Surprise – HTC is back with a premium mid-range Pixel 8a rival

Remember HTC? The tech giant that once dominated the smartphone market is making sure we don’t forget about them. The company has just unveiled the HTC U24 Pro, potentially one of the best mid-range phones this year.

The price of the HTC U24 Pro has been set at £469/€564 via it’s official website putting it up against the likes of the Google Pixel 8a and Samsung Galaxy A55 not to mention numerous Chinese handsets at affordable prices.

However, its price remains very attractive, especially when looking at the specifications which include three 50Mp cameras.

HTC hasn’t skimped on design. The sleek and lightweight one-piece body measures 167.1 x 74.9 x 8.98mm and weighs 198.7g, featuring a metal frame and golden chambers on both sides for maximum comfort and grip.

The elegant Space Navy colour is created through advanced heat-press technology, giving the phone a captivating light-reflective effect.

Nearly 87% of the front of the HTC U24 Pro is filled with a 6.8-inch OLED curved screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9, a good Full HD+ resolution (2436 x 1080 pixels, just under 390ppi) and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz.

In the latter case, HTC says variable refresh rate, but it’s unlikely to be LTPO and drop to 1Hz.

It also features an IP67 rating and the front is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus for added protection and durability.

HTC

The fast and smooth performance of the HTC U24 Pro is taken care of by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage.

When it comes to the cameras, the HTC U24 Pro boasts a powerful quad-camera setup that includes a 50Mp main camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS), an 8Mp camera and a 50Mp telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom.

The phone includes a high-sensitivity light sensor and optimised pixel-merging technology, enhancing photo brightness by up to 130% in dark environments compared to its predecessor, the HTC U23 Pro.

The front-facing camera is a 50Mp lens, perfect for selfies with advanced portrait capabilities. The phone also features AI enhancements, including AI Group Photo, AI Gesture GIFs and AI night portrait restoration.

HTC

Although the battery has a fairly average capacity of 4600mAh, it supports 60W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging and 5W reverse wireless charging.

Sure, some rivals are even faster in this regard, but HTC’s new mid-range phone has nothing to be ashamed of. For many, this will be plenty fast enough.

For connectivity, it has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, microSD card slot, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6E, 5G, GPS, dual SIM and USB-C 3.0. Nowhere do I see information about stereo speakers. This is probably the only thing I can complain about.

The HTC U24 Pro also comes with Android 14 out of the box. Unfortunately, the manufacturer doesn’t say anything about the length of support.

It looks like HTC has managed to make a really cool mid-range phone. However, all will be revealed once we’ve tested it – look out for our full review soon.

In the meantime, check out the current best mid-range phones to know what the HTC U24 Pro will be up against.