"Buzz, Buzz", Be that the bee? - HTC builds a “Metaverse” smartphone

[Lightwreather]

Summary

HTC introduces the HTC Desire 22 Pro, the first of it's lineup for 2022. Starting at £399, it offers amazing features such as Buzz words! Namely, "Metaverse" and "NFTs".
It has a Snapdragon 695, a 120 Hz, 6.6-inch, 2412×1080 LCD, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4520 mAh battery. It has Android 12, a fingerprint reader, wireless charging, a microSD slot, and an IP67 water-resistance rating, which HTC only describes as "splash proof." For cameras, you have a 65 MP main camera, a 13 MP ultrawide, 5 MP depth sensor, and 32 MP front camera. HTC's spec sheet also lists "Face ID" as a feature, which is an Apple trademark.

 

 

 

Quotes

Quote

 The latest from the company is the HTC Desire 22 Pro, a 399 British pound (~$486) mid-ranger that represents the company's first smartphone of 2022.

HTC says this phone will somehow help you "enter the metaverse," as "the phone to carry you into the future."  It's roughly used to mean "VR-related." The phone itself does not seem to have any actual VR features. HTC's latest VR goggles, the Vive Flow, use an Android phone as the controller and can show the phone screen inside the VR environment. This phone comes with that Vive Flow controller app, but you can install it on any Android phone that supports miracast and get the same features.

HTC actually launched the "Vive Arts NFT store" a few months ago, and this phone has an app for it called the Vive Wallet. 

HTC describes its NFT store as "designed for the arts and culture," and in this case, it showed someone viewing a picture of a Cat Mona Lisa from their smartphone.

So far, the only confirmed countries for availability seem to be the UK and Taiwan. In the UK, the HTC Desire 22 Pro is up for preorder now and will ship August 1.

 

My thoughts

Wow, this is just sad. To think that this company was one of the pioneers of android itself, being brought to a new low.

Gimmicky marketing aside, this just seems to be another generic mid-range smartphone, so yea, Literally nothing noteworthy about this phone. 

 

 

On the other hand, those cat interpretations of those paintings are so cute

Sources

ArsTecnica

HTC

[suicidalfranco]

Didn't Hipster Troll Carwash mobile division die a long time ago?

[Dreckssackblase]

wow a midrange phone with a preinstalled crypto wallet app. The innovation at htc is off the scales. /s

[williamcll]

I almost thought they would be selling vives with crypto.

[Middcore]

I'm so confused. Didn't Google buy out HTC, or at least their whole smartphone division? 

[wamred]

Oof, it is sad to see HTC get this low.

[Quackers101]

metadump, join the fire.

[Senzelian]

On 6/29/2022 at 5:20 PM, Middcore said:

I'm so confused. Didn't Google buy out HTC, or at least their whole smartphone division? 

Only parts of HTC, not the entire company.

 

__

 

Do you guys realise that HTC stands for High Tech Computer? I think what they meant was that they are high while producing computer tech.

[darknessblade]

On 6/29/2022 at 1:03 PM, Dreckssackblase said:

wow a midrange phone with a preinstalled crypto wallet app. The innovation at htc is off the scales. /s

And there is a High chance that phone will only work with that crypto wallet.

----

I think they are just doing it for the MEME'S

 

Like: Look at us we have a cryptophone where you can buy all your cryptopics to show to all you cryptopeeps, to show to your cryptobuds, 

 

[with them later releasing a NORMAL version of this phone without the Crypto/metaverse bloatware]

 

Its Either gonna be praised by the CryptoShills OR it will die a miserable death, due the lack of sales.

[da na]

They already have some "super secure encrypted phone" targeted at crypto users so this isn't much of a surprise. Although, it is kinda a blow to HTC's reputation - used to make some of the best phones out there, now just following the trend at the worst possible time... perhaps this would have made sense a few months ago before the massive crash?

[Vishera]

9 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

it is kinda a blow to HTC's reputation - used to make some of the best phones out there, now just following the trend at the worst possible time...

Just like Ubisoft.

11 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

perhaps this would have made sense a few months ago before the massive crash?

At this point it's pretty much a fantasy of business people.