HTC saw a strong growth in sales in June 2017, although the boost wasn’t enough to stop Q2 as a whole being a period of sales decline.

The company reported June sales of TWD6.89 billion ($225 million), up 8.38 per cent year on year – and up 52.1 per cent from the prior month sequentially.

For the three months, sales of TWD16.14 billion were down 14.5 per cent from TWD18.86 billion.

The increase in sales comes in line with the launch of the company’s 2017 flagship, called U11, which includes “squeeze” input capability through a sensor on the side of the device.

The ailing smartphone maker previously admitted it was “pinning a lot of hope” on the device, as part of its focus on higher tiers, in order to improve its profitability.

Some recent reports suggest HTC is readying a lower-spec sibling for U11, which will continue to sport the Edge Sense squeeze input feature, taking the differentiating user interface feature beyond the high-tier.

Other mooted specifications include a 5.2-inch full HD screen, Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, and bundled with HTC USonic earphones – meaning no 3.5-inch audio jack.

HTC will publish full figures for the Q2 period – including profit or loss numbers – later this month.