Race for 5-inch smartphone is on

IF THERE's one smartphone manufacturer than could really take the Samsung Galaxy Note down, it's HTC. Before anyone could wield a stylus post iPhone era, HTC was the first to bring back that novelty which has been dismissed by Apple as prehistoric technology.

HTC last year released its first tablet called The Flyer, and with it comes its Scribe technology which allows the tablet to work with a proprietary (but sold separately) Magic Pen stylus. The 7-inch tablet was actually a pretty descent device, though overshadowed by the popularity of the Samsung Galaxy Tabs.

But it was the only tablet in the market which has the stylus feature, and it works very well. A lot of work has clearly gone into making it a coherently integrated and value-adding element of the Flyer's retail proposition.

But the problem with the flyer was that it was not a stylus-equipped smartphone, a class that was eventually helmed by Samsung with the release of the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note the following months after.

Now, the Taiwanese firm is reportedly planning its own 5-inch superphone, after the company expressed its interest in the smartphone tablet hybrid market, seemingly impressed by the success of Samsung's Note.

This information was revealed by US based mobile service provider Verizon in its 2012 roadmap that indicated an HTC smartphone with 5-inch full HD (1080p) S-CLD2 display, which means that it would top the Note's 5.3 inch Super AMOLED display with 720p HD pixel resolution.

The information also revealed additional tid-bits about how the HTC Note rival would shape up to be, citing a quad-core Qualcom Snapdragon S4 processor with Adreno 320 graphics integration, HTC Sense 5.0 and Scribe technology support that was introduced in the Flyer.

HTC is expected to unveil its Note-like device sometime this year, just months after the successful release of its new line of flagship One series.

I've been hoping for a 5-inch HTC smartphone that doubles as a small tablet for quite some time. And with its own Scribe technology support, it should give Samsung a run for its money. Had HTC released its own version of 'Note' earlier, the new 5-inch smartphone category wouldn't be entirely dominated by Samsung.

But HTC isn't the only one that's going to release a Galaxy Note contender. Reports have also stated that China-based hardware maker ZTE also plans to introduce similar product, and Panasonic is also expected to launch its 5-inch Eluga Power, while LG has just released its own 5-inch smartphone, the Optimus Vu.

However, none of these devices will have a stylus feature to match the S-pen, a killer app for the Note, so HTC will definitely be the one to watch out for as a potential contender in this new hybrid category. The Brunei Times