HTC's rumored U12 showcased in a 5G event in Taiwan

HTC has showcased a mysteries smartphone in its home country Taiwan during a 5G event. The phone is expected to be HTC's new flagship dubbed U12.

The logo for Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC (L) is pictured above a busy street in Taipei on July 20, 2012. Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC said on July 19 it was suing technology giant Apple in the United States, claiming it has infringed on its patents.SAM YEH/AFP/GettyImages

HTC may have plans for this year's new flagship smartphone but it doesn't seem like HTC is going to unveil a new handset at MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2018. The Taiwanese company is certainly working on a new flagship phone which can be the successor to last year's HTC U11.

Last week, the company showcased an unannounced smartphone in its home country during a 5G event organized by a local carrier.

During the showcase, the company covered the top and bottom edges of the phone, as well as the rear panel of the phone. It's very difficult to say anything about the design just by taking a look at the front.

According to famous leakster Evan Blass (aka @evleaks), this particular smartphone might debut as HTC U12 with the codename HTC Imagine. Given the image provided by the event, the rumored HTC U12 seems to be coming with a 6-inch screen with tiny bezels along with an aspect ratio of 18:9.

"HTC today (1/29) participated in the inaugural meeting of "Taiwan 5G Industry Alliance - Chunghwa Telecom Pilot Team," featuring Vive PRO, Vive Focus, unlisted VR devices from Taiwan and HTC phones that have not been released to the public" pic.twitter.com/dZaMBygO39

— #iamaniff (@iamaniff) January 30, 2018

Previous rumors suggested that the smartphone would sport a 4K display. Now the recent renders suggest it is possible that the company will equip the phone with an iris scanner on the front instead of the rear biometric sensor.

The smartphone was showcased at the 5G event so it is quite obvious that the phone will come with a 5G connectivity option, which translates to download speeds of 809.58Mbps, which is almost 1 Gbps(GB-per-second).

HTC U12 will sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with the X20 LTE modem, which supports download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps.

HTC U11 EYEs launchedHTC official page (Taiwan)

As per Taiwanese publication Sogi, HTC said the new flagship phone will be announced sometime this year. However, the company hasn't disclosed the name of the upcoming handset. So it's still a mystery whether it will be announced as HTC U12 or something else.

The company's officials have not made any official statement about the upcoming smartphone, so it's better to take this information which a pinch of salt.