HTC 8S not coming to US, Verizon's 8X ships unlocked

HTC officially confirmed the Windows Phone 8S won’t be coming to the United States. HTC says its focus will go entirely on the 8X. Here comes the official statement:
"The Windows Phone 8X by HTC is our signature Windows Phone available at AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless in the U.S. With our focus on the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, the Windows Phone 8S is not currently planned for distribution in the U.S. market."
The device will probably still find its way to the US shores through various retailers and it will be available free of contract. However, with no official import its pricing might turn out to be pretty steep so there will be little point in getting it.
In other news, the Verizon's HTC Windows Phone 8X sells unlocked and it's compatible with whatever microSIM you may have from carriers around the globe. It seems this might be a new Verizon policy since other top-notch phones from their catalog also come unlocked - notably the iPhone 5 and DROID DNA.

HTC Deluxe DLX not actually coming to Europe?

When we caught a glimpse of the first official photos of the HTC Deluxe DLX a couple of days back , we were all but certain that it is only a matter of time before the quad-core beast with 1080p display makes its way to Europe. Therefore, the news from HTC Germany that the device won't make it to the Old Continent came as nothing short of a surprise.






As you can see in the translated message above, the 5" relative of the HTC J butterfly and the Verizon exclusive DROID DNA will not make it to Europe according to the message posted by HTC Germany's official Facebook account. There were no specific reasons given by HTC for the unfortunate occurrence.
Of course, the message might simply mean that the top shelf smartphone will make it under a different name and design to Europe. For HTC market share's sake, we hope it does.

Apple could get $6 to $8 for every smartphone HTC sells

A new 10 year patent licensing deal came in effect two days ago between Apple and HTC. However details on what the benefits for either side might be weren't given at the time.
Shaw Wu, analyst at Sterne Agee, reckons Apple could be generating between $6 and $8 per sold HTC smartphone, which when put together with the shipment estimate of 30 to 35 million HTC devices in 2013 could mean anywhere between $180 and $280 million going Apple's way.

An unnamed Wall Street Journal source has collaborated that HTC will indeed be paying Apple undisclosed licensing fees, making the $6 to $8 per device estimate all the more believable.
Shaw Wu hypothesizes that Apple could use the HTC deal as a template, with which to approach other companies it has active patent litigation wars with, such as Samsung and Motorola.
Of course, analysts are often off-target and this could all turn out incorrect or false altogether, so take it with a pinch of salt.

HTC DROID DNA gets revealed before its announcement

In a manner, which has shaped up to be quite fashionable lately, the previously leaked HTC DROID DNA for Verizon Wireless got revealed only a couple of days before its official announcement is scheduled to take place. The DROID DNA name has been confirmed on Verizon’s own DROID DOES webpage, while press renders of the photo have made an appearance in Twitter.

The leaked press photos reveal yet again that the upcoming Verizon DROID looks similar to the Japan exclusive HTC J butterfly, save for the Verizon livery on its black body with red accents . The same goes for the specs which will include a 5” full HD display, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset, and 2GB of RAM.

HTC’s Android powerhouse with 1080p display for Verizon is scheduled to be announced this coming Tuesday, on November 13, at an event in New York City. We will be covering the unveiling live, so be sure to stick around for the full scoop on the device, including hands-on photos and initial impressions.

HTC and Apple end their patent feud with a “global settlement”

n a rather surprising fashion, Apple and HTC have settled their patent disputes. The two companies have reached a “global settlement” with confidential terms, which dismisses all their current lawsuits. The agreement includes all current and future patents held by the two giants and will extend over the next ten years.
 

Naturally, both companies’ CEOs issued a statement on the matter. Here’s what Peter Chou from HTC had to say:

“HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation.”

And here goes the statement of Apple’s CEO Tim Cook:

“We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” and “we will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”

A settlement between players of such magnitude is nothing short of great news for both the companies and their followers. Here’s hoping that more such events will follow.

Black HTC One S finally lands on T-Mobile US’s shelves

HTC One S has been on sale on T-Mobile for months now, but (unfortunately) the black colored version hasn't been available across the Atlantic until today. Potential users will finally be able to pick up the device in black with red accents.
In order to please the overly patient, the Big Magenta currently offers the black version of the HTC One S for free after a mail-in rebate. In case you order it today, the carrier will also throw in a free case for you.
The HTC One S is powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset, so it is quite snappy by today’s standards. With the device currently being offered for free, we do believe it makes for quite a sweet an upgrade for both first-time and experienced users.

HTC will hold an event in New York City on November 13

HTC has sent out invitations for an event in New York City, which will take place next Tuesday, November 13. The Taiwanese manufacturer will show off its “latest collaboration” with Verizon Wireless.


Given the recent string of leaks, we can all but confirm that the device scheduled to break cover is the HTC DROID DNA. The upcoming smartphone appears to be a close relative of the Japan exclusive HTC J butterfly. It is bound to pack an eye-catching 5” Super LCD3 display with 1080p resolution and pixel density of 440ppi. Quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro silicon, 16GB of built-in memory, microSD card, and Sense-d Android 4.1 Jelly Bean are also part of the device’s projected specs.
We are going to be live from the HTC event next week, so we’ll tell you all about the company’s latest creation.

HTC One X for AT&T gets benchmarked, looks impressive

When the AT&T flavored HTC One X flagship got announced during MWC, quite a few people were left wondering whether its Snapdragon S4 chipset with two CPU cores will match the performance of the quad-core Tegra 3 of the international version.

Well, it looks like there is no need to worry over the performance of the U.S. bound handset. A couple of leaked benchmarks from the device, leaked by an alleged AT&T device tester, point at a seriously capable piece of hardware coming our way.

As you can see above, the two Krait cores, featured in the chipset have a serious knack for benchmarks. The tester has also mentioned that the battery life of the device is rather impressive as well.

The rumored time frame for the launch of the AT&T branded HTC One X is mid-May. Naturally, we will keep you posted as soon as we find out more.

Deluxe Limited Edition HTC One X comes with Beats headphones

HTC has made up a special offer for their domestic market in Taiwan bundling their newest quad-core One X smartphone with Beats Solo headphones.

Unfortunately, HTC is mum on any probability of releasing the special bundle globally or in other markets besides the Taiwanese one. The package's pre-order price is a shy below 25,000 TWD or $840. This works out as a great deal considering a standard HTC One X costs around $780 and Beats sell their Solo headphones for $180.

Pre-orders for the Deluxe Limited Edition start on March 20, so you still have some time to break the piggy bank and check your pockets for some change.

HTC to announce the quad-core Endeavour at MWC?

We received word of HTC's quad-core monster back in November and not much has changed, except for two key points.

Firstly the name, the device we've been calling the HTC Edge now looks to be adopting the name Endeavour and more importantly, the HTC Endeavour will make its first official appearance at MWC in the coming weeks.

Aside from the new name, the purported specs of the Endeavour remain unchanged with that all important quad-core Tegra 3 chip clocked at 1.5GHz powering a 4.7" 720p HD display, an 8MP camera complete with an f/2.2 lens and 1080p video capture capability.

There's also a gig of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt user-storage, presumably with a microSD slot offering expansion of another 32GB, but at this stage, that's an estimated guess. Radio wise, we'll see quad-band support, 21Mbps HSDPA speeds but there's a strong chance we'll receive LTE functionality too.

Naturally such a device will come running the latest version of HTC's UI overlay, Sense, running atop Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.

HTC's CFO, Mr Winston Yung explained that moving forward, his company would be looking at different component suppliers. Tying that into to Nvidia's claims of a quad-core menagerie of devices expected to appear at their MWC booth and the progression to Tegra 3 is obvious, along with the increasingly frequent leaks regarding this device.

We've already seen the potential of quad-core mobile devices, courtesy of the Asus Transformer Prime, but as HTC look to be the first with a quad-core phone on the market, we can't wait to get our hands on it.

HTC Sensation lineup gets Android ICS in late March

HTC just gave us some welcome extra information on the planned Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich updates for their smartphone portfolio.

The wait is almost over for the owners of the original Sensation, the Sensation XE and the Sensation XL. The Sensation and Sensation XE will get the ICS treatment by the end of March, while the XL update will follow shortly after.

There is more good news - HTC EVO 3D, Incredible S, Desire S and Desire HD updates are also in the works and will be released later this year. That's as specific as HTC got, but just knowing that the updates for those are on the way is still pretty exciting for their owners, we guess.

HTC promises to release more information on the update schedule in the following few weeks, so stay tuned.

HTC Sensation XE coming to Clove UK

The HTC Sensation already got a white dress and now it's time for the Sensation XE to change from black to white too. The white version is already available in some markets, but now the e-tailer Clove is bringing it to the UK.

The HTC Sensation XE is a souped up version of the regular Sensation and also the first phone to pack Beats audio and the iBeats headset. Clove's site shows the black headset, but we hope that's just the wrong promo image as the white iBeats headset will look better with the white XE.

The headset alone costs a cool £54, so getting it in the box is a pretty sweat deal.

HTC Sensation XE in white and the iBeats headset

The red "Beats audio" logo and red accents of the black Sensation XE are preserved and look even better on the white version.

Anyway, Clove UK will sell the white HTC Sensation XE for £408 and you can pre-order it right now. The first units are expected to be in stock in the week which starts on February 20.

By the way, there's no price difference between the white and black XE - the black one currently goes for £408 too. We're talking about SIM-free phones in both cases

New HTC Ville photos leak, slim waistline and specs reconfirmed

We got yet another portion of leaked HTC Ville live photos, garnished with a nice specs sheet. The Android smartphone is expected to be unveiled by HTC at their press conference on February 26 and slide beneath the Edge in the company's chain of command.

The HTC Ville will reportedly be the slimmest HTC smartphone to this day, having a profile of just 8.9mm. Previously we heard that the Ville will measure just 8mm, but 8.9mm sounds quite great too, especially for a mid-range device. To achieve this, the Taiwanese used a qHD AMOLED panel, which is supposed to have a diagonal of 4.3".

HTC Ville live photos

A 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU will be keeping things going under the hood, while Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4.0 will provide the eye-candy at the front. The chipset which will power the Ville hasn't been specified just yet, but we are guessing it will be the MSM8260 Snapdragon which we came to know from the Sensation XE.

The HTC MWC event is now just 20 days away, so we'll soon find out the complete specs sheet. As you probably already know, we'll be on site covering it live for you, and making sure you don't miss a thing.

HTC Sensation coming in Ice White, ICS for all Sensations

A Dutch PR site broke the news that HTC will be releasing an Ice White color version of the HTC Sensation. To sweeten the deal, the phone will launch with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box. The whole Sensation line will be getting ICS too.

The press release goes over the selling points of the HTC Sensation - 4.3" qHD screen, 8MP camera and so on. The Ice White version will have all those things too.

HTC Sensation in Ice White

The Ice White HTC Sensation is supposed to launch on March 1.

The good news for owners of any Sensation (including the XE and XL) is that they'll be getting Ice Cream Sandwich as an Over-the-Air update soon. No separate date was given for the update, but those things are never simultaneous anyway.

The machine translation from Dutch is a little sketchy, but it seems that Sense UI will be updated too, with a shortcut dock at the bottom of the screen.

About half of 2nd-gen WP7 phones are Nokias, but HTC leads overall

When Microsoft released their quarterly financial results, there wasn’t a peep about Windows Phone. So, we have to look to third-party statistics, like the one from OccassionalGamer, whose games have been installed over a million times on various WP phones out there.

Their statistics show over half of the Windows Phone handsets out there bear an HTC logo with Samsung coming in after them with about a third of the handsets. LG holds third place (but they have no second-gen WP7 phones). Nokia is currently a distant fourth.

Looking at just the second-generation devices (the ones that came after Mango was released), Nokia (who missed the first round of WP phones) takes the top spot with a 45% share. The majority of that is made up of Lumia 800s with the occasional Lumia 710 (they are about six 800s for every 710).

HTC is a close second with 40% share, with the HTC Radar doing pretty well for itself. It's ahead of the Lumia 710 but trails the 800. Samsung is third when it comes to second generation WP7 phones, with the Samsung Omnia W (Focus Flash in the US) leading the pack and the AT&T-exclusive Focus S dragging behind by a wide margin.

It's worth noting that the original HTC HD7 is the most popular Windows Phone device in OccasionalGamer's statistics, followed by the original Samsung Focus (for AT&T). HTC does have more WP7 models out there than any other maker right now, which helps secure their first place overall.

Nokia's Windows Phone offerings are still relatively new to the market and the Finns must be pleased with such numbers. They also have the Lumia 900 but we'll have to wait and see how it fares against the HTC Titan II, a spiritual successor of the HD7. Both phones are expected to launch on AT&T soon and there's a lot at stake there, especially for Nokia, who are yet to reinstate themselves on the US market.

Super AMOLED sporting HTC Primo enters the rumor mill

It is no secret that HTC was mostly keeping quiet during this year's CES in Las Vegas. Aside the impressive HTC Titan II, running Windows Phone, the Taiwanese giant did not announce any new products.

Given the increased intensity of rumored devices from the company lately however, we can be all but certain that the upcoming MWC in Barcelona will be the place for more than one major announcement from HTC. Yet another device entered the rumor mill today, thus joining the likes of HTC Ville and HTC Edge - the dual-core HTC Primo.

Reportedly, the HTC Primo will be a mid-range device with a dual-core CPU, clocked at 1GHz. A 3.7" Super AMOLED screen is expected to be on board of the upcoming handset - a sharp departure from the current LCD units which the company uses.

The rest of the specs include 512MB of RAM, 5MP snapper, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Beats Audio our of the box.

All in all, the HTC Primo sounds like an enticing device. Its rumored price tag of £250 should help its cause even further.

Since we're talking rumors here, don't forget to add the usual pinch of salt to the above information. Thankfully, MWC is not that far away, so we will get the full scoop on the spot and tell you all about it.