2017 saw the advent of the 18:9 display ratio. Starting with the LG G6 that was released at the start of the year, and made mainstream by the Samsung Galaxy S8, the new display ratio has found its way into devices from most OEMs. However, it's still a rare feature in the entry-level segment, with most companies preferring to keep that form factor to their higher-priced devices.
Devices like the Honor 7X, Honor 9 Lite, and Redmi 5 Plus are a few budget devices to feature the display ratio, so HTC may be a little bit late to the scene. Honor, in particular, has announced that it will be moving over to 18:9 devices in the future.
The HTC device, codenamed "Breeze" is expected to feature a MediaTek SoC, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie shooter, and a 2730 mAh battery. Not particularly interesting, we would say, display ratio aside. MediaTek has released a few interesting mid-range SoCs in the past few months, so there's a chance this device could feature one of those.
Source(s)
Evan Blass (Twitter)