- [Narrator] You're likely already aware that HTC
is not in a great run of form with its recent
phone launches, but now we have the HTC U11,
the true flagship of the U series but in many ways,
a different device with much higher aspirations.
I'm Andrew with Android Central,
and this is our HTC U11 review.
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If there's one thing HTC still knows how to do
is build a unique and beautiful smartphone.
The U11 just exudes class from every angle.
Punctuated by its liquid surface glass back that flows
effortlessly around to the sides and gives you
a unique color-shifting effect when it's tilted.
It looks gorgeous but it also feels solid,
just as you'd expect from an HTC phone.
It's 5.5 inch display isn't particularly large
and HTC has skipped the 2017 trend of going with
a tall screen and small bezels.
There are chunky bezels all around the display,
capacitive navigation keys below
in typical smartphone dimensions.
Looking at the U11 from the front makes you wonder
if it was launching today or in 2015,
and that's not a great look if you're trying to compete
with the Galaxy S8 and LG G6.
The display itself is at least worth it.
The super LCD five at quad HD resolution is crisp
and even handles bright direct sunlight without issue.
Though I find it doesn't get quite
dim enough at night for my eyes.
But that's a small complaint about
an otherwise fantastic display.
When it comes to the U11 software, I'm of two minds.
What you get here is not unlike what you'd find
on an One M9 today.
That's good because it's clean, simple and fast,
with a minimal amount of bloatware and duplicate apps.
HTC's tweaks are cohesive and close to
Android stock experience.
But at the same time, it's feeling a bit long in the tooth.
Sense as an experience hasn't changed much
in the last couple of years and it feels like it's more
maintenance mode than anything else.
The one big feature add-on this year is Edge Sense
or better known as that thing where you squeeze the phone.
Yes, a core system level experience of the U11
is squeezing it on the sides to perform actions.
But default, it launches the camera with the short squeeze
or Google Assistant with a long squeeze.
But you can configure the squeezes
to do just about anything.
The squeezing works quite well but is just as easy
to ignore if you don't want to use it.
And yes, saying "squeeze" over and over again is kinda odd.
Daily performance is absolutely phenomenal.
A Snapdragon 835 and four gigabytes of ram lead to
amazing fluidity and speed through everything
I've done with the phone.
Touch response is perfect, scrolling is buttery smooth
and apps never have issues.
It's a pixel-like experience in every respect.
That dev tales nicely into battery performance
where the U11 gets on just fine with its
3000 milliamp power battery through a full day.
Even when travelling which is typically tough on my phones,
I had a day with 12 hours of batter life including
five hours of screen-on time and hours of podcasts,
listening over Bluetooth in poor network environments.
That's impressive.
We seem to have all forgotten that the HTC 10's camera
was actually really good last year.
But HTC improved further with the 12 megapixel
ultrapixel 3D camera on the U11
including 1.4 micron pixels, an f/1.7 lens,
and new auto-focus mechanism.
The U11 has a DxOMark Mobile score of 90,
the highest yet of any phone,
as HTC will constantly tell you.
But the proof is in the pudding.
The U11's camera is legit.
With the trend towards accuracy rather than
colour saturation, photos from the U11
are crisp, clean, and pleasing to the eye.
Daylight shots are pristine without going overboard
in the colours, and lower light shots feel the same
with an expected amount of grain smoothing and softer edges.
Everything I've seen come out of the U11's camera,
I've been impressed with and for me,
it lines up right along side the Pixel XL Galaxy S8
and LG G6 for the top smartphone camera.
Bravo HTC.
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After dabbling with water resistance in a couple of models,
HTC is caught up to the industry.
And the U11 is IP67 dust and water resistant.
That means that the phone is fine in everything
from a sudden rain shower to a shallow drop in a pool.
Or if it's dirty, you can just rinse it off in the sink.
Perhaps somewhat related to the inclusion of water proofing,
HTC is done with the 3.5 millimetre headphone jack
on this top-end phones.
The U11's included USB-C headphones actually
sound really good and now include active noise cancellation
powered by the phone itself.
But people still use standard headphones and it's hard
to say this won't turn some people away
even though there's an adapter in the box.
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The U11 has me excited because it reaffirms that HTC
can absolutely make a top-end flagship that competes.
All the core tendents of HTC's hardware are here
along side excellent performance and a really great
camera setup.
HTC is getting the pricing right as well,
launching unlocked for $649.
Interested fans should absolutely look to this phone
if they appreciate speed, fluidity, great core features,
and a clean experience,
plus a fantastic camera as well.
I can only hope that enough people look past
some of the lacklustre hardware and interface decisions
to see just how great the U11 is in daily use.
Thanks for watching this review and be sure to subscribe
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to see all of our future videos.
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