HTC Ocean and an HTC Vive phone? Evan Blass leaks promo videos

Our favorite [insert facetious jumble here] leaks man Evan Blass has put out two videos supposedly leaked from HTC, both of them describing efforts that the company is undertaking and will likely be shown at an event or events.

The first one we’ll focus on is the HTC Ocean.

The codename “Ocean” has come to be associated with a new mobile user interface that relies less on tapping on the screen and more on intelligently detecting swiping and tapping actions on the sides of the phone to scroll, select and execute actions.

We’ve since associated, for better or worse, that “Sense Touch” concept with three devices: “Ocean Note,” “Ocean Master” and “Ocean Smart.” The Ocean Note is said to launch at an event on January 12 as the “HTC U Ultra”.

If you were wondering what our conditioner clause was for up there, then you probably won’t like the odds of seeing the Sense Touch concept on the U Ultra, especially when you take what Blass tweeted out after posting the video.

The Ocean Note has pretty much nothing to do with the Ocean we’ve seen? So much for presumptive deduction.

Going by what we’ve previously gathered, we can imagine that the Ocean Master device will be the bastion for Sense Touch and it leaves us wondering if the Ocean Smart device, with the chips on it being a mid-range Desire series phone, will get Sense Touch.

Moving onto video number two, we learn that HTC will be publicizing its CMF kitchen — the letters stand for “colors, material and finish”.

Essentially, we’re talking about a research lab tasked with finding new materials and vanity designs for HTC’s mobile output.

We likely saw the first bits of the kitchen’s output in the recent Desire x30 releases with their microsplash designs. It’ll be good to see if the company can pull off something far beyond what Motorola did for Moto Maker, the feature that allowed customers to tailor the intrisnic colors and materials of their to-be handset to a certain extent. It’ll especially be encouraging now, given how the Moto Z has given up that level of customization for modular design shells.

And yes, you were not mistaken in seeing an HTC Vive phone in the last few seconds of that video. What that has to do with a woman jogging along the harbor, we have not the foggiest. There’s simply too little information to speculate on or even put out expectations for.

But we can sure as hell talk about the concept and purpose of a Vive phone in the comments. Keep in mind that HTC officially spun off its virtual reality arm last year into HTC Vive — if that means anything to your calculations.

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Maybe HTC Ocean Note will come on January 12 after all?

HTC has something special “for U” on January 12. We still do not officially know what it is, but there have been guesses and speculative jabs at what might be up for the day.

According to Taiwanese outlet ePrice, there’s growing probability that at least one of the products that will be showcased will be a device that’s been codenamed “Ocean Note”. It is rumored that the January 12 date has strong support and that sales will begin before January 28, the start of the Lunar New Year holidays.

The HTC Ocean concept was leaked in a designer’s portfolio video a few months ago that portrays a device with hardware design similar to what HTC has done for its One series and the HTC 10. Hardware buttons have been replaced with touch-capacitive siderails and “Sense Touch” software interface that cleverly takes advantage of them.

Three such devices are rumored to take on the concept, with the “Note” being one of them. The two others, “Master” and “Smart,” are presumed to be the main variant and a lighter-duty one, respectively. All three may come to market under different series brands — the “Master” will be in the vein of the One (10?) series, the “Smart” will be in the Desire series while the “Note” will get a new umbrella.

It isn’t clear if the trio will be announced or released simultaneously, but all three are supposedly scheduled to be revealed within the first quarter.

It’s also unprecedented for HTC to make such an early play at the smartphone market, but it could find some support in drafting distance from Samsung and LG product launches in the spring, a new brand and a “Note” phablet solution that may fill the void of the Note 7 and beat the LG V20’s sales performance. It definitely needs the support after another year of poor shipment numbers.

We’ll have to see how much of this holds up, but we wouldn’t push too much doubt here.

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Three HTC Ocean phones might take touch controls to the next level

One designer un(?)intentionally teased every HTC fan with a floating, “Ocean” concept phone that had everyone buzzing about buttonless hardware touch controls on the siderails of the phone. Would such a phone with “Sense Touch” UI really come out anytime soon or would it just remain what it was — a concept?One HTC leaker, LlabTooFeR, has just a few words to that question.CodenamesOCEAN MASTEROCEAN NOTEOCEAN SMART

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