HTC was once one of the most popular brands for Android phones. Its Desire series was a triumph in both design and functionality, but over time the brand faded, releasing a string of handsets that failed to sell.
After selling a chunk of its phone business to Google in 2018 it seemed that the company would go the way of LG and Blackberry. But rumours are spreading fast that the Taiwanese innovators could be about to launch a comeback, with a phone that would be different to anything else on the market.
Here’s all we know about the HTC Viverse phone.
When will the HTC Viverse phone be released?
As you can see from the launch invite above, HTC has now promised a launch for its Viverse phone this month, on 28 June.
The launch was teased by HTC Taiwan, so it’s not clear if this will be a global launch, or remain local to Taiwan and other Asian markets.
The phone was first teased at MWC 2022, where the company laid out its vision for the Viverse, which appears to be its own version of the Metaverse. It makes sense then, that a phone would join the other products it’s now building to enable people to enter into this virtual world of the future.
How this will work is uncertain, with the Metaverse being seen as the next iteration of the internet, but this time in immersive 3D via VR and AR technologies. Still, we’re quite up for finding out about how HTC think this might apply to smartphones.
For a more detailed explanation of the overall concept, read what is the Metaverse?
How much will the HTC Viverse phone cost?
There are no details about the potential cost of any new device from HTC at the time of writing. For any AR and VR capabilities to be seamless enough for a phone built with the Metaverse in mind, it would need a powerful processor and top-line cameras.
Looking around at other flagships that have these sort of specs, we think it’s likely that you could find the price tag north of £1000/$1000.
What about the HTC Viverse phone specs?
Such is the mysterious nature of the HTC Viverse phone, there’s practically no information online about the kind of components we can expect to see.
In the company’s MWC 2022 address, HTC chairwoman and co-founder Cher Wang confirmed that the Viverse would be built on a foundation of technologies like AR/VR, AI, blockchain, and fast 5G. We’ve already seen some unusually conceived devices along this line, such as the HTC Exodus 1 that was focussed on cryptocurrencies, so a Metaverse phone isn’t as crackers as you might think.
HTC has also been working hard developing its Vive VR range of products as well as a huge software environment for AR/VR, making it one of the most advanced companies in that space. It also states in its promotional videos, and was reiterated by Cher Wang, that “Viverse will strive to be accessible to anyone, from any online device, through our Vive Connect tool.”
From this we can derive that the Viverse phone should at least feature 5G, possibly the mmWave variety that is the fastest currently available, and will need a solid compliment of cameras to be able to handle the demands of rendering and placing AR content on the display.
Again, a powerful processor is required to crunch these numbers, so we’d be surprised to see anything less than a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 if the HTC Viverse arrives soon.
In one of the promotional videos for the Viverse, we’ve seen someone wearing an HTC Vive VR headset but also using a smartphone at the same time. So, it’s possible that the phone could be some kind of controller for adjusting settings or dealing with the communication side of things while users are immersed in a VR environment.
Of course, it may turn out to be a standard flagship phone with a few specialist apps included. Hopefully, we won’t have long to wait. To see which devices it will have to overcome if it wants to become a bestseller, take a look at our guides to the best smartphones currently available and best smartphones coming in 2022.