HTC is the first company to make a semi-transparent cellphone.
They dropped a translucent black option onto their U11 Plus model, which is a huge step
in the right direction for nerds who like to see inside the expensive tech they are
paying for.
I kept waiting for HTC to release this phone in the USA, but it's still currently unavailable.
When Squarespace offered to sponsor a video, I knew immediately what phone I wanted to
check out.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
And here it is – the translucent black HTC U11 Plus.
And while it is semi-transparent, it's still much darker than I anticipated.
I guess that's why they call it a translucent black.
I'll bump up the exposure on my camera so you can see all the details inside the phone.
The one prominent feature is the copperish looking coils that peek through the center
of the glass.
While easily mistaken for wireless charging, these are actually just the NFC coils for
payments or transferring files via near field communication to other devices within a few
inches.
Personally, I think HTC could have made the glass a bit more see-through...you know?
So let's see if we can help them out a little bit.
Removing the back panel is pretty similar to all the other glass back smartphones like
Samsung or LG...not the new iPhone though.
That piece of glass can buzz right on out of here.
After the HTC U11 is warm, I can lift up with a suction cup and slip my metal pry tool between
the glass edge and the middle frame and work my way around the edges with a piece of paper
to not put too much pressure on the curved glass.
The reason the U11 partially failed my durability test was because the metal frame and the screen
glass have no cushion between the two layers.
Metal isn't very forgiving during drops or bends, and the glass shatters.
Paper is much more forgiving than my metal pry tool, so I'm using that to slice through
the adhesive and it's working just fine.
Finally the translucent back can lift off.
I'll unplug the fingerprint scanner with my blue pry tool.
And check it out – the phone is revealed.
It's interesting that the glass is semi-translucent in the center, and then gradients out to black
pretty quickly around the edges.
When I first saw this phone I was pretty excited about the wireless charging being so epically
prominent and prevalent...but it's just NFC – no wireless charging option.
It's still cool looking of course, but wireless charging would have much more substantial
copper inside to handle the induction.
Looking closer at the back glass, it almost has a green tint to it as the color gets darker
around the edges.
Revealing tech from the inside has it's perks.
It looks good, don't get me wrong, but let's show HTC what a real transparent phone looks
like.
I'll pop off the fingerprint scanner and the camera lens frame from the underside of the
glass, and then I can start scratching away the color.
Normally with a glass back LG or Samsung phone, this would either pull off in one big chunk
or some industrial paint thinner would help remove the color.
But HTC is using a different laminate layer material that left some pretty heavy residue
on the glass, even after the laminate coloring is gone.
I like to get a little bit of a grip on the laminate by scraping away with my razor and
then using heat to soften the laminate and pull it up off the glass.
I don't have to worry about my razor blades scratching the glass because a razor is a
level 5 on Mohs Scale, and glass won't scratch till level 6.
You can see the hefty amount of residue left on the glass right here.
I thought paint thinner might help get this off, but it's pretty invincible gunk.
The only thing that really worked was a whole lot more scraping.
And some glass cleaner.
Even after the laminate is pulled off the glass, it still has a tinted mirror-like finish
to it, which I'm fine with.
I think it looks pretty sweet.
I'll get the camera lens put back into place, along with the plastic flash defuser.
I'm going to leave the black plastics intact this time around, since it kind of goes with
the darker tinted aesthetics of the phone...but clear plastics have been around for a hundred
years.
So if HTC really wants to make a transparent phone on their next device, all the way down
to the circuit boards, I'm sure they could.
Kind of like the clear Nintendo Switch mod.
While I put adhesive around the square of the phone, let's talk about Squarespace for
a second.
Huge thanks to them for sponsoring this video and making this teardown possible.
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The cool thing with Squarespace is that all of their tools are in one spot - buying the
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You get 10% off your purchase by heading to squarespace.com/jerryrig.
And speaking of being updated, how do you like the new updated transparent glass of
the U11 Plus?
I do like now that we can see more of the internal antennas and the massive 3930 milliamp
hour battery.
Huge thumbs up to HTC for pushing the boundaries in phone design and taking official steps
to make the fully transparent phone we all want.
Check out Squarespace if you need a website, and thanks a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.