life - similar to the HTC U11 life of 2017, this should be an affordable, mid-range device.

The HTC U12+ is expected to be released in early May in many parts of the word - most probably, this includes the US. HTC Source has it that the smartphone could be priced competitively, possibly costing about as much as a Samsung Galaxy S9 (around $700), while offering specs comparable to those of the more expensive Galaxy S9+ (priced at over $800). However, at the moment, confidence in this particular detail isn’t too high.

The HTC U12+ should bring a plethora of high-end features, including a 6-inch, Quad HD+ display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, dual cameras (both on the rear, and front), 6 GB of RAM, and up to 128 GB of internal memory.

I just hope they keep producing high quality audio amps in their phones. The DAC headphone amps are what keep me coming back to HTC, music sounds like garbage on any other phone. Thanks for sharing.