HTC is opening this year with a major announcement. The Taiwanese tech giant has confirmed that it is working on two new flagship smartphones, the HTC U Ultra and the HTC U Play. The HTC Ultra and the HTC U Play are part of HTC's new U series of smartphones.

HTC said that the company's new U series packs some of the best AI technology to date. HTC added that the two new flagship devices are expected to be rolled out with the new Sense Companion.

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The HTC U Ultra has a 5.7-inch display. It sports a thin 2-inch secondary display embedded right next to the front facing camera. According to Engadget, the main display supports Quad HD resolution, while the smaller secondary screen has a 160 x 1040 resolution. The secondary screen serves as the tray for notifications, music playback controls, reminders, and shortcuts for frequently used contacts.

The HTC U Ultra packs a Snapdragon 821 chipset with 4GB of RAM. The device's storage options are limited to 64GB or 128GB. Additionally, all models sport a microSD slot for storage expansion of up to 2TB.

The U Ultra has a 12-megapixel main shooter with UltraPixel support, laser autofocus, f/1.8 aperture, and optical image stabilization. It also has a 16-megapixel front-facing selfie shooter. Powering the smartphone is a 3,000mAh battery pack.

On the other hand, the HTC U Play packs a 5.2-inch display. The chipset is downgraded from a Snapdragon to a Helio P10 from MediaTek. The U Play has the same storage configuration as its high-end counterpart. The smartphone has a 2,500mAh battery pack.

The HTC U Ultra is expected to run on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat platform, while the HTC U Play will run on the Android 6.0 Marshmallow, according to The Verge.