HTC is not dead yet, preparing a new mid-range phone that actually sounds promising
2016's HTC 10 was the company's last well-reviewed smartphone
It's hard to even recall the last time we were genuinely excited about a new or upcoming HTC smartphone, not to mention the company's last well-reviewed product. As revenues dropped again and again, reaching an embarrassing total of around $333 million for the entire year of 2019, HTC released fewer and fewer handsets in fewer and fewer markets.
You'd definitely be forgiven for assuming these confusingly branded and instantly forgettable mid-rangers foreshadowed the company's industry exit, but at least for the time being, that doesn't seem to be happening. According to an extremely reliable source of inside information on HTC devices, the faltering Taiwan-based tech giant still has at least one more smartphone "in the pipeline."
Because old habits die hard, this is purportedly called HTC Desire 20 Pro, which suggests a strong family resemblance of sorts to last year's terribly mediocre Desire 19s and Desire 19+. On the bright side, the design is described as "kind of a mix OnePlus 8 on the front and Mi 10 on the back", which doesn't sound half bad. The 5G-enabled OnePlus 8, mind you, comes with a pretty impressive screen-to-body ratio thanks to a trendy hole punch and some razor-thin bezels all around its curved edges.
This is the love-or-hate back panel of the Xiaomi Mi 10
Meanwhile, the Xiaomi Mi 10 has four rear-facing cameras arranged in an... interesting exclamation mark-style formation that's not exactly universally loved. Then again, if this Desire 20 Pro ends up coming with a hole punch design and quad rear shooter system, its progress over the aforementioned Desire 19 duo would be quite obvious and drastic.
That being said, this is certainly not the 5G flagship model promised several months ago. Reportedly codenamed Bayamo, the HTC Desire 20 Pro is instead set to pack a decidedly mid-range Snapdragon 660 processor and a decent 6 gigs of RAM, based on a recent benchmark that also confirms Android 10 is already installed on pre-release units.
While there are no words on pricing and availability, the mid-end device is expected to retain the trusty old headphone jack of its forerunners, so bargain hunters willing to give HTC yet another chance actually have several reasons to be (cautiously) excited about the Desire 20 Pro.
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