The launch of the HTC U11 marks the culmination of the series of rumors we have had of the flagship phone so far. The launch again proves those very same rumors were true after all.
So the latest HTC flagship does come powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC clocked at 2.45GHz. On offer will be two memory/storage options – 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage or the more capable 6 GB variant with 128 GB of storage. You can add 2 TB more through microSD card.
Everything else befits its flagship status. That includes the 5.5-inch Quad HD Super LCD display with Gorilla Glass 5 layer for added protection. In fact, both the front and rear is made up of 3D glass, with the rear sporting a super glossy finish.
In what can inarguably be considered to be the biggest USP of the U11, the device comes with Edge Sense that lets you to control various aspects of the phone right from the edge of the device. Be it launching the camera, any app or games or even your email, you can get it done by varying the intensity of your pressure on the edge sensitive zone.
Edge Sense also offers advanced customization options such as short squeeze or squeeze and hold that let you have finer control over the phone. It works even when you are wearing the gloves though you have to be careful to apply the same amount of pressure each time to have the desired result.
Another unique aspect of the new U11 is that it has a 16 megapixel selfie camera at the front. That again is aided by several convenient modes such as auto selfie, selfie panorama and so on. The rear, on the other hand, makes do with a 12 megapixel camera that boasts of features such as 1.4-micron pixel, optical image stabilization, BSI sensor and so on.
Needless to say, the U11 will start off with Android Nougat, version 7.1 to be specific, with the HTC Sense UI running on top. The U11 will also be hosting two AI assistants, the Google Assistant along with Amazon Alexa and it will be really interesting to see how that fares. Alexa though will be specific to some regions only.
The rest of the specs include a 3,000mAh battery, IP67 water, and dust resistance along with BoomSound speakers. The fingerprint sensor is housed beneath the front home button while a Type-C port allows for charging and data syncing. worth mentioning, the HTC 11 also supports Quick Charge 3.0. Just like iPhone, it lacks 3.5mm headphone jack. Surprisingly, it gets DxOMark Mobile score of 90 beating Google Pixel.
Availability starts by the end of this month with some markets getting the device within this week itself. Interestingly, the U11 is priced the same in the US and Europe, that is $749 in the US and 749 Euros in Europe.
