Opinion | The U11 EYEs will be yet another overpriced device by HTC

HTC's weirdness continues. The company has, out of the blue, released teasers for a new mid-range device slated to be the unapologetically-named U11 EYEs. We're usually quite tolerant of OEMs' naming schemes but this one is so out of place you have to wonder who came up with it.

Terrible moniker aside, the U11 EYEs doesn't seem to offer much that we haven't seen before. Design is where the device shines, as it sports an 18:9 5.99-inch FHD+ display. Elsewhere, things are rather...mediocre. It is powered by the Snapdragon 652, which is just about two years old, and is manufactured on an outdated 28nm process. Camera-wise, it sports a single rear sensor but quite amusingly, going by the leaked renders, comes with dual selfie sensors.

The device also features HTC's Edge Sense technology, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, and IP67 certification. It gets its juice from a 3930 battery, which is, perhaps, its best feature. Like most other devices released recently, it runs on Android Nougat, and that just may be a ploy by HTC to weasel out of Treble implementation.

Pricing is where it gets interesting. The device is said to come with a price tag equivalent to US$510. HTC released its revenue figures for the year last week, and numbers showed a 13-year all-time low in sales numbers. This is probably a prime example of why the company just cannot seem to make money.

The device is expected to be announced on January 15.