When things aren’t going well, sometimes the best thing to do is to break everything down and start from scratch. Focusing on one thing you’re really good at isn’t a bad idea either. That’s exactly what HTC did, by refocusing its product line on the excellent HTC One. But now that it’s off to a good start, what’s next? Well, why not gradually expand into other areas? Like, oh, maybe phablets?
HTC has never made a proper phablet, but that might soon change. According to multiple sources (including analyst Laura Chen and proven leaker @evleaks), HTC is prepping a phablet with a 5.9-inch 1080p display, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.3 GHz.
The device, codenamed T6, is said to look a lot like the much smaller HTC One. This includes the phone’s slick aluminum unibody finish, front-facing “BoomSound” speakers, and rear "UltraPixel" camera.
Other reported specs for the phablet include 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot. If true, this would be an interesting change from the One: it packs a minimum of 32 GB of storage, with no SD support.
Key Lime Pie?
One of the sketchier parts of the report says the phablet will run the next major version of Android, nicknamed Key Lime Pie. The only problem is that Android 4.3 – rumored be yet another revision of Jelly Bean – hasn’t even been officially announced yet. The odds of the HTC phablet running the next version after that sounds pretty unlikely.
That’s because the phone’s release window is reportedly slated for sometime in Q3 (or possibly early Q4) of this year. That’s right around the time that another phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, is expected to launch.
There is one way to possibly make sense of the Key Lime Pie rumor. Remember that Nexus Edition of the HTC One? Perhaps HTC is releasing that device is to get some early software privileges from Google. Like, say, being able to launch this phablet alongside the release of Key Lime Pie?
Keep in mind that this is all still very unofficial. Some or all of this could be completely bogus. But with multiple clouds of smoke popping up at around the same time, we wouldn’t bet against HTC stoking a phablet fire in its Taiwan headquarters. Stay tuned.
Sources: The Unlockr, Focus Taiwan, via CNET
