HTC has finally unveiled its
unique flagship HTC U11 smartphone at its event in Taiwan. The smartphone comes
with the Edge Sense feature bringing a completely new category of interaction
with the smartphone. The HTC U11 will be made available in Amazing Silver,
Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, Ice White, and Solar Red colour options, and
will launch worldwide from this month, with some markets getting it next week,
and others in June. Pricing in Europe starts from EUR 749 and in the US it's US$ 749, where it's up for pre-order.
The HTC U11's big highlights are the latest Qualcomm
Snapdragon 835 SoC, its liquid surface design, and multiple AI assistants.
Talking about the HTC Edge Sense feature, it lets you launch the camera, and
send texts. You can customise the squeeze gesture to open email, and even
launch your favourite app or game. When users activate advanced touch mode,
they can use a "short squeeze" as well as a "squeeze and
hold" for even more functionality at your fingertips. It works while
wearing gloves as well, as Edge Sense is based on actual pressure applied to
the side of the device.
The HTC U11 runs on Android
7.1 Nougat with the company's HTC Sense skin on top, and supports dual-SIM
cards (Nano-SIM). It features a 5.5-inch Quad HD (1440x2560 pixels) Super LCD
display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. As mentioned, it is powered by
the 2.45 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC. There are two storage and
memory variant - 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage and 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage. Only the
latter variant is coming to India. The HTC U11 also offers storage expansion
via a microSD card slot (up to 2TB).
As for optics, the HTC U11 sports a 12-megapixel
camera with 1.4-micron pixel, ultra spread autofocus, BSI sensor, OIS, f/1.7
aperture, dual-LED flash, slow-motion, and 4K video recording. Camera features
include Face Detection, Pro mode with manual control, 32-second long exposure,
and RAW format support, HDR Boost, Panorama, and Hyperlapse. The selfie-focused
smartphone has a 16-megapixel front camera with BSI sensor, full-HD recording.
Front camera features include live make-up, auto selfie, voice selfie, HDR
Boost, and Selfie Panorama.
The HTC U11 packs a 3000 mAh battery that is rated to
offer up to 24.5 hours of talk time, and 14 days of standby time. There's also
an extreme power saving mode, and Quick Charge 3.0 support. Connectivity
options include GPS/ A-GPS, GLONASS, USB 3.1 Type-C port, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi:
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz & 5GHz), and NFC support.
The HTC U11 also sports IP67 water and dust
resistance, and supports two AI assistants - Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa
(in specific regions only). It also boasts of audio quality with HTC USonic
earbuds with active noise cancellation, HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi edition, 3D audio
recording with four microphones, and Hi-res audio certified. The fingerprint
scanner is housed underneath the Home Button in the front. With respect to
design, HTC retains the U Ultra's design language and sports 3D glass both on
the front and back of the device. The device has no 3.5mm audio jack, just like
the U Ultra, and the company is bundling a 3.5mm audio jack to USB Type-C
adapter.
