HTC planning another flagship with a Snapdragon 835 chip

HTC just announced its latest flagship smartphone, the U Ultra — but it won’t be its last for 2017. The Taiwanese company has confirmed it is working on another handset that will be equipped with Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon 835 chip.

The U Ultra looks to be an impressive smartphone, with a gorgeous glass design similar to the latest handsets from Samsung, and dual displays. The only problem is, it’s packing a Snapdragon 821 chip that will very soon be superseded by the Snapdragon 835.

But you don’t have to settle for less if you want a HTC phone; you just have to wait for the next one.

“Every time there is a brand new CPU with power that we can leverage, we’re always at the forefront doing that,” said Chialin Chang, president of HTC’s smartphones and connected devices division. “When the next flagship CPU comes, HTC will be one of the very first tier doing that.”

“We want to have a couple of months of leadership before the next flagship CPU comes. But that will be in another period of time — not at MWC. Not for us or any other player. I can tell you that for sure. When the new CPU comes, HTC will have another flagship.”

Chang doesn’t specifically name the Snapdragon 835, but it’s clear what he’s referring to. As for the U Ultra, Chang said the handset’s release was determined nine months ago, so it wasn’t easy to predict that it would arrive just months before Qualcomm’s next CPU.

You could argue that it’s a bad idea for HTC — which has been struggling in recent years — to confirm another flagship will come just weeks after announcing one; it could impact sales of the U Ultra as fans hold onto their cash in anticipation of what’s next.

But at least we know HTC won’t be skipping the Snapdragon 835 in 2017.