Taiwanese smartphone brand, HTC had a forgettable 2015 due to the lack of proper innovation. In 2016, they launched the HTC 10, which was a great smartphone but marginally behind the Samsung Galaxies and Google Pixels. The company is looking to get relief from the old memories in 2017. At the start of 2017, they released the HTC U Ultra, the first flagship phone for the year and now, they are back with another flagship phone the, HTC U11.
Before the official launch, the complete specifications of the phone have leaked online, but the official launch had revealed various unique things about the phone. Starting off with the camera, HTC has announced that the U11's rear camera has received the highest DxOMark rating ever. The previous best score of 89 was with the Google's Pixel phones, but the U11 has been given a rating of 90, one point higher than the Pixel.
The U11 has a 12MP UltraPixel 3 camera with five-axis image stabilisation, dual pixel auto focus technology and the best-ever HDR processing technology in a smartphone. Up front, the U11 has a 16MP sensor that captures 150-degree wide-angle selfies with a f/2.0 aperture.
HTC was teasing the phone as a 'squeezable one,' and the implementation is spot on. You can squeeze the sides of the phone to open the camera app, capture a photo, and can perform various other actions. Furthermore, HTC is going beyond squeezing as the feature also enables Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. And yeah, HTC U11 is the first smartphone to come with Amazon Alexa on board, but sadly, it's only for the users in the US, UK, and other countries located where Alexa is available.
Another signature feature in the U11 is the BoomSound Hi-Fi setup integrated to the two loudspeakers providing best sound overall. As seen on recent HTC flagships, it also lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack. Nevertheless, HTC is bundling a 3.5mm jack to USB Type-C converter in the box. Also, the bundled USonic headphones come with active noise cancellation, but it will be available while listening via USB Type-C only. The device also records 3D sound via the bundled headphones.
Rest of the specs of the device are top-notch as well. The U11 is a 5.5-inch smartphone with a QHD resolution, not Infinity display though. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Some other regions will get a 6GB RAM/128GB storage variant as well.
Moreover, the HTC U11 is IP67 certified, and HTC is claiming the design of the phone as 'Liquid Glass' design. Nonetheless, the design of the phone is insanely good. The device runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat based Sense UI on top with HTC Sense Companion AI assistant on top. It comes in five different colours- Amazon Silver, Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, Ice White and Solar Red and is backed by a 3000mAh battery.
HTC at the launch event also confirmed that the phone will be launched in India in June and it will come in only one variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. This time around, HTC has priced the device reasonably at $649 (approx. Rs. 41,700) in the US. However, the Indian pricing will be different.
