Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC recently launched its first blockchain-focused smartphone, dubbed Exodus 1. The struggling company now appears to be working on a new budget-oriented smartphone, bearing the model number 2Q72XXX. While no details regarding the key features of the upcoming smartphone are available currently, it recently received certification from the Bluetooth SIG, hinting at an imminent launch. The upcoming smartphone has now been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance as well.
HTC 2Q7200000 Gets Certified by Wi-Fi Alliance, Spotted on Geekbench
The Wi-Fi certification does not really tell us anything more about the upcoming HTC smartphone than what was revealed by the Bluetooth certification. It confirms that the upcoming smartphone runs on an octa-core Snapdragon 435 processor under the hood. In terms of software, the smartphone is revealed to be running on Android 8.1 Oreo and not the latest 9.0 Pie version. Just like other smartphones powered by a Snapdragon 435 chipset, the HTC ‘2Q7200000’ will support Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n standards. Since the smartphone has now been certified both by Bluetooth SIG and Wi-Fi Alliance, there is a chance that it may be officially announced very soon. While most of its spec sheet remains a complete mystery currently, we expect to find out more about it in the days to come.
The smartphone has also been spotted on the Geekbench benchmark database, which re-confirms the presence of a Snapdragon 435 processor. In terms of memory, the smartphone will include 3GB of RAM.
HTC 2Q72XXX Granted Bluetooth Certification
The HTC 2Q72XXX listing on the Bluetooth Launch Studio website does not include a lot of information about the smartphone. However, it does tell us that the smartphone will be running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 octa-core processor under the hood. The Snapdragon 435 is a 28nm processor announced by Qualcomm in late 2016. While it is more powerful than the older Snapdragon 400-series chipsets, we are not exactly sure if consumers will be excited about an HTC smartphone running on a Snapdragon 435 SoC in late 2018. Since it is not an all-new chipset, it only supports the older Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy standard. Apart from the name of the processor and the Bluetooth version number, the listing does not include any other relevant information. However, the certification does suggest that HTC is ready to launch the budget Android smartphone very soon. We expect it to make an appearance on a few other global certification agencies very soon, which could reveal some other details regarding the smartphone’s hardware specifications. Going by the Desire 12 announced in March this year, it is possible that the HTC 2Q72XXX may feature an HD+ resolution display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. While the Desire 12 has a single camera at the rear, we expect to see a dual-camera setup on the upcoming 2Q72XXX. In terms of software, the smartphone will likely ship with the Android 8.1 Oreo operating system out of the box.
Thanks to its poor financial health, HTC has shrunk its smartphone portfolio significantly in the recent past. In 2018, the Taiwanese company has launched only six new smartphones so far. Unfortunately, however, a smaller portfolio isn’t helping the company much. In September, HTC reported a revenue drop of a whopping 80.81% year-on-year.
