HTC Desire 12 Said to Be an Entry-Level Phone With 18:9 Display

Taiwanese phone maker HTC might be looking to unveil its latest smartphone dubbed the "HTC Desire 12" in 2018. According to online reports, this will be an entry-level smartphone with a full screen, 18:9 aspect ratio display and an affordable price tag. We can expect the smartphone to be announced at MWC 2018 in Barcelona, considering the flagship HTC U12 is not likely to be unveiled at the tech show.

Renowned tipster Evan Blass took to Twitter earlier this month to reveal specifications of an upcoming HTC phone codenamed "Breeze". In another tweet on Wednesday, however, Blass claimed that this phone would "come to market as the HTC Desire 12." While he mentioned no details around the launch or availability, he did mention that it could be an entry-level phone and that "it should be priced to reflect that."

He also mentioned that the Desire 12 will sport a 5.5-inch display (full-HD+ or HD+), a MediaTek SoC, 2GB RAM, 16GB inbuilt storage, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. There could also be a 2730mAh battery under the hood. No word on the operating system; optimistically, we could expect Android Oreo out-of-the-box.

The leak comes at a time when the Taiwanese OEM's smartphone chief Chialin Chang resigned citing a "personal career plan", although the decision has been linked to Google's recent acquisition of HTC's phone division.

Back in December last year, HTC had announced its decision to launch a limited number of smartphones in 2018. Separately, Android Police claims that the HTC U12 might not be launched at MWC 2018, and instead arrive at another event to be held in March or April this year. This could be to avoid any kind of overshadowing from the presence of Samsung's Galaxy S9 duo at the Barcelona tech show later this month.

We spoke about all the big launches expected at MWC 2018 on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.