With the arrival of HTC U Ultra powered by Snapdragon 821 chipset and HTC U Play, the Taiwanese company introduced the new HTC U series of smartphones. The arrival of the new HTC U series probably marks the death of HTC One line of phones. Today, HTC finally announced its 2017 flagship smartphone, the HTC U 11.
HTC U 11 Design
The HTC U 11 sports the Liquid Surface design that was introduced on HTC U Ultra. The flagship phone features 3D glass on its front and rear sides and it sports a slightly curved appeal. The phone comes in a glossy texture and will be available in color choices like Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, Ice White, Amazing Silver and Solar Red.
Each color variant appears in different colored tints depending on the way the phone is held. For example, the Amazing Silver appears silver-blue and silver-purple from different angles. HTC confirmed that the U 11 is an IP67 certified waterproof phone. It measures 153.9 x 75.9 x 7.9mm and its weight is 169 grams.
The USP of the HTC U 11 is that it comes with a pressure-sensitive metallic frame (four pressure gauges respectively on left and right sides) that is equipped with the new Edge Sense feature. Squeezing the frame lets users launch various functions on the phone.
There is no 3.5mm audio jack on the phone. The bottom features a USB Type-C port. HTC will be shipping an adapter with the phone so that users can connect their 3.5mm headphones to the USB Type-C port of HTC U 11. The company is also providing a new set of HTC U Sonic headphones enabled with active noise cancellation feature with the phone. The Home button of the phones houses the fingerprint scanner. The HTC U 11 also features BoomSound tweeter (on top) and woofer (on bottom) for natural and amazing audio experience.
HTC U 11 Specifications
The HTC U 11 has a 5.5-inch Super LCD 5 screen that offers a quad-resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels and a traditional aspect ratio of 16:9. It is driven by Snapdragon 835 chipset.
HTC will be releasing 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage variant in the U.S. whereas international markets will be getting another variant that has 6 GB RAM and 128 storage. It features a microSD slot that can also function as a SIM slot. The single-SIM edition supports 1 Gbps 4G LTE. The HTC U11 is packed with Quick Charge 3.0 enabled 3,000mAh battery. For perfect sound recording experience, the phone comes with four microphones.
It is preloaded with Android 7.1 Nougat and latest edition of Sense UI. At start it will only carry support for Google Assistant, but Alexa assistant will be also added within 30 days of launching in the U.S., the U.K and Germany. The Taiwanese firm is also offering its own HTC Sense Companion assistant for HTC U 11 users. The Chinese users will be getting Baidu Duer as a secondary voice assistant.
The Edge Sense feature allows the user to access various apps only be squeezing the sides of the phone. For instance, squeezing will allow users to open the camera app and another squeeze will snap a photo. Squeezing on the lockscreen will launch the Google Assistant. Users can customize what tasks can be carried out through short and long short squeezes. The sensors can also be configured for better feedback through user’s grip.
HTC U 11 Camera
The 12-megapixel UltraPixel 3 camera of HTC U 11 with a score of 90 is the highest rated DxOMark camera on a smartphone. It features f/1.7 aperture, OIS, 1.4-micron pixel size, 4K video shooting, slow motion videos of 1080p at 120 fps, and a dual-LED flash. There is a 16-megapixel f/2.0 aperture Ultrapixel camera on the front that is capable of shooting full HD videos.
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HTC U 11 Release Date and Price
HTC U 11 will be arriving in Asian markets on May 18. It would be landing in the U.K. in the next month with a pricing of £649 ($849). The unlocked Europe model is priced at €750 ($829).
In the U.S., it will be available exclusively through Sprint and unlocked versions will come through AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon which can be pre-ordered for $649 through HTC.com and Amazon.com. Sprint, HTC, Amazon are taking pre-orders from today.
Sprint is providing HTC U 11 with monthly payments of $29 for 24 months with no down payment. It is also providing two free Amazon Echo Dots for customers who pre-orders the HTC U 11. Sprint will start shipping from June 9 whereas the unlocked phones will begin shipping in June.
