Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC is expected to introduce its new flagship smartphone code-named Ocean at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, which starts on Feb. 27 in Barcelona, Spain. The handset is rumored to focus mainly on gesture, touch, and voice technology capabilities.

In an interview with Engadget, HTC president of smartphone and connected devices business Chialin Chang said that they will be releasing just 6–7 smartphone models in 2017 as compared to 11–12 models in 2016 to focus more on the devices' core features. The aim is to make the handsets more competitive against their rivals. He also claimed that their flagship model will not be named HTC 11.

On his Twitter post, reliable source Evan Blass claims that the rumored HTC Ocean model is already being tested in late 2016.

Among the expected specifications of the Ocean are a full metal unibody casing, an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of 57, meaning it will be waterproof when submerged to up to 5 meters, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, and at least 4 GB of random access memory (RAM).

The handset, however, is expected to be without the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack just like the U Ultra and U Play models.

The Ocean is also expected to have 64 GB of internal storage with support for microSD card expansion, as well as a USonic Hi-Resolution USB Type-C headphone. It will be compatible with Google's new virtual reality (VR) platform Daydream.

The flagship handset is also expected to have a curved 5.5-inch display with 2,560 x 1,440 pixel resolution, and will use the active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display technology to support Daydream.

The other specifications expected for the Ocean include an Android Nougat operating system, the HTC Sense Companion app, and the Sense Touch technology. It will also have a 16-megapixel front camera with UltraPixel mode and a 12-megapixel rear camera.

More news and updates on HTC's rumored flagship smartphone, code-named Ocean, should roll out in the coming weeks.