HTC U11 Preview – Innovation is back with a handsome squeeze phone

With the U11, the innovative side of HTC seems to be slowly getting going again. So we hope that the manufacturer still knows the tricks of the trade and were curious whether the U11 is innovative. There are two things that immediately stand out in this area. The first thing that can be called innovative is the transition from metal to glass, although HTC is not alone in this, and the second is the ability to squeeze the device. We’ll start with the first.

Glass

Metal seems to be going out of fashion with high-end devices. This probably has to do with the reasonably built, metal smartphones that you can now buy for next to nothing. This is quite a big step for HTC, as it has made a name for itself with its metal unibody smartphones.

Anyway, the switch to glass is a fact and our first touches showed that HTC has taken the design of the U11 seriously. There is Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back of the device, with a metal frame in between. In that sense, the device looks a bit like the Samsung Galaxy S8, especially when viewed from the side. However, the edges of the screen are curved not only on the sides, but also on the top and bottom. That is quite a feat, because glass is not easy to fold that way. Just think of a piece of paper that you want to fold around a rectangle with rounded corners; you will then get into trouble at those corners and will have to cut away a piece to get it somewhat nice, for example. The device also somewhat resembles the U Ultra,

It is a pity that the glass at the top and bottom does not fit as closely to the metal frame as with the Galaxy S8, where the two materials merge almost seamlessly. Although the devices at the preview session were of the pre-production type, HTC assured us that the housing and build quality will not change anymore. Despite the slightly less sleek finish than with the Galaxy S8, the design of the U11 is distinctive and has a luxurious feel. In addition, the device lies comfortably in the hand due to its curves. We could also appreciate the fingerprint scanner on the front after a somewhat strange placement of the scanner on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and it recognized our finger very quickly. The scanner, which also serves as a home button, is a bit low, as are the hardware Android navigation buttons.

What the device does not have, in contrast to recent high-end models such as the LG G6 and the Samsung Galaxy S8, is a screen ratio that deviates from the norm and therefore small bezels. The HTC U11’s LCD simply has a 16:9 aspect ratio and has the same screen size relative to body dimensions as the HTC 10.

Since the device has a 5.5″ screen, with 2560×1440 pixels, and the HTC 10 has a 5.2″ screen, it is a bit larger. That screen looks very nice by the way. Of course it does not have the perfect black levels of an OLED screen, but it is rich in contrast and has good viewing angles. Since the HTC 10 suffered from a low maximum brightness, we also went outside with the U11. Unfortunately, the screen was not very easy to read in the sun and we therefore suspect a relatively low maximum brightness. We will of course measure that for our review.

An invisible change to the case compared to the HTC 10 is that the U11 is water and dust resistant to the ip67 rating. The device can be submerged in water for half an hour at a depth of one metre. Visible again is the camera, which occupies a subtle place on the back thanks to its limited size. The camera protrudes a bit, but much less than on the HTC U Ultra and HTC 10.

The HTC 10 was a tank. There are few devices from 2016 that come close to the solidity of that phone. We tried to bend the HTC U11 during the preview session and it was considerably easier than the HTC 10 and also easier than the Samsung Galaxy S8. This disappointed us a bit, but we still have to compare the various devices for soundness to be able to make a final judgment.

We initially thought that the HTC U11 had stereo speakers, because the sound comes from both the top and the bottom of the device. It turns out not to be stereo, but to two speakers. The high and mid tones come from the tweeter at the top and according to HTC it has more space, which would make the sound sound fuller. The low tones come from the woofer at the bottom, according to HTC, and this too should sound better than the HTC 10’s speaker. We hope it does, as we were not impressed with the sound of the HTC 10. The volume seemed in any case, quite high and at first hearing it sounded fine.

Pinch phone

The second clear innovation of the HTC U11 is called Edge Sense and we have not seen it before in smartphones. Edge Sense means that you can squeeze the device. The smartphone has pressure sensors in the lower part on the sides, with which it ‘feels’ how hard you squeeze the device. You can also set how hard you have to squeeze the phone before it registers. We liked the softest squeeze setting by far the best, because it gets annoying after a while when you have to apply force. We do wonder whether the phone sometimes unintentionally registers a squeeze when it is in your pocket, for example, but we will only find out when we actually use it.

The question naturally arises why on earth you would want to squeeze your smartphone. The answer is simple: you can use it to launch apps, turn on your flashlight, make a voice recording and, for example, call up Google Assistant. You can squeeze short and long, so there are two actions that you can link to your squeezes. Frankly, we don’t think that functionality alone will make HTC sell many phones. Still, it’s quite practical. We immediately thought of setting the flashlight with a long squeeze and the camera with a short squeeze, and we would certainly use that in practice. By default, Google Assistant is on the long squeeze and that is certainly useful if you use it. Still, the squeeze functionality isn’t really much more than an extra button on your phone,

We would have liked HTC to have taken more out of the concept, with things like a touch-sensitive side that lets you navigate apps and widgets, and pinch to launch one. We can also imagine that the phone could sense how high you are holding it, based on which elements of the operating system move so that you can always reach it. In any case, the possibilities are more numerous than what HTC has built in at the moment. HTC did say it would add even more squeeze functionality to the U11, such as Edge Sense for any desired app. When asked if you can put a case on the phone while retaining the squeeze functionality, HTC replied that this is due to the material used. It must continue to work with flexible materials.

Level specifications

We can’t say much about the camera quality of the HTC U11 yet. The device prints quickly and also focuses quite quickly, but the camera software is not yet final and we were therefore not allowed to place photos taken with the U11 in this preview. The specifications are fine, with a twelve-megapixel sensor, 1.4μm large pixels and an aperture of f/1.7, which should be as bright as the Galaxy S7 and S8. The camera also has optical image stabilization and HDR Boost. In addition, the device, like the Google Pixel, combines ten photos for a better dynamic range.

The device also resembles the Galaxy S7 and S8 in terms of focus technology. That device uses all pixels to focus, where phase detection autofocus normally focuses with only a small part of the pixels. The HTC U11 has the same technology on board and doesn’t call it Dual Pixel autofocus, but UltraSpeed ​​autofocus. Focusing is faster and, if all goes well, more accurate, which you especially notice in moderate lighting conditions. The camera sensor used is most likely the IMX362 sensor. The front camera is probably the IMX351 with sixteen megapixels and that is considerable for a front camera. It has an aperture of f/2.0.

The U11 really needs to stand out from the competition with its sound recording, for example when recording videos. The smartphone has four microphones and you can choose whether you want to record lossless audio, high-quality sound, or surround sound. According to HTC, the microphones focus on the sound that you zoom in on during filming, for example.

HTC supplies a USB-C adapter, because there is no 3.5mm port on the device, but also HTC Max 320 earbuds. According to the manufacturer, they can produce sound via the Adaptive Sound 2.0 technology based on the shape of your earcup, on the basis of which an equalizer is adjusted. For example, you would not have to turn up the volume too loud, because everything is equally audible, because the different frequency ranges are adjusted to your hearing. We already saw something similar with the HTC 10.

The HTC U11 is also one of the first phones to feature the Snapdragon 835 , especially if we don’t count the sd835 version of the Galaxy S8 outside Europe. HTC does not make any concessions in that area, where LG did with the G6 and put an old soc in it. The device runs particularly smoothly on the SD835. Apps start very quickly, multitasking is like a train and we flew through the Android menus. We can’t wait to get it in the office and start chastising it with benchmarks.

HTC has put 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage memory in the U11. The battery capacity was a bit disappointing at 3,000mAh, but that is of course not the only thing that determines how long the device lasts on a battery charge. In any case, the U11 has Quick Charge 3.0 technology, which makes charging fast.

According to HTC, Google Assistant is combined with HTC’s own artificial intelligence. More features are added all the time, such as Smart Alarm in June. This is one of the functions where the U11 tries to understand usage patterns and makes suggestions based on that. The software has not been tackled very drastically and therefore no specific new functions were highlighted in the presentation of the U11. In the past, we liked HTC’s software and we will of course dive into it extensively in the review that we will write soon. The U11 runs on Android version 7.1.1.