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I’m almost at a loss for words here, folks. Just when we thought we wouldn’t see anymore surprises, HTC goes and pulls this. Announced as “coming soon” on their official Japanese site, HTC has pulled out all the stops, releasing their much rumored Android device that will make you turn and slap your momma. They’re calling the HTC J Butterfly (a sequel to the original J that launched a few months ago) and in an industry first, the device comes with earth shattering 5-inch 1080p SLCD3 display. Let’s just let that soak in for a little bit. You guys alright out there? Great. Let’s take a look at the rest of the spec sheet.
- Qualcomm S4 Pro 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 processor
- 2GB of RAM
- 8MP camera
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- SLCD3 1080p 440ppi display
- NFC
- 2,020mAh battery
- 9.1mm thin
- Black, red, white color variations
And here you thought HTC didn’t have any more fight in ’em, huh? Officially announced for a December release on Japanese carrier AU/KDDI, don’t expect this anywhere outside of the land of the rising sun. Well, not in its current state anyway. Like the J before it, we’ll see a variation of this device with different aesthetics, hit the rest of the world with HTC specifically mentioning to The Verge that the same display tech would launch in other devices to be announced. We’ll just have to be patient and see what they’ve got planned. For the love of gawd, please don’t let this one be carrier exclusive.
[HTC]
want
2,020mAh battery , why does htc have retarded batteries :/
because it has a quad-core s4 in it and not a tegra. its efficient and has plenty of battery for most people
at least we are out of the cycle were in two years ago with smaller batteries and hungrier CPU’s that didn’t even make it through 1/2 a day
I had the og evo…. monster processor for it’s time, giant battery as well… just not enough lol
monster processor as in HUNGRY processor, not efficient… s4 is crazy efficient
Yeah exactly lol It moved like a viper in it’s day but chugged like a carbed cheby tree fiddy with edelbrock stamped all over it ha
Doesn’t matter in the slightest if it’s not removeable
Yeah, the quad-core S4 in the LG Optimus G delivers pretty nice battery life out of a 2,100mAh battery. I think HTC knows what they’re doing..
much more now than 2 years ago with my og evo….. i can actually play games on my LTEVO and not have to charge till i go to sleep!!! it makes me happy
Well in defense of the OG Evo (since I’m still sporting mine), while its battery life did suck at first, HTC did improve it quite a bit before its EOL. But once I ditched sense for AOSP and found a great ROM/kernel combo I have to work hard to chew through a full battery in one day and unlike the LTEvo it doesn’t come at the expense of multitasking. As far as this new handset goes, yeah the Optimus G has decent battery life, but only this beast has a 5″ 1080p screen. Hopefully this isn’t the Thunderbolt fiasco all over again. I gave up trying to convince people that Android was better than iOS after they’ve owned that thing.
Yet in still Chris with as big a phone as it is(more space) a bigger battery would be much desired. Its almost like having a fail safe in a way imo
HTC is definitely listening. Wait until a variant of this hits stateside, I’m sure they’ll pack some more mAh into it.
I have a One X and I can’t make it til 5 pm. The S4s may be efficient, but big, bright LCD displays are not.
lmao what are doin with it? My one lasts all day with usually 20-30% left atleast
I use it to check my email, fb, twitter throughout the day, play music for an hour at lunch, check some websites, sometimes stream some music on my commute to work. You only get 2-3 hours of on screen time before it is toast.
If the phone sits in my pocket all day and I consciously don’t use it, I can also make it through a day with 30% left.
Definitely doing something wrong if it only has 30% left after a day of not using it.
I meant with minimal use. If I don’t use it at all, the phone will drop 2-3% per hour which is phenomenal.
Tim cook says you are looking at too much porn and it is a design feature because your thumb goes from here to here.
cut back on the web surfing… Mine goes about 12 hrs
Like I said to other reply, you maybe get 3 hours of on screen time. It doesn’t matter how long your phone lasts sitting in your pocket. My One X gets better stand by time than my Atirx, but when it comes to real world use, my Atrix got much better on screen time.
You’re holding it wrong.
+ its pulling a 1080 p screen…lol
with hTc Sense only 2020 mah lol my sgsii is 2000extended battery.
Fail. Let’s see how long it really lasts. Phablets need to have big batteries. Bigger the better noteII it is for me.
Processors use such an irrelevant percentage of battery life compared to display and radios. 2,020 is going to suck.
Keep in mind, this is only the J — which we wont see anywhere else in the world. We’ll see a variant of this hit the rest of the world (hopefully) with a few more mAh packed in.
You spend so much time repeating yourself… lol
Yeah you’ve got to remember that in Japan people are never further than 2″ away from a charger so a smaller battery is alright there.
They’re starting to think more and more like Apple and less like a consumer
you want a 2kg phone or a slim phone? 2000 mAh doesn’t sound bad at all.
Motorola can make thin phones with huge battery’s. Everyone else should also. 2000mAh for a display that large will be terrible.
Oh.
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Sweet
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.Jesus
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Took me a few seconds to focus and figure out who the manufacturer was.
Wow…wish this had at least a 2,500 mah battery. I’m definitely jocking the design & specs tho
2000 mAh doesn’t sound so bad when u think iphone 5 has 1430 mAh
The iPhone also has a screen a whole inch smaller and a much much lower resolution.
Very nice. This beast instantly takes spot #3 in my personal Top 5 phones list (pushing out the Razr Maxx @ #5) for 1080p alone, despite the cons.
1) Galaxy S3
2) Galaxy Note2
3) HTC J Butterfly
4) HTC OneX
5) LG Optimus G
(PROS: 1080p & nice design; CONS: lcd < samoled; sealed (&anemic) battery; no external sd; beats for posers; 8 vs 13MP cam)
Gonna have to stop you right there, Jason. SLCD2 most certainly beats out SAMOLED… And the 8MP cam on the G was in most cases, the same quality as the 13MP version.
I admit my SAMOLED bias. I want the inky blacks, vivid colors (some might say over-saturated), and battery savings of OLED (even if pentile) VS the brighter and improved LCDs of late.
I think this will be a far cry from the lcds we are used to, I am biased too I guess. I personally loathe the samoled screens for the weird blue tint BUT I love that we have the choice instead of just a generic “retina” display. So cheers bro!
Uh, say what you want about Apple, but their displays are far from generic. Most readable display I have seen/used.
I meant that as a generic title of retina which means nothing…
Have you seen the SLD2 on the One X in person? I was the same way as you (I have SAMOLED4Lyfe tattooed on my lower back), until I saw the One X display in person. It’s like it’s floating on the screen.
Of course I’ve compared ’em in person (@ costco & bestbuy)! I don’t like talking out of my a$$ :). SLCD has improved, but it’s just not enough to win me back from OLED. Perhaps if I spent more time outside in the sun……. (riiiight)… then I could definitely see myself leaning more towards SLCD.
Take off them shades, bruh. O_o
LOL. I agree with you chris, this phone is just as good, if not better than the Note2. I like it better for its superior aesthetic alone, not to mention its better specs
Jason, while you may prefer the blue tinted, pixelated pentile, do your research on OLED vs IPS in smartphone use. OLED is the inferior technology at the moment.
I was simply stating we have a choice instead of being forced into one decision. Which is Retina. I never said it was bad.
The specs are awesome, but I haven’t seen a single mention of dimensions all day. Beside thickness of course
143x71x9.1mm@140g from the HTC JP site.
http://www.htc.com/jp/smartphones/htl21/#specs
OLED or SLCD are almost the same depending on the screen layout(RGB TFT IPS or Pentile). OLED(brighter clear blacks) vs SLCD(full/true colors less glare) using non-pentile screens almost becomes a wash & generally is up to a persons particular like/dislike.
OLED has deeper blacks, but definitely not brighter and uses more power than LCD in smartphone use. OLED has a ways to go….
According to the spec, it does have an MicroSD slot!
http://www.htc.com/jp/smartphones/htl21/#specs
Galaxy S 3 would be my number 5, & who knows how much longer it will stay there (I was hoping that it would be my upgrade phone in January — until I saw it — I was sooo disappointed with the egg shape & as I’ll be upgrading from the Galaxy S1 I don’t want to be looking at the same 2 notification lights either side of the horrible HOME button for ANOTHER 2yrs. I want summat different hence I prefer the square style now.
they need to open their eyes and go to Ebay and find out how many galaxy s3 and HTC One X are on sale at prices starting from £250 to £370, most of which are a week or month old
PPL dont like big phones, stop giving IPhones more window to breathonly 1 in 1000000 may like bigger screen for multimedia use, not everyone wants big screen
It’s for the choice. Nothing more nothing less. They will build a partner normal size phone as a mate ala the note/s3
This will probably be part of the One family in the US, so there’s already a choice of sizes. The One S is still a great phone for people who prefer a smaller size.
mmmmmmmmm I do!
leave the gimmicky small screens to the fapples
oh yes and go look on ebay for how many one week old iPhones there are….. people don’t like smalls screens either ;)
What are you talking about? Plenty of people want big screens.
I personally prefer the larger screens, as many do. Unfortunately for those who don’t, 4.6 to 4.7 is now standard.
4″ to 4.3″ maximum, more than this is called a Brick a bloody Brick
1080p! O_O
I’m a VZW customer & sure hope it’s not exclusive as they’ll just handcuff the device anyways. When devices like this release on all 4 here in the states it’s a benefit to the consumer as well as OEM. More options to plausibly sell a higher volume
Agreed! And hopefully it will keep the same body on all carrier’s so it will have good 3rd party support for accessories.
I’ve been waiting for this moment… for all my life…
I’m seriously impressed. But that doesn’t mean I want to buy one. IMO there are too many sacrifices.
But still, oh lawdy! What I wouldn’t give for a 1080p display. 440 freaking ppi.
Seriously some hard sacrifices- Only 16GB internally with no 32GB option as well?? & the Battery 2020mAh!? You gotta be kidding me, yes I know JB 4.1 & the S4 Pro chip-set has made things more efficient but HTC Sense & their devices themselves haven’t been the best. HTC doesn’t hide it either Lol
Edit: microSD support
Sorry
it does come with a microSD slot as well, so I don’t really care.
oh yes btw it is IPX5 waterproof as well, HTC finally done it right!
Ya I realized this after posting Lol. The battery is still too small for a device that big pushing that many pixels no matter how much better SLCD3 & an S4 Pro are to “real world” usage. Hopefully I’m terribly wrong bout this issue especially if it eventually hits the US
Don’t mention that 440 ppi… That’s the only thing so far that has stood a reasonable argument against why Apple has a better screen.
“blah blah blah, more ppi …blah blah blah!”
“now what, b¡tch!”
Nice, but that battery is weak… 5 inch screen will need a 2500+ mAh battery.
Just read that the battery is removable and it supports micro sd… ok this phone has me interested :-P…
Battery isn’t weak. multiple core tech handles battery life better. Isn’t Tegra.
The CPU is a small part of that equation. What really sucks the life from the phone is the 5 inch 1080p screen it’s got.
id happily trade a japanese person for 5 pairs of ripped and faded levis lmk
probably chock full of bloatware when it hits the states…n/m
Not sure if racist….
I am in love :D
This is going to be the phone to beat this holiday season. Even though I still like the RAZR HD MAXX a lil better because of not having to worry about battery.
I sent in the tip for this (I live in Japan and watched the announcement live), but no recognition… Or did Phandroid read Verve before their tip line? Oh well.
In any case, you left out that it also has IPX5 standard waterproofing, a full featured TV tuner (Japanese 1-seg), TWO types of NFC (Japanese Osaifu Keitai, and international NFC), and unlike some commenters believe, it also has a micro SD slot.
http://www.au.kddi.com/seihin/ichiran/smartphone/htl21/spec.html
http://www.au.kddi.com/seihin/ichiran/smartphone/htl21/index.html
I almost forgot, it also has an IR transmitter on the back (the black oval next to the camera). Used for transmitting contacts with older phones, you can still get an app that lets you control TVs with it.
Jesus Christ… That explains why it is so long. I seen it next to a GNII and talk about monstrous!
I “saw” it next to…
Sorry, I don’t normally grammar nazi, but this one drives me crazy.
Actually, in context, it looks as if “I have seen it next to…” would have been best. However, it’s a blog comment, not a graded essay, let alone a piece of paid journalism – so not worth getting stressed about. I suggest breathing deeply once or twice, and moving on.
lol how about ” i have viewed it next to … ” lol
Good point. I sat next to a guy for a couple years who “seen” things several times a day. Brought me back to that painful time.
I hope someone will figure out how to hack the IR and make it control my TV.
and by “hack” you mean utilize one of the 20+ apps designed to do that?
Burn! ^good one
Haha wasn’t trying to be rude, butters and I squabble a lot on here :p
ooo it’s got the Japanese localizations! Another win for Android. Japanese feature phones had them but were missing in supposedly superior smartphones.
puny battery wtf
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MON…..oh wait, I spent it on a Galaxy S3. Don’t get me wrong, I love my GS3 to death, but I honestly wished I woulda waited. oh well… *sigh*
Is the battery removable? This was a deal breaker for me with the Evo 4G LTE. Also, I don’t care for the color backing
What a BEAST ! Stunning to look at also WAHOO I am due for an upgrade in January again I say WAHOO ! ! !
WHAT’S with subpar camera again tho – a 13meg would have nailed it for me.
Actually a 4 or 6MP would have been better.
“For the love of gawd, please don’t let this one be carrier exclusive.”
I am SO glad that we don’t have to worry about that every time a phone is announced – it must really suck for you guy’s – ok I suppose IF you can afford to get one shipped over internationally but still a major hassle.
Urgh, what’s up with that UI skin? It looks awful! What happened with HTC new “clean and simple” direction with sense?
The over the pond version is different and in the event that we do recieve that ugly ui, It is a pretty close mirror to their tablet ui which would make sense….
see what I did there?
Come on Google, make me this a Nexus!
Bring it to the US meow and I will be one happy guy.
Lol +1 for the meow.
4.87 x 2.7 x 0.39 Inches – Nokia Lumia 920
5.38 x 2.78 x 0.34 Inches – Galaxy S III
5.63 x 2.79 x 0.36 Inches – HTC J Butterfly (HTL21)
http://www.htc.com/managed-assets/jp/smartphones/htc-j-butterfly-htl21/overview/HTC-J-Butterfly-HTL21-dimension-red.png
Nice use of space.It’s about the same width as the GS3 (tiny tiny side bezel)…. and it’s only a quarter of an inch taller…Removable batter and micro sd slot… I might have to import one of these :-P
Yeah that’s tempting. Do they use GSM or CDMA in Japan?
GSM is the Global standard – its only mainly the USA that has CDMA – hence one of the main reasons for getting the phones / updates after Europe.
Wow, apparently everyone is jumping on the Snapdragon S4 pro bandwagon – I really hope Qualcomm can deliver as much SoCs as the vendors order…
Wow this is a sweet phone! But I bet Verizon screws us and makes it ugly or removes a bunch of features
Who didn’t say Oh my God when they first saw this. Is that three pins for wireless charging? All metal back would have been nice, no?
Damn, I was just set on getting the Lumia 920 and now this pops up!
They’re still flirting with little batteries. That display will probably gobble that up.
US name prediction – HTC One HD. I hope there’s an all-black version when it’s out here. Bump up the battery & this could easily be phone of the year.
Oh…mah Gawd… That is too sexy. But I’m disappointed that this was the rumored 5 inch HTC device because I was hoping for it to be a Nexus… Unless HTC will base their Nexus off from this… Even better!
On the back it says “with google” could it be HTC Nexus?
Yes they may be announcing this in japan but if the rumors are true its still going to suck because the rumor is verizon will be getting this as an exclusive phone in the states. And then htc wonders why their loosing money. I would have probably bought this over the note 2 depending on features and pricing.
great looking phone! but that screen is going to drain that battery too quickly. Nevertheless would love to see this as a Nexus device
So probably no U.S. release in time for the holidays.
Take this device, give it a bigger battery, make it a Nexus…
J Butterfly.. awwwwww
“with Google”
??
Probably because whatever they used on the kickstand wears off / rubs off very fast… kickstand ends up looking like it was dragged behind a car.
Sadly my thunderbolt has with Google on the kickstand…
Why no on screen buttons? I’d love to go back to HTC, but they just don’t seem to learn.
I personally hate the on screen buttons I really hope some manufacturers keep the off screen and some keep the on screen.
I agree!!
On screen buttons are worthless unless on a tablet. Love my capacitive buttons.
Capacitive buttons 4lyfe!
Sweet …holy. I’ll give up Nexus and stock for this ridiculous f’ing beast
This is a nice looking phone. I could be going back to HTC.
Wait, wasn’t there a rumor saying HTC would release a 5inch “NEXUS” device? Could there be a Nexus variant of this phone?
2 problems with this phone:
– to small battery for 5-inch 1080p screen.
– dimensions, to narrow and tall (like iPhone 5), entire housing is too big with so much unused space, above the screen.
So that’s what it was – that fake to-be-new-sonys phone a couple of days ago!
Love this phone, but hate the name. In combination with the red color, which I love, but most perceive as lady’s, the name Butterfly sends the wrong vibe.
HAHA we won’t be getting the butterfly, we will get the one hd or five hd or someshit.
OMG YES!!!
HTC still doesnt realize that a phone is useless if it has no power.
Ughh does this mean phones are going to start shipping with even bigger 5″ screens now? I’m so sick of this crap. Android is about choice? Then let me buy a 4.3″ Nexus. The rest of the design looks great with the black and red accent.
440ppi is impressive but I absolutely can’t see a pixel on 300ppi already, this sounds utterly pointless to me. My eyes aren’t microscopes.
I think I just saw my next phone!!!
HTC… What the hell, when you have a big screen, you have to compensate for it with battery, the original note has 5.3 inch screen and it has a 2500mAh battery, unless you have dusted the battery with pixie dust, im sure the phone will be on life support half way though the day
The GN also used AMOLED, which is not as power efficient as SLCD. The fact that this screen is 1080p matters little. The fact that it’s 5″ with more backlighting does matter. Considering the processor is more efficient than the Tegra 3 & S4 in the One X, and they have made further improvements to their SLCD tech, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it have battery life at least on par with the One X.
How is the signal on the htc’s…..hopefully a better than the gnex?
Worlds better than the gnex.
Mine will pull signal over basic phones, which is impossible but it does. Always been the strong point for me.
If HTC just slaps on a 3000mah battery on this along with 32/64gigs of ROM they WILL have a SERIOUS contender to the iphone 5 as well as the S3! They just need to launch this like RIGHT NOW!! Also NFC :p
Massive display, tiny battery.
Wow! Please HTC, make a Nexus with these specs!
Come to the US please. I hate that the screen looks so long tho
too bad it will prob only have like 1.5 GB of ROM. My company picked up a One X recently, screen was great, but extremely limited memory, which has always been the issue with HTC.
Did you even read the article? It says it has 2 gb of RAM. And the memory issue isnt because its low. Its because of Sense. Or is used to be. They’ve greatly improved it. You seem to be confusing RAM and storage. RAM hasnt always been an issue, its just the Sense used to use most of it.
I think you spelled rom wrong :p
is this just a teaser or a real deal phone coming in 2012? I hate teasers better come to tmobile like now!
I think I just came.
nice
Looks great 5.5 note 2 to big this might just be right hope it comes state side will be my next phone
Take that retina display!
But seriously, isn’t 1080p on your PHONE overkill?
When it comes to televisions, the typical person can only see the difference with 1080p resolution when you get to a 50′ screen or bigger.
My 8.9 inch G-Slate tablet is 720p and I hold that roughly the distance away from my face as I would my phone’s screen and that thing looks great. 720p video looks fantastic and I’ve never longed for a higher resolution. I DO on my 55′ Sony Bravia TV but NOT on my 8.9 inch tablet, let alone my cell phone.
It just seems at 1080p you would be sacrificing so much for very little gain. I really doubt any current processor will make that thing run buttery smooth with 1080p resolution also I see battery life being lousy at 2.000 mah. It’s kind of like the days of HTC putting 1300 mah batteries in the G2 just because the processors were more power efficient. They put ‘just enough’ battery life in their phones all the time. I don’t remember an HTC phone with amazing battery life. 1080p will kill performance and battery and it would probably look just as great at 720p but I guess it wouldn’t be smart to judge until actually checking the display out.
I still think the Galaxy Note II is going to be the better buy. Samsung really has things together especially with carrier backing by getting them to push THEIR brand. They have one uniform product globally. This leads to better support and keeps the device’s value for longer, I hope.
it should be called a phablet or mini tablet. no one is gonna buy it
Definitely getting one. Sucks that I’ll have to pay the unsubsidized price but whatevs.
1080p @ 440ppi is just over kill imo…and that battery is go suffer
The red phone brought me here the specs kept me interested
I want HTC to release this with a bigger battery and Nexus branded. So. So. Much.
Oh please Sprint, make this an EVO…
“For the love of gawd, please don’t let this one be carrier exclusive.”<——what he said! T-Mobile subscribers, let us hope that this was the reason they backed out of launching the One X+!
If HTC has a padlock on the battery, it will stay in the store.
My body is ready….
If it had Non-Pentile Super Amoled (Not that the Pentile will really matter), 3,000+ mAh battery, removable battery, SD cars slot, and stock or anything besides Sense… Then it would be the perfect phone
Please make this a nexud and available for all carriers!
DAMN THAT’S A SEXY PHONE HTC have 1080p screen. the only thing that’s not sexy it have A SHITTY battery life. HTC NEEDS TO LEARN to fix and PUT A BIG ASS BATTERY in their and you have a more great device