HTC U20 5G Impressions: Back from the dead? By Android Central

I'll be honest back when I reviewed the HTC you 12-plus almost two years ago, I fully expected it to be the last major HTC phone I talked about here on the Android central channel. HTC's phone business was swirling in the drain and the Utah plus itself would lose with show-stopping bugs that effectively made the product DOA, but HTC as a business is still here and, to my surprise, it's still making phones. Today it announced a pair of new handsets for its home market of Taiwan, the Desire 20 pro an entry-level mid-range farther. For the purposes of this video I, don't really care about, and this is the HTC? U 25g! So what is this phone, and what does it mean for the future of HTC? The name clearly makes it sound like a successor to the u12 plus, but let's not get too carried away just yet externally. The HTC! U 25g, is a pretty generic. Looking 2020 smartphone with its bunch displaying quad cameras along with surprising throwback design elements like a capacitive rear, fingerprint scanner and a hefty chin down below what makes this phone more modern is its spec sheets, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765, G, 8, gigabytes of RAM, 256, gigs of storage, 5g connectivity and a gigantic five thousand William hour battery for a phone brand that was largely considered dead and buried.

That's not a bad looking device for just shy of 19,000 NT in Taiwan. That's around 600 US dollars! If you look at it alongside, perhaps the LG velvet or the upcoming Google Pixel 5, it sounds like a fairly competitive device and speaking of the pixel 5, it's fun to remember that the people designing this thing would have been working in the very same building as Google's pixel 5 engineering team. That's the HTC HQ building that it now shares with Google engineers, not that you should necessarily read anything into that. HTC is less than dignified exit from the high-end phone segment. A couple of years ago involved a phone with glitchy virtual buttons and stale software redeemed by some of the best cameras of its generation, but the selling off of HTC's phone R&D division to Google a couple of years back will surely have affected the company's ability to produce a competitive, smartphone camera.

There's no mention of the HDR boost feature that made the u 12s camera so great. Instead, HTC focuses on the video stabilization capabilities of its new camera, the 48 megapixel shooter, that's likely a Sony, AMX 586 or similar as the sensor used in the OnePlus 7 pro and many other 2019 flagships, decent, but no outstanding, and that seems to apply to just about everything this phone does. At least judging by the details revealed today. There's also the question of the software. Even back in 2017, HTC Sense looked absolutely prehistoric compared to the software design of its contemporaries.

Little of the u-20 software has actually been shown. Besides, the lock screen, which looks exactly like it did three or four years ago. I would also put money on the same tired load out of first party apps being preloaded on this thing, including core apps, untouched from the HTC One m9, and whether animations that date back to the HTC Sensation almost a decade ago. So, if you couldn't tell I'm not exactly optimistic about what HTC might be doing on the software front, so why is HTC even making phones in 2020? Well, it's first worth remembering that the U 25g is only launching in Taiwan for now. So, unless you fancy importing one for a bit of a nostalgic fun, it's unlikely you'll be able to get your hands on one anytime soon, however, HTC CEO, no HTC's parent, CEO, Yves Metro, has at least hinted at a wider launch for future HTC phones, saying in a tweet today that the company's re-entry into the smartphone business would be starting in its home market.

In previous interviews, the CEOs admitted the company dropped the ball and smartphone innovation, stating the obvious there perhaps and incumbents in the past six months, he's also revealed that new phones would be coming, including a 5g model and look as a former executive VP at orange. He certainly has plenty of smoke on industry experience if you're looking for a big splashy, dare I, say triumphant return for this once-great smartphone brand. That's definitely not what we have here with the u-20. It looks like a fine phone, but there's nothing exciting about it. On the face of things outside the smartphone note brand value that HTC still holds for some people.

Instead, this is HTC dipping its toe back in the smartphone waters, using the resources it still has. Maybe now with different leadership and humbler ambitions, it could actually carve out a niche market, but in order for that to happen, it needs to avoid the pattern of failures in leadership in marketing and in engineering that sent it from being one of the world's biggest smartphone brands to a fossil of its former self. So as HTC back from the dead. Well from the look of this, it was really more hibernation than a death. The HTC VR business is still ticking along.

After all, these are the first high-profile HTC phones in years and clearly there's some ambition to cell phones overseas, again, eventually, if they catch on, but HTC couldn't cell phones in meaningful numbers, even when it had the brand value and engineering clout to make proper flagships, and now it's trying to do that while effectively having to start from scratch with very limited resources. So I guess it's a case of wait and see. Let us know in the comments what you think of this new HTC sort of flagship. Is this the start of a rebirth for the brand or just a waste of time and money by all means subscribe, I, guess on the off chance, we actually get some hands-on time with this phone. In the meantime, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time you.

Source : Android Central