Remember when HTC teased that it had "Something new for U"? Turns out that "something new" was an HTC U12+ variant.
The HTC U12 Life was announced at IFA 2018 today. Like we saw last year with the HTC U11+ and U11 Life, the HTC U12 Life is a mid-range variant of HTC's flagship U12+ that's also easier on the wallet.
Specs for the HTC U12 Life include a 6-inch 2160x1080 display and 13MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. Around back there's a dual camera setup with 16MP and 5MP sensors, letting you add DSLR-style bokeh to your images, as well as f/2.0 aperture. There's an octa-core Snapdragon 636 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, along with a microSD card slot. Powering the HTC U12 Life is a 3600mAh battery.
One of the highlight features of the HTC U12 Life is its design. The phone has a dual finish that includes what HTC calls "soft, subtle stripes on an acrylic glass unibody with a metal-like design". The back also has a Google Pixel-like look to it. And HTC says that the U12 Life will be available in two colors: Moonlight Blue and Twilight Purple.
Also of note is that the HTC U12 Life comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, something the HTC U12+ and many other Android smartphones released lately are missing. Rounding the U12 Life's feature set out are dual SIM slots and Android 8.1 Oreo running below HTC's custom Sense user interface.
HTC will launch the U12 Life in Europe in late September for £299/€349, which is considerably less than the £699/€799 that HTC is asking for the U12+ in Europe. Unfortunately, HTC has said that it's not planning to launch the U12 Life in the U.S.
The HTC U12 Life looks like an interesting device. It's got a solid spec list for a mid-range offering, it's design is pretty neat, and its less than half the cost of the flagship HTC U12+. It's disappointing that the HTC U12 Life won't be making its way to the U.S., though, especially since the HTC U11 Life was released stateside. Of course, if you're really digging the design of the HTC U12 Life, importing will likely be an option.