HTC's newest flagship, the HTC U12+, has been officially announced, coming with a 6-inch Quad HD+ (2880 x 1440) Super LCD 6 display and pressure-sensing buttons.

HTC latest handset is powered by a Snapdragon 845 SoC, has 6GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of storage, Android 8.0, and a 3500mAh battery. The six-inch 2880x1440 LCD display has an 18:9 aspect ratio, and the phone skips out on the notch trend. You also get a MicroSD slot, stereo "boom sound" speakers, and IP68 water resistance, but no headphone jack.

There are also two front-facing 8MP cameras now, so you can do selfie-portraits. The back features a fingerprint reader and dual cameras. You also get a 12MP main camera and a 16MP sensor with a 2x optical zoom.

In terms of design, the phone's back is glass, so you have the downside of the device being a fragile fingerprint magnet.

Continuing the pressure sensing elements that started with last year's HTC U11 "active edge," the new device has now volume and power buttons that are totally solid and part of the phone shell. Depending on the pressure you apply, the phone is sensing when you want to activate them.

HTC's squeezy sides have been upgraded from "Active Edge" to "Active Edge 2," and now the phone can tell when it is being held in addition to being squeezed. A squeeze will still launch a shortcut like the Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or whatever you program it to do. When holding the phone one-handed, you can now tap on the side twice with your thumb, which will shrink the screen down into one-handed mode. The screen will shrink toward the side of the phone you tapped on, enabling an easy left- or right-handed one-handed mode.

The touch-sensitive sides can be also used to help with auto rotate: if you are touching the left and right side, the phone won't switch to landscape, no matter the orientation. If the phone is sideways and you let go of the sides-like say when holding the top and bottom of the phone for landscape-then it will rotate.

In the US, the HTC U12+ will support AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. It will also be sold unlocked on HTC.com and Amazon, with pre-orders starting 5/23. The 64GB version is $799 USD, while the 128GB version will run you $849.

Specifications

FINISH

• Translucent Blue, Ceramic Black, Flame Red

DESIGN

• Height: 156.6mm
• Width: 73.9mm
• Depth: 8.7 mm - 9.7mm (camera height included)
• Weight: 188g 73.9mm 8.7 mm - 9.7mm 156.6mm

MAIN DISPLAY

• Size: 6 inch Super LCD 6
• Resolution: Quad HD+ (2880 x 1440 pixels, 18:9)
• PPI: Pixel density at 537 ppi (pixel per inch)
• Color gamut: DCI-P3, sRGB, Color personalization
• HDR: HDR 10 support
• Notification: Smart display 6 "

CPU

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, 64 bit octa-core, up to 2.8 Ghz

CAMERA

• Main Camera:
  • UltraSpeed Autofocus 2 ( Phase detection + Laser autofocus)
  • Photos support optical zoom 1.85x to 2x and digital zoom up to 10x
  • HDR Boost 2
  • Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
  • Bokeh mode
  • Dual LED flash AR sticker
  • Self timer up to 10 seconds
  • Face detection Pro mode with manual control, 32 sec. long exposure and RAW format support
  • Panorama
  • 12MP Wide-angle camera with HTC UltraPixel 4
  • Pixel size 1.4μm
  • Aperture ?/1.75
  • 16MP Telephoto camera
  • Pixel size 1.0μm
  • Aperture ?/2.6
• Front Camera:
  • Wide angle 84° field of view
  • Bokeh mode
  • AR sticker
  • HDR Boost
  • Face unlock
  • Screen flash
  • Auto Selfie
  • Self timer up to 10 seconds
  • Live make-up (beautification mode)
  • Selfie Panorama
  • Dual 8MP camera
  • Pixel size 1.12μm
  • Aperture ?/2.0

VIDEO RECORDING

• Main Camera
  • 4K video recording at 60fps
  • High quality audio recording, 96kHz, 24bit Sonic Zoom, Audio Boost, and 3D Audio recording with 4 microphones
  • AR sticker
  • 8 megapixel still photos while recording 4K video
  • Slow motion video (1080P@240fps)
  • Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) + Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS)
  • Hyperlapse
• Front Camera:
  • Full HD 1080p video recording
  • AR sticker

HTC EDGE SENSE 2

• Squeeze to access apps or control the phone
• Double tap for a mini screen for easy one-handed use, or as a back key or a navigation bar
• Hold for Smart rotate and Smart dim
• Customizable gestures to launch camera, voice assistant, turn on flashlight, and more.

SOUND

• HTC USonic with Active Noise Cancellation
• Hi-Res Audio certified Qualcomm aptX HD, LDAC up to 32-bit high resolution wireless audio via Bluetooth

VOICE

• Always listening support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa
• Activity Reader automatically reads out SMS messages from contacts, calendar events, and incoming caller ID through your headphones. (Headphone compatibility may vary.)

MEMORY

• Embedded RAM: 6GB ROM: 64GB / 128GB
• Expandable memory microSD (SDHC , SDXC) (Use SIM2)
  

PLATFORM

Android 8.0 Oreo with HTC Sense

WATER AND DUST RESISTANT IP68

BATTERY AND CHARGING SPEED

• Capacity - Nominal: 3500mAh; Rated: 3420mAh
• Extreme power saving mode
• Talk time on 3G/4G network: up to 23.8 Hours
• Fast charging with Quick Charge 3.0 in box. Up to 50% charge in 35 minutes.
• Power saving mode

CONNECTIVITY

• NFC
• HTC Connect for streaming media from the phone to compatible Chromecast, DLNA, AirPlay, Miracast Devices
• Bluetooth 5
• USB 3.1 Gen 1, Type-C
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz) with MU-MIMO
• Supports DisplayPort over USB type-C

LOCATION

• GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou

BUTTONS

• New Pressure Sensitive Buttons and a new touch feedback experience

SENSORS

• Ambient light sensor
• Magnetic sensor Proximity sensor
• Fingerprint Sensor
• Motion G-sensor
• Sensor Hub
• Compass sensor
• Edge sensor
• Gyro sensor

HTC SENSE COMPANION

• Suggestions or helpful information based on your interests and daily activities

GESTURE AND OTHERS

• Motion Launch Pocket mode
• Sensor Hub for activity tracking
• Flip to mute
• Quiet ring on pick up

SIM CARD AND MOBILE NETWORKING

• Single Nano SIM
• Cat. 18 Gigabit LTE, download up to 1.2 Gbps, upload up to 150 Mbps (up to 5CA Carrier Aggregation and 4x4 MIMO), Carrier dependent
• Dual LTE (both SIM supports LTE)
• 2G/2.5G - GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• 3G UMTS AWS/850/900/1900/2100 (B4/B5/B8/B2/B1); HSDPA 42, HSUPA 5.76
• 4G LTE FDD: Bands B4/B12/B17/B28/B20/B5/B8/B3/B1/B7/B32/B2/B13/B66 TDD: Bands B39/B40/B38/B41 VoLTE, Wi-Fi Calling