KPH tech blog

I heard last year that HTC were in the midst of being taken over by Google, with layoffs all around the company.

If it’s true – and presumably Google have plans to completely take-over HTC and move their smarts and base of operations to Google HQ – what would this mean for the smartphone market? Would we still get HTC devices on the market, or just simply the Pixel phones?

To be honest, this is understandable. HTC were the first company with the smarts to make an Android phone, so they and Android are [almost] one and the same. Without HTC, the world would be worse off.

That’s not to say their phones are any good, however. With the exception of my Desire Eye, which was a brilliant phone when I first got it, the HTC Sense UI is drab, a bit dated, and their phones aren’t much better.

The HTC U12 Plus has no physical exterior buttons, with touch-sensitive ones instead. Reviewers have hinted that they’re not as responsive as normal buttons, and Jerry Rig Everything’s teardown video proved they aren’t that durable, and the buttons won’t work without their ‘covers.’ What if the buttons fall off, for example? How would you turn on your device?

Availability of HTC phones is also an issue at the moment, with only the HTC U11 Life currently on my network. That’s an issue, because the U11 Life is an inferior device to my Galaxy S7, not to mention the drab and dated Sense UI – which really need a redesign to keep it as competitive and valuable as, for example, OnePlus’s OxygenOS – the current bywords for a truly vivid and beautiful, customisable Android experience.

Google’s takeover is also understandable given that, as I’ve already mentioned briefly, HTC currently manufacture the Google Pixel phones (no doubt a substantial form of income for HTC), and have since the first one – the Pixel 1 had near the same body as the HTC 10, sharing the same chamfered edges and ridges around the screen.

This is why, on the rear of the Pixel phones, you’ll find the simple slogan: “Designed by Google in USA” – which, coincidentally, many believed was also a plug at Apple for their infamous Designed in California iPhone motto.

Whatever the future holds for HTC as a company, while their current phone lineup doesn’t appeal to me, if they can fix some of the faults, update the UI and make a comeback in the way HMD’s Nokia has, then I might be tempted by a HTC phone in the near future. For now, though, that’s just simply not an option.

-Chris JK.