HTC Returns From The Dead With A New Android Phone, And It Actually Looks Good

Most Americans may not realize it, but Taiwanese tech company and once giant Android manufacturer HTC still makes smartphones. It's just that, five years ago, HTC largely abandoned the U.S. market — when HTC launched the only phone listed on its current American-facing website: the blockchain-centric Exodus. A July 2019 Wired article suggests that, among other reasons, devoting itself to carrier exclusives — as well as pricing its phones way higher than its competition — hurt the HTC brand in both the U.S. and China.

However, in the interim, HTC has continued to put out new phones both at home in Taiwan, and in the European Union. On Wednesday, the company introduced its newest Android handset: the HTC U24 Pro, a mid-range phone that retails for €564.00 in Europe (about $612 in USD, as of this writing), and $18,990 in New Taiwan dollars (approximately $589 in USD). Though it's priced as a midrange phone, HTC's EU-centric webpage for the U24 Pro seems to be pushing it as having a feature set that punches above its weight — particularly when it comes to the three rear cameras, including a 50MP telephoto camera. 

If nothing else, the photos that HTC claims were shot on a U24 Pro do, in fact, look really pretty. In light of that, let's take a look at how this new phone is actually spec'd out and see if — on paper — it has the potential to live up to the hype.

At its heart, the HTC U24 Pro is built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 system-on-a-chip. That's not as fast as the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in benchmarks, but for most people — and in a mid-range phone — it should hold its own, and it rates well when it comes to energy efficiency. Those guts aside, the specs that HTC is touting sound flagship-y enough for this phone to be pretty intriguing. 

Out in front, it's got a 6.8-inch OLED display at FHD+ (1080x2436) resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR support. The screen also sports a two-color notification LED, a welcome feature that many flagships lack. The three rear cameras, including the 50MP telephoto, come together for a 2x optical zoom — pretty impressive for a non-flagship, and they're joined by a 50MP front camera, as well.

When it comes to storage, memory, and port flexibility, the U24 Pro is arguably ahead some flagships. The phone ships with 12GB of DDR5 RAM and 256GB of onboard storage, but it also has a microSD card slot supporting up to SDXC capacities, and it even has a 3.5mm analog headphone jack as well. The battery is a pretty beefy 4,600 mAh, and it can be charged pretty quickly; supporting both USB Power Delivery 3.0 and Qualcomm QuickCharge 4.0 up to 60 watts. Qi wireless charging is also supported at up to 15W. It's even got an IP67 rating for dust and water-proofing, meaning it's dust tight and can survive being submerged up to one meter deep for up to 30 minutes.

The HTC U24 Pro ships on June 30 in Taiwan. The European Union version does not have a release date listed just yet.