Dubai
Taiwanese manufacturer HTC says it is serious about the smartphone industry and confident of gaining market share despite facing stiff competition.
“We will grow our business step by step as we have the right partnerships in place. The industry will hear in the future about some different partnerships which we are going to do. I believe it is all about strengthening our presence in the market and be relevant in the smartphone and virtual reality space,” Ramit Harisinghani, vice-president and head of Middle East and Africa at HTC, told Gulf News after launching its flagship — U12+ — in Dubai late Wednesday.
The six-inch LCD display with a resolution of 2880×1440 pixels is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and 3,500mAh battery.
HTC has upgraded its squeeze technology called “Edge Sense”, introduced in HTC U11, by using sensors embedded in the frame of the phone that will allow users to squeeze the sides of the frame to perform actions.
It has a tap, short squeeze and long squeeze — to perform different actions such as take photos, turn LED lights on or turn Google Assistant on, and this can be adjusted in the settings of the phone. All this can be done when the screen is locked.
The other key features are BoomSound, 3D audio recording, HDR Boost 2 and Sonic Zoom which lets you “zoom in” on a sound or voice to get the perfect sound without background noise.
Harisinghani said the device is also VR ready for the Vive Focus with a phone call and notification sync, plus mirror mode to turn the smartphone into your own personal VR theatre.
Regarding cameras, it has a dual set-up, both in the front and the back. The rear has 12MP and 16MP lens while the front has dual 8MP lens.
DxOMark, which measures the performance of a camera’s lens and sensors, rated HTC U12+ with score of 103 points. Higher scores indicate better overall camera quality. It surpassed recently launched Samsung Galaxy S9+ at 99 and Huawei P20 at 102, but Huawei’s P20 Pro is ranked tops with 109 points.
The U12+ will be available in three colours (translucent blue, ceramic black and flame red) and priced at Dh3,449. It will be available from June 12.
Harisinghani said that it is not a cheap phone as technology comes at a price.
“Carrying a phone with one or two features is different from carrying a phone with one of the best cameras, best audio, design and edge sensing. When you look into all of these, it is value for money. It is targeted at professionals who want an unrivalled technology at their fingertips and do not want to compromise on quality,” he said.
The company reported a profit of around $710 million in the first quarter of this year after 11 consecutive quarters in the red, but due to $1.1 billion R&D acquisition deal with Google.
Google completed the acquisition of the team who worked on Google’s Pixel hardware in January.
Harisinghani said that Google deal has given us the advantage to reoptimise and reassess our situation, and given us the chance to deal with new technologies such as industry’s best virtual reality headsets — Vive — and in mobility.
“I am super positive about the future of the company. We still have a focus on smartphones and have a team dedicated to manufacturing smartphones. We are around 20 years in the smartphone business and proud of our legacy. There is no denying that the competition has been tough and that is why we have our flagship U12 + and the Desire series,” he said.
“What we are doing now with our smartphones is that show a glimpse of what we can do in the hardware segment,” he added.
