The HTC U12+ is now official and orders are open on HTC.com for the SIM-free price of £699.

It's available in Translucent Blue (with a see-through back that's ace), Ceramic Black, and Flame Red.

Note that you can only order Translucent Blue and Ceramic Black from HTC.com. If you're an HTC Club member, you can get 10% off. HTC says that Flame Red and further retail availability will be confirmed in due course.

We'll be bringing you full details of any networks that will stock the handset - you'll find all the best HTC U12+ deals right here. 

It will be interesting to see how HTC can compete at the £699 price point. We've recently seen the Honor 10 and OnePlus 6 launch - both with mostly flagship-level specs in the £400-£500 mark.

Because it can't compete with Apple or Samsung at the high end, we feel HTC needs to hit that sweet spot. Yesterday we had a leak of the specs and price, too - a test area of HTC’s website briefly posted specs, prices and pictures of the phone citing the price as 5,888 yuan - that works out at nearly £700, so we had been thinking that the UK HTC U12+ price would be £699.

The USD coversion of that yuan price is $925. It won't cost that much stateside because that would put it too near to the super-expensive iPhone X at $999 - it looks like it will be $799 instead. 

Now why not check out HTC U12+ specs, release date and news: Everything you need to know