HTC is among the expected participants in the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 later this February, but it is still up in the air if what flagship device will the Shenzhen-based tech firm showcase during the convention. Nevertheless, the rumors are rife that the HTC U12 will be the one to get the spotlight in the coming weeks, as evidenced by the latest spotting of a mysterious HTC smartphone at the 5G event in Taiwan.
As reported by The Verge, HTC has recently showcased an unnamed handset at a 5G event, which boasts significant internet speed with the gigabit Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. Although the particular handset made an appearance at a 5G expo, it does not appear that the potential HTC U12 device relies solely on 5G feature. The gigabit LTE used by the smartphone is known as the Licensed Assisted Access or LAA, which is the combination of the current LTE tech with the unlicensed 5GHz Wi-Fi band for additional bandwidth. The result of this is a significant boost in network connectivity.
The rumored HTC U12 presented at the 5G event in Taiwan last week is likely to be powered by a high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. To note, the LAA feature is supported by the current Snapdragon 835 processor, but for the successor of the U11, it is possible that the smartphone will use the latest Snapdragon 845 chip instead.
Meanwhile, the ever-reliable tech tipster Evan Blass believes that the mystery HTC phone at the 5G showcase event is none other than the U12 itself. The handset appears to have an all-screen display with very minimal bezels and 18:9 aspect ratio, suggesting that the device is a high-end product like the U11 Plus. There are no screen buttons visible in the front panel, thus the HTC U12 is expected to have the fingerprint sensor at the rear side. It is also possible that the handset will have an in-display sensor.
