HTC U11 Review By PhoneArena

This is the HTC? U 11 the latest in a long line of HTC flagships, including phones like the one m9 and HTC ten with you 11 we've got a phone with a whole new look, the latest high-end hardware and some interesting new features not just for an HTC phone but for smartphones in general. Does all that add up to making you 11 a strong contender against an android heavyweight that already have a head start on sales, I'm, Steven, Schenck, Lat hon arena here to answer those questions and more as I review the HTC? U 11 this year, the biggest smartphones have been all about reinventing themselves for LG and Samsung. That's been launching some stunning new flagships with extra wide screen dimensions such that they utterly stretch to cover the body of the handsets holding them, combined with some high-end specs and well executed software. That's made both the Galaxy S 8 and g6 2, incredibly modern, looking easy to recommend phones. HTC is also back to the drawing board in 2017, abandoning the iconic aluminum unibody look of the past and highlighting a design that embraces smoothly flowing curves and bold shiny colors. Instead of a sturdy utilitarian metal construction, the star of the show for the U 11s design is the phone's colorful back panel.

Underneath protective Gorilla Glass HTC has used a multi layer process to create colors that shift and transform under changing angles and lighting conditions. Blue shows traces of purple silver reveals flashes of blue and even black, as hints of green longing to catch your attention for the u. s. That's all you can expect, but international u11 customers can also check out a white that reveals splashes of pink or a very impressive red that morphs into yellow right. In your hand, they look lovely, no argument there, but there are also some heavy-duty fingerprint magnets, which is probably why HTC saw fit to not only bundle you a leather with a cleaning cloth, but also an included clear case.

As for the rest of the 11th design, there are some attractively sweeping lines and smooth curves, but on both the handsets we spent time with there seemed to be one sharp feeling edge with that glass panel didn't quite align with the colored metal frame here on the left and with this one on the right, it's not a huge deal, but when you're paying north of $500 for a phone, we really do start caring about the details. Circling the hardware we find relatively unadorned less than Edge's, see for the barest hint of a hybrid SIM tray up top on the right is the Elevens volume, rocker and power button and down below is the USB type-c port and main speaker grille. That means that HTC is standing its ground when it comes to moving away from analog, headphone jacks and the u 11 arrives without one. That said, the company does make a couple important efforts to make up to that omission, which we'll talk about in just a moment. Oh, and did we mention the U 11 is waterproof.

Water may not have played nicely with HTC's metal handsets, but the U 11 will shake off a splash or two without thinking twice. The ip67 rating isn't quite as robust as the 6-8 on competitors phones, but it's still very much a step in the right direction. The phone's face houses, a 5.5 inch, quad HD 1440 by 2560 LCD panel, beneath that we find the? U Elevens fingerprint scanner, flanked by capacitive Android buttons. The screen itself looks alright, it's not the most color accurate we've ever seen, but to its credit, it does exhibit decently bright output, but there's also something about this screen. That feels like it's doing view 11 a disservice, and it's not anyone.

Singular decision consider this with the: u 11 HTC is moving to its largest screen on the flagship, yet at 5.5 inches and while the screens covered in 2.5 D glass that flows over the U 11 sides, there's still some healthy sized bezels in between and though HCC's chief Android, competition has begun experimenting with ultra-wide screen.18 even 18 point five by nine aspect ratios the U 11 is a much more traditional. Sixteen by nine shape, and that tends to mean a wider phone body as a result of all these factors, view 11, looks and feels chunkier than the galaxy s 8 and LG G 6 on its own on the phone shape. Isn't that objectionable? Maybe only the bezels, deserve a second thought, but shoppers will be comparing view 11 to these others. The mall HCC's assortment of color options is very appealing. Xi design seems less daring, less forward-thinking than the rest.

That may seem like a shallow objection, but in the super premium flagship market HTC can't afford to be on the losing side of these comparisons, of course, while looks are important view. Xi also has a lot else going on for it, powered by a Snapdragon, 835 and equipped with 4 gigabytes of RAM or 6 gigs and select international markets. The u 11 is largely unmatched in terms of raw performance. It's only real competition comes from other 830 five phones and there are precious few of those out there right now, even against the recently launched LG g6, the U 11 has a pronounced speed advantage and with 64 gigabytes of storage or 128. It could track down that 6k RAM Edition, plus micros expansion.

Furthermore, it's difficult to argue the view.11 isn't solidly outfitted when it comes to raw specs. But okay, it's easy to just throw a lot of bleeding-edge silicon on the phone to capture the often short attention spans of finicky shockers. You also need a hook or two and the u 11 has just that. Well, the phone itself doesn't have much in the way of physical buttons. HTC has hidden a new hardware element to the sides of the handset screen there.

A series of strain gauges detect when you're giving the phone a squeeze HTC calls this egg sense. Egg sense works a lot like the software-defined button on the BlackBerry key 1 or Samsung Galaxy S7 active. You can configure egg sense to respond to a squeeze by opening up an app taking a screenshot, causing the phone's flashlight, or maybe the most useful, quick launching the camera. With that last mode, you can continue to interact with egg sense by triggering the camera shutter with another squeeze. You also got a second option for starting another app or controlling another phone setting by way of a squeeze and hold action with both of these.

The pressure levels involved are fully configurable and software. So you don't to worry about accidentally triggering accents. You can dial in a firmer grip. If you want well, egg sense delivers on its promises. It can take a little while to get used to holding a phone, ideally for the sensors to detect your squeeze and though it's on-screen pressure indicators are nice for that learning period.

You'll probably want to disable them in the long run is they can get a little distracting by popping up when you don't intend them to over? Although X sense is a nice idea, but also when it feels a little overengineered, there's nothing. It really does that a simple physical button couldn't do and that might also make it feel a little more reliable. You Elevens got a 12 megapixel main camera, much like the HTC 10, but there are a few important differences. The sensor itself is a little smaller than last year and while that initially had us worried the third gen ultra pixel camera absolutely does not disappoint. When it comes to image.

Quality AQC drops its laser assisted autofocus with you 11 instead introducing a speedy dual pixel focus system. It was also really impressive, especially as you jump between subjects when shooting video still image taking is pretty straightforward. HTC's camera software offers good stuff like a manual in Panorama support. If you want to just point and shoot you're not going to miss out on two too much, the more interesting angle might be. What's going on with video from all those reports up to 4k, filming or more fascinated by what's happening with its audio.

The U 11 is equipped with an array of four microphones which you can tap into to record: 3d audio coming from all angles around the phone, but the cooler. But here is what happens when you start to zoom in, but only do you see your subjects visually get closer, but the phone starts isolating its audio, while lowering background noise. An on-screen indicator shows you volume levels coming from your subject, making it easier to lock-on in practice. It feels like this acoustic focus mode is only really going to shine in very specific situations, but it's a cool option to have and when you find yourself in one of those moments that audio goodness continues with the phone's speakers, in addition to the main rear edge speaker. So also your sounds coming out of the front-facing earpiece for a dash of stereo support.

We prefer dual front faces, but this is a compromise we can live with, especially since the u11 sounds appreciably louder than the HTC. Ten HTC includes an analogue headphone adapter with you 11 a huge oversight from some of its past USB. Only phones, that's finally being corrected, but you're, probably going to want to stick with a bundle view sonic USB earbuds, so they deliver one unique feature: active noise cancellation, just like you might find on a more expensive third party headset the earbuds sample ambient noise and using the phone's processing power, generate an inverted signal that helps cancel out distractions. That's a fantastic idea and a great example of the benefits USB headphones can deliver it's not without a problem or two for one. You can't turn on the noise cancellation unless you're, actively listening to audio and the extent of the cancellation is a little less thorough than we've heard, with dedicated noise-cancelling headphones, still kudos to HTC for trying something different.

Finally, we've got a talk: battery lug. U 11 has the same 3000 William hour battery as HTC 10 or the more recent? U ultra, but combined with the power efficient, snapdragon 835 chips that spells battery life. That comes in with just north of 9 hours of screen on time. In our tests. That's better than most of this year's big flagship phones and quick recharge times only make the U 11 performance stands out more.

The only minor downside here is an utter lack of support for any kind of wireless charging. All of us puts the: u 11 in a bit of a tricky position: it's a phone with great Gorman's, incredible battery life and a really nice camera, and while there's no clear winner among features like egg sense, acoustic focus or the noise-cancelling used, sonic earbuds, none of them are failures either with the starting price around $650, the u11 is priced pretty competitively. So what's the problem? Well, that would be the competition and for everything the u11 does right is awesome on a phone inspires, excitement in quite the same way as the galaxy s, 8 or even LG g6. Now some shoppers won't mind and if you do like the look of you 11 by all means pick one up, you will not be disappointed, but this also doesn't feel like the phone is necessarily going to turn HTC fortunes around I'm Stephen, shaker phone arena, thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss any upcoming phone tablet or accessory reviews.

Source : PhoneArena