The HTC U20 5G is the most unremarkable device HTC has ever made

When I saw the news that HTC was going to unveil a new 5G smartphone, a small part of me was excited. Will HTC once again blow our minds like they did with their earlier flagships? Going with an all-metal body instead of the fragile glass-metal hybrids everywhere? Well, all they did was release the HTC U20 5G, which is the most generic looking device I have ever seen from the Taiwanese smartphone maker.

The HTC U20 5G has nothing in common with their earlier flagships aside from the HTC U moniker. I am not even sure if this is HTC’s flagship, but I think you can call it one because it is the highest end HTC device till date. The entire device looks like a generic Chinese smartphone and you could easily rebrand the device as one from any of the myriad of Chinese smartphone brands and I wouldn’t even blink.

You get a 6.8″ FHD+ display up front, with a huge chin unbecoming of a premium device in its price range. Meanwhile over on the back of the HTC U20 5G, you get a matte finish and four cameras. The camera setup is a far cry from HTC’s cutting edge camera implementations, as they have now reverted to a basic mid-range camera configuration consisting of a 48MP f/1.8 camera mated to a 8MP ultra-wide angle shooter, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. Well, at least the macro camera has autofocus.

Under the hood, you get rather decent specifications, with a Snapdragon 765G, 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s 5G support, which is probably the highlight of the smartphone anyway. To keep the lights on there’s a 5000 mAh battery with support for QuickCharge 4.0.

HTC U20 5G Specs

• Snapdragon 765G, octa-core up to 2.4 GHz, 7nm
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage (support for microSD cards)
• 6.8″ FHD+ display, punch hole cutout
• 48MP f/1.8 + 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor
• 32MP f/2.0 selfie camera
• 5000 mAh battery, QC 4.0 18W charging
• 18 990 TWD (~RM2733)

It surely isn’t cheap at 18990 TWD (~RM2733). The HTC U20 5G is available in Green and White, which doesn’t exactly help it shake its generic design. Oh well, at least green isn’t all that common a color for a smartphone. I sure hope HTC has a U20 Pro 5G up its sleeve with a more appropriate design for a device carrying the HTC brand name. But then again, with such a price tag on the HTC U20 5G, I doubt the HTC U20 Pro 5G will even make sense anymore.

Pokdepinion: I guess the talent at HTC has all left to greener pastures.