HTC U11 Review: 10 Months Later By Travelers Warden

What's shaken bacon I wanted to do a quick review today of a technology item. I do sometimes do technology reviews from the viewpoint if a common laymen person who uses them I'm, not a tech channel like Linus tech tips or like Erica Griffin or like unbox therapy, but now and then I like to give my updates and feedback from the viewpoint of a normal user on how an item has worked for me. I love watching technology channels, but at the same time I always think about the fact that they are coming from a point and a perspective. Looking at the technology as a person who handles many devices on a daily, if not weekly basis, these people often get sent devices for free or to review ahead of time, or else they can afford to spend like a grand on a new flagship phone where most people cannot just realistically, so I wanted to do a review. As a ten-month review of somebody who has owned the HTC u11 I'm just going to point out from the perspective of someone who has owned this for ten months, how I feel about it and the pros and cons that I have experienced using this device. These are just my opinions.

This is just my personal experience. I think everybody is different. Everyone's going to have a different experience. This does have specs that are still currently on par with many of the smartphones that are coming out today. The camera, at the time that this was released was the number one camera for DXO mark.

It even beat out the pixel I believe at first until the pixel 2 and the pixel 2 XL came out and of course the Samsung has tonight now, and that was one of the major reasons I purchased this. The other reason I purchased. This phone is because the HTC u11 has this really cool, squeeze functionality built in where, if you press the squeeze button, it will trigger the camera for you, and it will take a picture for you, so I have it set to the front-facing camera so that you guys could just see that it went ahead, and it took a picture based on me squeezing it now. This feature was kind of. It was kind of mocked by people when it was first announced.

I personally thought it was genius in being I have small hands. That was the main reason that I was interested in this phone because of the squeeze feature. I thought it was great for people like myself who are smaller in stature or have smaller hands to be able to key in shortcuts to the squeeze functionality and I loved the fact that it had an upgraded camera, but now I have the HTC Silver I'm going to discuss the pros and the cons. So, if you're considering this phone, hopefully this will give you some food for thought. The camera is great.

Is it as good as I think it was hyped to be yes and no at first, the camera was phenomenal at the time I got this phone I. Do not think that I had ever experienced picture quality taken at the level that this camera on this device took. I was very impressed. It does shoot 4k resolution videos if I wanted to. This is an unfortunate thing that I've noticed- and this happened with a previous phone- that I had I will receive a phone that has a great camera and then a few months in the company will release some kind of software update to the camera package that ruins the way the camera takes photos a few months into owning.

This HTC released an update and all of a sudden, the colors and the sharpness of the photos taken with this device plunged in quality and I, went into the settings and I tried to see if anything had changed. I reset it to defaults. I was like did something happen. Nothing I did worked, so the camera at once was as good as it was said, to be, and I loved, taking pictures with it. This will probably be a great option for you if you know how to tweak all the fancy settings that come with this.

Unfortunately, I, don't I rely on the software intelligence that comes with the phone from the company. So if you are someone like me, and you just like to pull out your phone and go wow, look at that click or oh my gosh. Let me take a photo of me with my family and friends: it's not going to be as good as the DXO mark and the reviews said that it was unless you know how to tweak the settings. The display is a quad HD IPS display it's not an AMOLED display, but the colors are still very vibrant, and I do apologize again, I'm, not a tech, blogger or reviewers. So my setup is not designed to show off a screen.

This is just a very kind of loosey-goosey review for this, so I know it's going to be washed out, I'm, sorry for that in advance, but you can take my word for it. The display it's very pretty the HD on this is great. I have not missed the AMOLED. Nearly the issue is that the colors on this device very much so skew blue, and it's not that there are shifts or lines in the screen like you can see on some devices. The issue is that it's just a very cool tone screen and even though there are color profile settings, you only get to choose between RGB and the vivid mode, which is what I have it on RGB turns everything yellow and I mean yellow when I turn on RGB and I.

Look at my background, which is actually Core from Dishonored for anybody who hasn't recognized it because I love, Dishonored Core is orange when I toggle RGB, so there's really no happy medium between the blue and the yellow in the color settings in this phone. For me and that's the one complaint I have about the display. Otherwise, the display is beautiful. Granted the screen to body ratio is not optimal; it does make the phone look dated, even though it's less than a year old, there's a very wide bumper on the bottom, and that is where you have your dedicated navigational keys. In addition to your fingerprint reader, the fingerprint reader is, in fact the fastest I have ever used and as soon as I touch it, the screen lights up.

The battery for this phone is also great, do not be concerned about the battery only being 3000 Williams, because it lasts and lasts and lasts in all the time that I have used this device in all these 10 months. Not once has the phone gotten hot to the touch, no matter how long I use it. This really is like a second limb, because I manage everything through this phone. The battery lasts me about a day and a half, but let me just clarify that I get a day and a half out of this battery by turning it off overnight and by not leaving Bluetooth on, do not be put off by the battery. If that is a concern for you, it's definitely not hindered me and, like I mentioned, I use my phone quite a bit.

This phone gets consistent, Android updates. It receives very regularly pushed security, patches and Android updates. If I see in the news that Android is releasing a new version or that they are going to be pushing a security, patch I know that, probably within a week or two, it will be available on this phone, which is really nice, because that means that the phone stays up-to-date days fast, and it stays current with all the apps that I like to use. That is a big plus. For me, this HTC is the first company that I have used with the Android platform that consistently pushes updates like this.

This phone also has good call reception, and it has great signal quality. One thing I also considered when looking at HTC for this phone, which was my last major phone purchase, was because I have headphones prior to this that had terrible signal, strength, I work in a location that appears to be, for the most part, a dead zone and certain phone brands like Samsung, for example, I, would get no bars, no signal nothing. This phone, on the other hand, I consistently get one to two bars. Even when I am in what used to be considered by me as dead zones, all quality has always been crisp and clear. It is very rare that I actually drop a call with this phone, which makes me happy.

Sometimes we look at the specs in terms of processor and screen and camera quality on the smartphone, and we forget the base uses of the phone which are if I'm traveling or, if I'm, in a dead zone. Will this thing still work and for me, in my experience, using this on straight talk with an AT&T LTE SIM card. This definitely works, no matter where I am and no matter where I have traveled, and the last thing I really like about it is that it is ip67 water-resistant and dust resistant rated which isn't such a big concern for me, because it's not like I'm taking this thing, you know paddleboarding or skiing, or anything like that, I'm not doing any activities where I would be really particularly concerned about dust or water entering my phone, but it's still nice to have just for peace of mind. So those are all the things I really like about this phone, but there are some cons to this phone. One of the big ones is that I absolutely hate the UE I've tried other home launchers, and they just weren't fast enough compared to the speed of the sense home launcher that came with HTC's device.

That really is not the issue that I have my main issue with the hey. Is this setting the HTC UE menu for settings is absolutely terrible, in my opinion, to the point where I actively avoid changing any of the settings on my phone because I hate using it. The reason why is that there are subfolders within subfolders- it's just not in my opinion, as smooth and intuitive, as it can be. Another thing that I don't like very much about this phone is the brightness and color scale. It probably looks bright on film right now it looks fine, but if you're outside, even with the brightness, turned all the way up, it can be difficult to see the screen night.

If you want to turn the brightness down, so you don't burn out your retinas, it doesn't go very low, while the brightness settings I'm sure are decent, and I've lived with them, and it hasn't been a huge pain in the patient. It's still not ideal, and it's not as good as other phones that I've had another issue I have with this is the lack of headphone jack I. Do not like the fact that this phone does not have one considering the amount of bezel that they left on this device as well as the thickness. There is more than enough room to include a headphone jack anywhere on this device. It doesn't make sense to me why they didn't include it.

My guess is, so they could get that ip67 water-resistant rating, because headphone jacks are difficult in terms of getting that rating for smartphones. It's just such a waste of space and I did not think that this would bother me, but the problem is that I don't use Bluetooth headphones and every Bluetooth speaker I have, in short order murdered. Additionally, I have nice headphones, that I like to use to listen to music, that I can't unless I have an adapter and when I use a USB-C to jack adapter for my headphones they're, not great quality and the audio gets garbled and while HTC did include an adapter. That also means that anytime I want to get up from my desk and move out to the kitchen or go to the bathroom. Let's say I'm getting ready in the morning, and I want to listen to some music, while I'm getting ready, I have to remember to unplug and remove that little adapter anytime I want to go anywhere, and it is a huge inconvenience for me, and this is one of the things that I mentioned things that are inconvenient for me about this device may not be a problem for other people if you have Bluetooth headphones or if you have a Bluetooth speaker that works very well for you.

I cannot imagine that this would be a problem for me considering the fact that I use devices with a Jack interface so much. That is a huge inconvenience for me and again. I did not think it would be, and it is to the point where, when I am looking for a new device, I needed to have a headphone jack I do not like that. Manufacturers are removing the ability to use a headphone jack from the device, and I do frequently run into the issue where I want to listen to music. But this sucker is charging, and I can't, and I hate it.

That is another huge con for me. Another con, interestingly, because this is HTC- are the speakers for this. In, like every review I've read on this phone, people are like whoa I, don't know if maybe I just got a defective device, but these speakers are the worst speakers. I have encountered on a smartphone ever, and that includes the very first smartphone I ever owned. It's supposed to be dual speakers.

I know that one of them comes out. The bottom I have not located where the one is supposed to be on the top I'm sure it's one of these holes. That's what she said, however, when I am playing any kind of sound out of this phone. If I cover the bottom speaker immediately, I can't hear the music anymore, or I can't hear the video anymore, so I thought. Maybe this was something I needed to change in the settings.

There are only two sound profiles that you can choose, it's one button or the other, and it's either music or it's theater and music makes this sound. If it's even possible worse, it is not impressive at all again. This is the worst speaker setup I have ever encountered on any smartphone and I cannot fathom why people are saying it's good and I. Don't like I, actually will be listening to a video out of the speakers, because I can't find my adapters, so I can't use my headphones. So I'll have my hand like cupped around the speaker on the back, and I'd love the volume.

All the way up, and I will still barely be able to hear. What's going on, it's just a big, big con for me. Personally again, this may not be an issue for anybody else, but for me even having the fact that the speakers were disappointing was a negative, particularly because HTC is supposed to have a great speaker system, the last con for this film. For me, it's also something that has changed the way. I look at smartphones that I'm going to purchase just like I now only want to purchase a smartphone with a headphone jack, and that is the glass back.

The reason why I have been thinking about phones so much lately is because mine is broken, and you can see it there I'm afraid to touch it, because it's a very sharp break. This broke within the case that I have on it that I don't take it out of, and I did not drop it I woke up over the weekend and the bottom corner of this was completely broken, and it is broken if you actually watched like the Jerry Riggs everything disassembly video of this. You know this is a very, very fragile device. I have seen online where people have broken it by using the squeeze functionality. That's how fragile this device is, because the frame does not have any kind of give in it.

This actually broke along the squeeze sensor on the side and then down across the charging port and two sensors that are in here underneath, which means that not just the back cover has broken. But my phone software has started to behave a little oddly, so I suspect that either the Flex when I use the device from the broken case is either impacting the sensors or the squeeze functions on the side or the sensors underneath or something is broken on the inside, and again I did not drop this. This sits on my bedside table. I, don't let the cats I mean I, don't the pours in when I sleep at night, so I don't know how this provoked, and again I've had this for 10 months, I've got a screen protector on here. I've used a sign liquid crystal case on it.

Furthermore, I, don't understand how this thing broke, and it's very, very disappointing to me, because I have never had a phone break on me in less than a year and normally what I do? At the end of the several years after I've used a phone I'm able to sell it in mint condition, because there will not be a scrape or scuff or a scratch on any device. I have ever owned and unfortunately, I'm going to have to sell this one at a loss and I will have to sell it after I save up for a new one. The fact that this one broke so rapidly is very disheartening. Ranted on camera. This does not look like a bad break and I think part of that is because the reflection is not letting you see the depth of the break, but I actually cut all three of these fingers just initially looking at it and touching it.

I was like. Oh, no is this underneath and I sliced my fingers open, and it's been about a week since it happened, and I still have cuts, they're, not healing because they were so deep like this was a big break. This has also shown me that I do not want a glass packed device. If you're going to get this phone, please be aware that it is incredibly fragile and the limited warranty that HTC includes with these devices apparently Kurt nothing. This has happened to quite few people online and it HTC has basically said tough luck, so, unfortunately, I am out all the money that I paid for this.

This phone has a lot of good pros and cons. What it comes down to is, would I buy this again. The answer is no, but the reason my answer is no is for a couple of things that I've already mentioned that other people may not have an issue with, which is the speakers, which is the headphone jack, which is how fragile this device is. I hope this answers any questions that anyone might have had about this device and about using it for this long of a time. These are my thoughts on it wouldn't buy, it again knows did I enjoy it, while I had it for the most part.

Yes, although the several items I've mentioned, have been quite frustrating for me and have heavily influenced the type of phone I, think I will get next I believe I'm actually going to try and save up my money for a 1, + 5 t. If you have any more questions for me about this device or if you'd like further feedback on it, please feel free to tell me in the comments below, and I'll do my best to answer. Of course, you can always ask me or find me on Twitter or twitch. I am live on Twitch Monday, Wednesday Fridays at 7:30 p. m.

Eastern, Standard Time. If you'd like to just interact with me, live time and I hope you guys are having an awesome week, I'll catch you later.

Source : Travelers Warden