HTC U24 Pro meets phone sadist Zack Nelson; will it fold like a gambler with a bad hand?

Exactly two months ago today HTC released a new mid-range Android phone, the HTC U24 Pro. The phone is powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 application processor (AP) and carries a 6.8-inch curved OLED panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2436 (FHD+) and a 120Hz refresh rate. It is equipped with 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage expandable via a microSD card, and has an IP67 rating for dust and water protection.

The triple camera setup on the rear panel includes a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera, and a 50MP telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom. The periscope is down on this phone; in other words, there is no periscope lens on this model. The HTC U24 Pro features a 4600mAh capacity battery with 60W fast charging support. And the device does come with a 3.5mm earphone jack.

HTC was once considered one of the best smartphone manufacturers with such great hits as the HTC Touch Pro, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, T-Mobile G1 (the first Android phone in the U.S.), HTC Droid Incredible, Google Nexus One, and the HTC One (M8). But HTC lost its way after the One (M8) and has released some forgettable phones since then. And this is a shame considering that the One (M8) is my favorite phone of all time.

Thumbing through the HTC U24 Pro's spec sheet, you'll find the 50MP front-facing selfie snapper, the microSD slot, and the 3.5mm earphone jack. Interesting? Yes. Flasgship? No. The phone is decidedly mid-range. Would it be able to survive the durability (read torture) test performed by Zack Nelson for his JerryRig Everything video series?

Nelson plays it cute from the start by pointing out that the HTC brand is coming back from the dead. He goes through the sale of HTC's smartphone patents and a large number of employees to Google for $1.1 billion. He also points out that HTC used to use level 9 sapphire crystal on their displays. Now, as we can see in the video, the Gorilla Glass protected display on the HTC U24 Pro scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves easily seen at level 7.

The device is made with an aluminum frame and scraping the paint off is easy enough. The rear panel is made of plastic allowing Zack to show off his sense of humor as he carves a headstone that dovetails perfectly with the iconic HTC logo embedded in the rear panel. The video was a trigger for me though as Nelson couldn't get the under-display fingerprint sensor to work which took me back to the days when I rocked my Pixel 6 Pro. After 15 attempts, the sensor still would not work.

And for the test that everyone was waiting for, the dreaded bend test, the HTC U24 Pro managed to survive in one piece. Zack said that HTC phones used to be very hard to take apart for repair. It didn't appear that Nelson had that much trouble breaking down the U24 Pro.

I'd love to see HTC try its hand at a flagship model and wouldn't even mind if it copied the design of the One (M8). But the feeling I get is that the Taiwan based firm is not very confident in its ability to compete with Samsung and until it can come up with a design that gives the Galaxy S series a run for its money, HTC will be content to sit back and make inconsequential mid-range smartphones priced for the value buyer. That's not the HTC that many of you remember which is actually quite sad.