If a company makes a transparent phone, it’s pretty mandatory that I take a look at it.
HTC recently popped out their translucent HTC U12 Plus.
It’s not totally clear, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
It kind of reminds me of my Game Boy color back in the day.
Getting a close-up look at the internals, we can see a bit of the fingerprint scanner
cable and maybe a bit of the NFC.
We’ll have to wait for the teardown to know for sure, but I think it looks pretty sweet.
If you remember last year’s HTC U11, it ended up my Shelf of Shame after shattering
during my durability test.
It was awarded the Least Durable Smartphone of 2017.
It died because there was no buffer between the curved glass and the metal frame.
It looks like HTC has corrected that design flaw this year by flattening out the glass
and adding an intermediary layer buffering the screen from the frame.
But the only way to know for sure is to test it.
Let’s get started.
[Intro]
HTC has some very unique differences and designs when compared with other manufacturers, but
I’ll get to those in a second.
First, we have the scratch test.
HTC is also one of the only manufacturers who have ever used a level 8 sapphire screen
on one of their phones, which is a very massive and impressive accomplishment.
This particular U12 is using Gorilla Glass 5 on the display, so it will scratch at the
very normal level 6, and a deeper groove at a level 7.
It’s pretty much what all flagships are scratching at these days.
The U12 has dual front facing cameras, which is interesting.
They are both the same type of lens – there’s no wide angle, just dual eight megapixel cameras
that do the whole background blurring thing.
Marquez does a good job of showing off the cameras if you haven’t watched his video
yet.
The earpiece is made of cloth, and while most manufacturers make it so that the cover will
never fall out, this earpiece is just held in place with some simple adhesive.
With time, this might end up falling out on its own.
There are no buttons down at the bottom of the screen, but if we flip the phone over
we find dual cameras protected with glass.
A 12 megapixel main camera with OIS and a 16 megapixel telephoto lens, which I’m a
fan of.
The more things a phone can accomplish, the better.
This one also films in 4K at 60 frames per second.
The plastic dual LED single color flash is pretty flush with the back glass panel.
You’ll also see several microphone holes which HTC uses to do some pretty cool 3D audio
while video recording.
It’s pretty interesting stuff.
HTC also claims an ip68 rating on the U12.
But with all of these extra microphone holes, and some stuff I’ll show you in a second,
I have my doubts it will work as advertised.
The fingerprint scanner is invincible though – thumbs up for that.
Now the sides of the phone are where things start to get interesting.
They are made from metal, but the buttons along the side are not actually buttons.
They don’t click.
They are made from metal, but surprisingly can pop off the phone body.
Kind of strange.
Now, granted, I understand that not everyone takes a razor blade to their phone, but it
is good to identify weak points.
A normal button wouldn’t do this, and once the capacitive button has fallen off, it doesn’t
work anymore.
I really doubt this will happen to anyone with normal use in real life, but a hard drop
in the right spot might be a problem.
I’m not a fan of this system, and I’d rather just have a real button.
Now my phone won’t turn off and I can only listen to things at full volume.
HTC left their squeeze functionality in place and even upgraded it to Edge Sense 2.
Every time you short squeeze or long squeeze the sides, something will happen.
Personally, I set my short squeeze to open up my Audible app because that’s just the
easiest segue into the sponsor of this video.
The book I’m currently in the middle of is The Martian.
I actually use Audible quite a bit.
Yeah, there’s movie, but the book goes into way more detail about how the guy stranded
on Mars jerry-rigs his way to survival.
And the book is free with a 30-day trial by going to audible.com/jerryrig or texting the
word “jerryrig” to 500-500.
If you’re into science and survival, it’s pretty interesting.
Plus, you get to keep the book even if you don’t end up using Audible after your 30-day
trial.
It’s seriously a win-win.
Text “jerryrig” to 500-500 or click the link in the description: audible.com/jerryrig.
The top of the phone, as far as I know, does not have any touch sensitivity, but it is
made from metal.
The SDN SIM card tray is also made from metal.
At the bottom of the phone we get one of the two stereo speakers and a USB-C port…but
no headphone jack.
HTC has chosen to continue in Apple’s footsteps.
Some people like losing options, but personally it’s not my favorite.
The HTC U12 Plus is rocking a 6 inch, no notch, 1440p super LCD display, and lasted 10 seconds
under the burn test.
The screen did go black, which is normal for LCD displays, and then the whole thing recovers,
minus the oleophobic layer of course – that just evaporates.
Let’s take a closer look at this new buffer layer HTC added between the glass screen and
the metal frame since my video last year.
It’s not made from plastic and it doesn’t feel like aluminum.
It might be stainless.
But since the glass is flat this time around, it might just work, and keep the phone in
one piece.
The initial bend flexes the phone quite a bit, which I imagine is necessary because
HTC needs soft metal for their squeezes to work.
Flipping the phone over and bending again, we still get that same massive flex, and we
see that the back adhesive comes completely detached from the phone.
The back glass is not structural since it just rests on top of the frame, but it is
important to the water-proofing.
And now the ip68 is an ip-nothing.
There is no shattering of the screen though, which is ideal.
Last year’s phone was pretty much obliterated at this point and non-functional.
HTC has done a good job of fixing that particular issue.
The thing that makes me doubt the ip68 water resistance is that the back panel is able
to be removed super easily.
It will probably never come off by itself of course, but it shouldn’t be able to be
removed by hand.
This is the weakest adhesive on a glass back phone that I’ve ever seen, but we’ll save
the teardown video for another day.
Even though the side buttons can fall off and the earpiece might fall out, and the weaksauce
adhesive on the back panel might not be water-resistant if you ever sit on it, the HTC U12 Plus probably
has a great personality.
Just plop a case on there and it should last a while…if capacitive buttons even work
with a case.
I just know I won’t be using this phone.
If you want to find out if the astronaut escapes from Mars or not, go grab your free book from
Audible.
The link is in the description.
And come hang out with me on Twitter and Instagram.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I’ll see you around.