HTC U11 extended hands-on By PhoneArena

Each year, major smartphone manufacturers line up to show us what they've been working on since their last big flagships, teasing us with better than ever performance, interesting and useful new features, and hopefully some designs that leave us actually feeling excited to carry their handsets around after the first few months of 2017 brought us some very strong efforts from companies like Samsung and LG. It's now HTC's turn to try and prove itself this week in Taiwan. It did just that. Is it pulled the curtain back on the new HTC? U 11! After bringing you an early hands-on with this new Android hardware, we traveled halfway around the world to see this launch in person and try and get a greater understanding of just what makes the U 11 tick what it really has to offer that as competition might not and whether this handset is destined to end up on our short list of phones to recommend when it comes to raw silicon. HTC very much has its bases covered and the Snapdragon 835 powering. This phone puts it in the same class as a Galaxy S8, while also giving it a leg up on the LG g6.

Similarly, the speedy, 64 gigabytes of UFS, 2.1 storage or even 128 gigs in select markets hits both capacity and performance notes to be very much like to see and whether you're looking at the addition with four gigs or six gigs of ram, there's ample memory to handle even the most demanding multitask force. But it's easy to just overload a phone with all the latest high-end components. A much trickier proposition is forming those parts into a handset, that's eye catching attractive and really resonates with users on an emotional level. For that, HTC is embracing what it calls a liquid surface design. That's a pronounced departure from the straightforward metal.

Unibody looks of yesteryear. While this new design is proud to embrace organic flowing lines and graceful curves, the star of the show is easily the phone's colored glass back panel. We've previously got a quick look at some of those color options, but after spending more time with them and seeing how they shine under some bright lights, we're all the more impressed rather than presenting users with a single color HTC is an advanced treatment process gives each shade the ability to shift into intricate new ways of color under changing lighting conditions. The ice white shows hints of red at the right angles, and while the sapphire blue is something enough on its own, it's slowly morphs into deep purple as Au. Eleven twists in your black can be a pretty drab color for phones, but this so-called brilliant black brings out hints of green under illumination, and the aptly named amazing silver throws out blue youth every turn.

This launch event was our first run-in with the solar red. U 11 and man. Is it a stunner, almost like ketchup and mustard, the red shifts to bold, yellow at the phone rotates, while all the color options are pretty attractive. We're just a bit upset that our favorites, white and red won't be making it to the US for the yule Evans release compared to similar color options on the galaxy s 8 and LG G 6. It's easy to see why HTC is so proud of the U Elevens looks and the phone grabs the tension waves as other handsets just can't, but for as good as the coloring of the U 11 is.

We also can't deny if it's a larger handset than with others, and what only has a 5.5 inch display it's more traditionally widescreen shape, rather than the Super widescreen displays of LG and Samsung does make the U 11 look a little chunky in comparison. On the other hand, that substantial build might make it feel more natural to get a grip on the phone which is key to enjoying one of the U 11s key new features edge sense, as we already showed you pressure, sensors track, how firmly you're, squeezing the sides of the phone and can use that input to quick, launch, apps and toggle phone settings. It's eminently customizable the mall. It does feel a little gimmicky. We also appreciate its usefulness in various situations on a paper.

The U 11s camera didn't sound that impressive and felt like a rehash of what we got on the HTC 10, but after spending a little time shooting with the phone's 12 megapixel ultra pixel sensor now, with dual pixel focus and an extra wide aperture we're starting to appreciate all the subtle ways. HTC has found to extract all the image taking performance they can out of this package, and we're getting to that camera as simple as giving the phone a gentle squeeze, it's easy to tap into that hardware, as often as you like audio, has also been a big focus of the U xi development with things like a 360-degree array of microphones to zero. In on your subject and capture the highest fidelity sound possible where new boom sound speakers, that sounds so much more substantial and satisfying than the speakers on the HTC 10. But the audio feature we've most been looking forward to checking out has been the new. U sonic, earbuds as they deliver active noise cancellation.

We finally got to give that capability a spin and while it does reduce background noise, we do have a few reservations for one. The noise cancellation is tied to the use of you, sonic audio profiles, customizing ear, but output for your individual ear shape, and while that does sound good, it also tends to be quite a bit louder than non-enhanced audio. So it's tricky to tell the difference between noise cancellation and simply cranking up the volume such that background noise sounds quieter in comparison. Maybe the more annoying limitation is that you can't simply pop the earbuds in and switch on a noise cancellation to get some peace and quiet. The cancellation is only engaged when you're actively listening to audio, and you can't manually toggle it on to cancel out background noise as you try and get some work done far more than before, we're seeing all the potential HTC has given at you 11.

Of course, other HTC handsets have had potential in spades, but translating that into sales can prove a lot more difficult than it sounds. HTC is also facing some of its most serious competition in years from 2017 drop, the flagships and the u11 can't get succeed on being good. It has to be better than everyone else. Is this the Hanna that will turn around the company's fortunes well stay tuned for our full HTC? U 11 review for now, I'm Steven shank with phone arena thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe, to see how the rest of the? U 11 story, unfolds.

Source : PhoneArena