Taipei, Jan. 16 (CNA) Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp. has unveiled its latest smartphone -- the U11 Eyes -- aiming at a potential buying spree in the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, not only in Taiwan but also in Hong Kong and China.
HTC, one of Taiwan's tech firms that have entered the virtual reality business, is also planning to bring an upgraded VR headset -- the Vive Pro -- to the upcoming Taipei Game Show in a bid to boost sales for the first quarter of this year.
On Monday, HTC introduced the U11 Eyes in three colors -- solar red, amazing blue and ceramic black -- with a price tag of NT$14,900 (US$505), which places the new model as a mid-range device.
However, similar to a few of its high-end counterparts, including the premium iPhone X, the U11 Eyes boasts the function of face-unlock, which allows users to simply look at the phone to open it.
In addition, as HTC's latest flagship U11 Plus, the new U11 Eyes is equipped with "Edge Sense," which allows users to squeeze the phone to activate features such as the camera, Facebook, or other apps, the smartphone brand said.
The U11 Eyes has a 6-inch screen with a ratio of 18:9 and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 652 processor and backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, with a battery life of 3,930 mAh, HTC said.
HTC said the U11 Eyes has a 5-megapixel dual-camera setup in the front panel, which is called the EYEs, which it describes as good for a selfie, while as for the rear main camera, the device features a 12 UltraPixel optical image stabilizer camera.
HTC has launched pre-order sales for the U11 Eyes in its stores islandwide and on its online channel, and the new gadget is scheduled to ship later this week.
Starting from Feb. 1, the U11 Eyes will be available in outlets of Taiwan's telecom service providers. In addition, the new device will soon hit store shelves in Hong Kong and China in time for the Lunar New Year holiday, which is expected to boost sales, HTC said.
The company said it will demonstrate the latest Vive Pro VR headset at the Taipei Game Show, which will kick off Jan. 25 and run through Jan. 29 at the Taipei World Trade Center.
During the exhibition, HTC said, it will hold a VR gaming contest to boost the visibility of the Vive Pro model, which was unveiled a day before the start of the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 in Las Vegas Jan. 9.
According to HTC, the Vive Pro is equipped with dual OLED displays with a resolution that is a 78-percent increase over the existing Vive head-mounted display.
The Vive Pro also features high-performance headphones with a built-in amplifier, HTC said.
In the wake of the debut of the U11 Eyes, shares of HTC gained 1.11 percent to close at NT$72.60 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Tuesday, outperforming the main board, where the weighted index ended up 0.27 percent at 10,986.11 points.
(By Jiang Ming-yan and Frances Huang)
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