HTC U 11 Launched with Snapdragon 835 and Edge Sense

HTC has launched the new U11 at an event in Taipei. The HTC U11 will be the company’s successor the the HTC 10 and their new flagship for the year 2017.

The company sticks strongly to their brand philosophy and wants to continue their U series of phones forward, and to make that happen the design for HTC plays an important role. The HTC U11 continues the Liquid surface design seen on the HTC U ultra, but, the similarities mostly end there.

The HTC U11 is sleeker and more refined, built with Gorilla Glass 5 protection, which is a good thing considering the front and back are glass. The metal frame holds everything together and the phone looks great with a good play of colors using the glass layering technique on the back of the phone.

The phone also manages clean lines with a flush back and a tiny camera bump along with IP67 water resistance, making this the first HTC flagship with any kind of weather resistance. The phone has been launched in 5 colors all of which will be coming to most markets including India, the Brilliant Black, Amazing Silver, Ice white, Sapphire Blue and Solar Red.

On the specs front HTC has pretty much upped the game, for markets like India this will be the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset equipped handset from any manufacturer. HTC will also only launch the 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant in India and plans to price it competitively against the Samsung Galaxy S8. Other markets including US , Europe and Australia will get the 4GB + 64GB variant in the first wave. The front has a 5.5 inch 2560 x 1440 px display with a Super LCD panel, the fingerprint sensor and capacitive back and menu buttons sit on the bottom chin of the phone.

The HTC U11 has a new 12 MP utra-pixel camera module with a 1.4 micron pixel size , f/1.7 aperture and dual pixel autofocus. The 5 axis optical image stabilization on the back camera merges with EIS like on the Google Pixel to give a mix of both worlds and really steady shots even in low light. The video is captured at 4k @30fps and will work with gyro based electronic image stabilization which too is a pretty good example of leveraging the power of the new chipset and software for a good outcome.

The front camera is 16 MP sensor which does have an f/2.0 aperture but no auto focus. The front camera also has a wide angle lens and  manages to do a good job in low light.

The main camera on the HTC U11 is the highest rated with a DXO mark score of 90. The camera also has interesting modes built in including a full PRO mode with RAW capture and HDR boost which works to get the best result in poorly lit conditions.

The HTC U11 launches with Android 7.1.1 out of the box and will feature the ability to use Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa which launches in July as a play store app. Interestingly users will be able to use both assistants at the same time, ideally because one may not be able to the function of the other. The HTC Companion assistant will also reside on the phone as a contextual assistant, again leveraging the power of the 835 chipset.

The new layer of HTC Sense is super clean and intuitive, HTC continues to remove redundancy from their apps, so you mostly get a stock android experience with continued customizations offered via the HTC themes.

The main feature of the HTC U11 is the “Edge Sense”, a feature that allows you to squeeze the edges of the phone to be able to initiate a task, initially things like launching an app, or turning on the flashlight. Later the company wants to enable automations based on the Squeeze feature, allowing you to set up tasks that you would normally need to tap on the screen to achieve. For eg. one squeeze could in theory, click a picture, launch Instagram, and share that image including preset text and filters.

For now the Edge Sense will be restricted to app and feature launches. The Edge sense needs to be setup the first time you start the phone, deciding how strong a squeeze you need for the phone to activate.

The HTC U11 will include noise cancelling U sonic in earphones inside the box, the earphones will map your ear canal and do a tone setup to give you the best sound and this works really well. The new noise cancellation feature works with the USB-C port which allows two way data flow. HTC will also include a dongle for Usb C to 3.5 mm headphone jack, this tiny dongle includes a DAC which in itself is a feat.

The HTC U11 will be manufactured in Taiwan at the HTC plant in Taipei, which has one of the strongest standards and best assembly lines in the world. The U11 goes through various layers of testing before making it to the final box. The factory which has a futuristic assembly line,  run by 50% robots, tests each component of each phone before the phone is packed into a box. Then each packed phone goes through a quality check where each aspect including aesthetic and internals of the HTC U11 are checked by quality control engineers.

HTC’s U11 manufacturing process is too difficult to shift out of the company’s own manufacturing unit and they want to bring back their gold standard when it comes to build quality and general quality assurance.

HTC wants to sell the HTC U11 in markets like India, Malaysia, Thailand etc within one week of global sale which starts first week of June. The company is strongly focused on the right pricing and wants to fix their mistakes of the past. While the European price of the phone is Euro 749, the Indian market will see the phone for around Rs. 55000-57000 making it a strong competition for the Exynos equipped Samsung Galaxy S8