Let's just jump right in.
It's been a rough start for HTC this year,
but they're really hoping that the new HTC U11 can turn things around.
From the name you can already tell that it's a continuation of the new U series, and the
successor to the HTC 10.
Not the most elegant name, but it sort of works.
Looking at the back of the phone,
it's off to a great start.
It has the same premium metal and glass design found on the HTC U series earlier this year.
You can tell that HTC really wants to impress people with their design,
quoting from their website,
Basically, it's very shiny, very pretty.
You really have to see it in person to appreciate the details.
For the most part,
it continues the tradition of well-built phones from HTC.
The whole phone feels like a precious gem with curves all around the phone,
and it is finally also water and dust resistant.
This is a very important move considering all of HTC's major competitors are doing it too.
Turn the phone around,
and yeah, the bezels are pretty big.
You know, I really do like the taller displays from the S8 or G6.
They're easier to type one-handed,
and the thin bezels looks really good.
But when it comes to day to day usage,
the traditional 16:9 screen still works just fine.
Something I do like here, is that HTC stuck to all black front panels no matter the colour
of the phone.
It's a personal preference, but I think it makes the bezel look a bit more bearable.
Like most flagship devices these days, the display is good looking in all lighting conditions,
and the fingerprint sensor works really well too.
But I do have a minor complaint about how the sensor and the capacitive buttons are
placed a bit lower.
It looks a little bit off, and it is a bit harder to reach on a phone this size.
I also feel like maybe they could have just used little dots as the capacitive buttons
to keep the look a bit cleaner.
That would allow an option for the buttons to be switched around for those who have been
corrupted by Samsung's button placement.
But I'm really just nitpicking here.
If you've been following recent HTC devices,
you'll know that they have switched to a different Boomsound speakers setup.
There are still two speakers, one at the top for the high and mids, and one at the bottom
for the bass.
You can sort of still get dual channel if you change it to theatre mode,
but the bottom speaker is doing most of the work here so it's going to sound a bit unbalanced.
Anyway, the main thing is, it still sounds great.
It gets really loud, and sound quality is pretty good.
So for any sort of multimedia content,
it's going to be a really enjoyable experience.
HTC is also really hoping that you'll like their new USB Type-C USonic earbuds.
They even threw in features like Active Noise Cancellation,
and the earbuds can even personalise the audio to your ears.
They do sound pretty good for bundled earbuds, but for some folks,
it's probably still not enough to make them forget about the missing 3.5mm audio jack.
HTC does include an adapter,
but for me I'll rather just go wireless and save myself the hassle.
It's using the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset from Qualcomm,
and if you've seen my review for the Sony Xperia XZ Premium,
you'll know that it performs really well.
It's the same here for the U11.
I get smooth gameplay on pretty much all of the games that I've tested on the phone,
and app launches really quickly too.
You may have noticed something a little bit off when I listed the specs earlier,
and it's not a mistake.
A couple of countries are getting 128GB of storage with 6GB of RAM,
and Singapore happens to be one of them.
Anyway, back on track.
HTC's Sense UI has been getting leaner in recent years.
It still has a bit of HTC design elements and features,
but HTC has switched to mostly Google's default apps rather than making duplicates
of their own.
The performance is really good, with fast touch response and smooth animations.
Unlike the U Ultra which had slightly disappointing battery life,
the 3,000mAh battery here on the U11 actually is quite alright.
I wished it could be a bit bigger for a phone this size, but it is able to last me a day
of use.
For heavier usage though, I'll need a quick top up by evening.
HTC really hyped up the camera performance of the HTC U11,
and for the most part it is really good.
The 12MP rear camera dubbed UltraPixel 3 comes with tons of good stuff.
Like big pixel size, wider aperture, up to 5-axis optical image stabilisation,
and even a dual-pixel autofocus system like we've seen on Samsung devices.
So as expected, the images taken on this phone looks really good.
Images generally have pleasing and good looking colours with nice details.
With the new Auto HDR Boost mode,
it improves the dynamic range for more challenging lighting conditions as well as better noise reduction.
In low light, the camera performs well with nice image processing.
But one thing that annoys me is that it has the tendency to go for a slightly brighter image.
So for a lot of the shots with street lighting,
I have to manually push the exposure down a little so that it looks more natural,
and so that it doesn't clip the highlights.
I really hope that this is something that HTC will tweak with a software update,
because it can get annoying very quickly if you shoot a lot of photos in lowlight.
Anyway, the 16MP front camera is decent too in case you're curious.
The only minor annoyance is that when there is not enough light,
auto HDR tend to make the shot look blurry and a little unnatural.
Turning it off makes the shot look a bit darker,
but sharper and more pleasing to look at.
For video recording, it records 4K footage up to 6 minutes per clip.
However if you are looking for more stable footage, you'll have to switch to Full HD
recording instead.
But the most interesting feature is actually the audio recording.
It has a 4-microphone array which records what HTC calls 3D Audio.
So let's say if I zoom into a particular area in the video, you can actually hear it
focus and enhance the audio from that region.
So if you're recording a live performance,
it's actually a really nice feature to have.
To sum up the camera portion, the thing that you have to understand,
is that camera quality can be subjective.
Everyone's taste is a little bit different.
For me personally, the HTC U11 doesn't get my pick for my favourite smartphone camera
experience,
but it is still a very good experience.
And I'm sure for some folks it could be their favourite.
What I can say is that for the majority of consumers out there,
you're not going to be disappointed with this camera.
Almost every flagship smartphone has their own unique features,
and the HTC U11 is no different.
HTC calls it Edge Sense, and it allows you to squeeze the phone for some shortcuts.
There are pressure sensors in the frame that can detect pressure,
so you can just squeeze the phone to activate certain functions.
Like take a screenshot, or launch an app.
There is a short squeeze and a long squeeze, and both are customisable.
In the camera app, you can do a squeeze to capture an image too,
and HTC is planning to add more features to make it more useful eventually.
Personally it's not really a feature that I find that useful because it is not a very
comfortable thing to do on this phone.
I have a feeling that it might be due to the design of the phone.
It's a pretty big phone, so people with smaller hands might not have as good a grip
on the phone.
Then when you look at the frame, it's slightly rounded too, and really thin.
So when squeezing the phone, even after setting the activation to require a lower pressure,
it still feels like I might drop the phone if I don't squeeze it properly.
Maybe it's just me.
There is actually another feature too called HTC Sense Companion,
which basically gives me suggestions from time to time in regards to battery life,
cleaning up the phone, the weather, recommendations, and things like that.
Again, this may be useful for some folks, but I find Google Assistant more useful.
In the end, the main reason to buy this phone to me,
is just how well it does all the basic things that you would expect from a smartphone today.
And it does all that, in a design that is very eye-catching.
HTC also priced the phone reasonably,
especially here in Singapore where it undercuts the Galaxy S8 and Xperia XZ Premium
while still offering more RAM and storage.
The unique features that HTC is touting on the U11 doesn't quite hit the mark for me,
but the rest of the phone is good enough that it doesn't really matter.
For folks who wants a headphone jack, this might not be the best option.
But for everyone else, you're probably not going to be disappointed with this phone.
Thanks for watching this video,
if you liked it be sure to subscribe to the channel to see more smartphone reviews in
the future.
See you guys on the next one.
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