- [NARRATOR] One thing you've got to give HTC,
it's not afraid to try new things.
So, when it needed to follow up its
solid 2016 smartphone
with something better suited to mirror plated 2017,
it blended the branding,
doubled down on ditching the headphone jack,
and traded a dedicated function button
for a little squeeze.
From Google IO in Mountain View, California,
I'm Mr. Mobile, and this
is the HTC U11 Hands On.
U11 is a blend of last year's brand with this one.
And the hardware follows that trend with
slightly more success.
The U11 is about as easy to manage in the hand
as the 10 was, but instead of the matte metallic
finish, it's brought over the coating from the
ultra reflective U Ultra.
Whether you consider this an upgrade or not
will depend on how you treat your phone.
If you're a grab-and-go user and abuser,
it's likely you'll miss the more robust metal.
If instead you're the type who never goes
without a case, and you love a phone that
catches the eye, you'll appreciate the new
shimmering paint jobs, which appear to change
color based on how you hold the phone.
This is Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides,
by the way.
Just as stunning in person as it looks on film.
And in a nice treat, we finally got IP67
dust and water resistance.
Welcome to the club, HTC.
Flip it around to the front side
and the U11 looks an awful lot like every
other HTC phone.
And by extension, most other modern smartphones
in general.
Now I say most because we've seen Samsung and LG
do something different with the slab form factor
this year, so it's tougher to give HTC a pass
based on the old, "Well, how many ways are there
to make a rectangle?" excuse.
To me, the U11's aesthetics seem, if not dull,
then at least unexceptional.
Maybe that's part of what drove HTC to build
in a feature you can't find anywhere else,
with the exception of a Windows phone that
never saw the light of day.
You see, rather than building in a convenience
key that you can program for particular functions
like Blackberry did, the U11 lets you trigger
custom actions with a squeeze.
This is done via pressure sensors on the side rails.
It's not capacitive, so yes, it works through
gloves or a case as long as the case is flexible.
You've got a lot of options here.
You can set a short squeeze for one shortcut
and a long squeeze for another, and you can customize
the amount of force necessary for a squeeze to register.
Left or right doesn't matter, by the way,
it's the inward pressure that activates it.
It also gives you a little animation on the sides
and a haptic buzz to let you know you "squoze" right.
If this sounds a little awkward, yeah, it can be.
And there's an argument to be made that you could
accomplish the same end by just putting another
button on the thumb.
When I asked about that, HTC countered by saying
that the squeeze doesn't require you to shift
your grip on the phone to use it, unlike a button.
I guess that's true.
But the main reason I'm willing to give it a chance
is because I really like to see companies
experimenting with new ideas in user interface.
I just wish that you could use the squeeze to
do something you do a million times a day,
like drop the notification shade.
As it is, the squeezing into Google Assistant
or Alexa (yes, Alexa will be here too)
or the camera app is pretty cool, but I feel like
squeezing to take a photo is going to result in
a lot of blurry pictures despite the optical
stabilization on the main camera.
There's no such stabilization on this selfie
shooter, sadly,
one of the HTC 10's most distinguishing characteristics.
Here's some footage from the 11's 16 megapixel
front facer I snapped in a hurry here at Google IO.
And here's some from the 12 megapixel primary.
If you're wondering about the specs on these cameras,
they'll be called out on the spec sheet at the
end of the video.
I'm not going to comment on overall quality
until I get my own review device, hopefully soon.
This one, by the way, is on loan from Android Central
whom I thank, as always.
Elsewhere, the U11 mainly reheats stuff we've seen
from HTC before.
The software is essentially the same as the
past three years, now starting to feel quite stale.
The buttons don't have the same travel or chunky
feedback as on the 10, and there's no headphone
jack despite there being ample room for it
in the chassis.
One place the U11 does deliver, though,
is in the soundscape.
Even though it uses the same split speaker
arrangement as the HTC 10, this phone is
much louder than its predecessor.
And it ships with earbuds that now work
together with the software to provide
acoustic noise canceling.
Very nice.
The HTC U11 is up for presale now in both
unlocked and Sprint flavors, with devices
starting to ship in June.
The suggested retail price, a few clams short of $700.
But if you pre-order through Sprint, you get
two Echo Dots in the bargain, so there's that.
Does the combo of a mirror finish, boom sound,
and a squeeze powered interface make the
U11 worth that kind of outlay?
We'll find out in the full review coming soon.
Subscribe to Mr. Mobile on YouTube for that
and for more from Google IO, follow me and
the folks at Android Central in the links
in the description below.
Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.