HTC was once renowned for innovation in the smartphone arena, from the metal unibody designs to introducing the trend of powerful dual speakers (dubbed as BoomSound) on a smartphone. In fact, they were the first mainstream manufacturer which released a dual camera phone ‘EVO 3D’ — sporting glassless 3D with a lenticular display and with two rear cameras to capture 3D photos and videos in real-time.
Further, the 2014 flagship M8 was the first phone to include a depth sensing secondary camera to create bokeh shots, which are all rage these days. However, for past three years, HTC has abandoned the use of secondary cameras in favor of single senor solutions prioritizing image quality. It is ironic to note that once HTC left the arena, new entrants LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple and even Samsung who long resisted the temptation to incorporate the feature have launched flagship devices with the dual camera as a key feature.
According to Engadget , HTC president Mr. Chialin Chang admitted that his company will re-enter the dual-camera smartphone space in 2018.
"We'll definitely be releasing a dual-camera phone next year, but we'll need to figure out how to make this feature stand out," he said in a media interview session post launch of flagship U11+ at Taipei.
Currently there are several ways, by which the dual camera system is being implemented. For instance, with Apple and Samsung it’s a combination of telephoto lens and a regular lens, resulting in lossless zoom and blurred effects. LG, on the other hand, provides a combination of a regular lens with an ultra wide angle lens for capturing more of your surroundings in a single image. Huawei and Nokia have their color + monochrome sensors for B/W shots and improved dynamic range and pixel-level details.
It will be interesting to see how HTC implements their take on dual cameras. Will it be an evolution of existing technologies or a complete revolution? We hope it’s the latter.
