HTC’s newest device is another disappointing entry-level smartphone

Once every few months, sometimes several, HTC launches a new smartphone, but it’s always a device made for the masses rather than a premium product. It’s a sign that the Taiwanese company completely dropped any attempts to return to the flagship market.

Unfortunately, HTC’s high-end phones didn’t sell that well, and the company’s pivot to crypto-centric smartphones didn’t pay off. The only phones that we now get from time to time are those released under the Wildfire series, HTC’s cheapest lineup of Android smartphones.

After introducing the Wildfire E Plus back in October, HTC is returning to the smartphone market with another cheap product, the Wildfire E3 Lite. Despite its name, this is actually a better device than the Wildfire E Plus, at least according to the official specs.

First off, the Wildfire E3 Lite sports a large 6.5-inch HD+ INCELL waterdrop screen and a dual camera setup (13MP main camera + 2MP macro camera). Also, the phone features a 5-megapixel selfie snapper with fixed focus, face detection and HD 720p video recording.



Under the hood, HTC’s new smartphone packs an octa-core Unisoc SC9863 processor, coupled with either 3/32GB or 4/64GB memory. A side-mounted fingerprint sensor is present too, alongside a massive 5,000 mAh battery that promises up to 7 hours of video playback, 9 hours of game playback, or 7 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.

Unlike the Wildfire E Plus that runs Android 12 (Go Edition), the Wildfire E3 Lite is a full-fledged Android 12 smartphone, which would be great if Android 13 wouldn’t have released last year. Just about every smartphone launched in the last couple of months was running Android 13 right out the box, but not HTC’s.

Other highlights of the Wildfire E3 Lite include dual-SIM support, dual LTE, microSD card slot (up to 256GB), 3.5mm audio jack, and USB Type-C port for charging. Unfortunately, HTC didn’t announced when the phone will be available for purchase nor how much it will cost, so your guess is just as good as ours.