The HTC U11 is a large smartphone with a huge 5.93-inch display and a bulky body, which may seem like an opportunity to fit in some impressive features such as a long battery life or advanced water-resistance. However, despite its size, this phone's battery life falls short of expectations, lasting maybe two days at most. This is a missed opportunity, especially considering the large amount of internal space available.
The phone's design decisions also leave much to be desired. The buttons down at the bottom of the device are small and have tiny touch targets, making them difficult to press accurately. It would be better if HTC had opted for on-screen customizable software buttons or at least given that option somewhere in the menus. While it's possible that a software update could enable this feature, it's still a shame that such an option was not available out of the box.
One feature that is present is a fingerprint reader, which is placed alongside the phone's dual speakers. The fingerprint reader is one of the smaller ones available on any flagship phone, despite the device being one of the biggest phones in its class. This may seem like a poor use of space, especially considering the large body and weight of the phone.
Another issue with the HTC U11 is that it is not water-resistant, unlike many of its competitors. Given the size and materials used in its construction, it would have been easy for HTC to include some seals or seams to make the device more resistant to water and dust. However, this seems like a missed opportunity, especially at a price point of $750.
Light bleed is also a problem on the phone's display, particularly around the top left corner. This can be noticeable, even in bright lighting conditions. The cause of this issue is unclear, but it may have something to do with the proximity of the back lighting to the display panel or some other internal design decision.
Finally, there are issues with the phone's speakers, which are tiny and not very loud, even when using stereo audio. This is a shame, especially considering that many other flagship devices come with better speaker systems. The use of glass for the back of the device also means that wireless charging is not possible.
Despite these issues, there are some redeeming qualities to the HTC U11. One of its standout features is its camera, which uses a 12-megapixel Ultra pixel sensor and has phase detection autofocus. This makes it one of the fastest and best cameras on any smartphone currently available. Additionally, the device comes with expandable storage options, which is not common in most flagships.
The second display at the top of the phone is another interesting feature, although it's a bit of a shameless rip from other devices like the LG V20. However, this feature can be useful sometimes, such as when the display is off and you raise to wake it, displaying notifications and the time and date. This can be a nice convenience, especially for those who use their phone frequently throughout the day.
Overall, while there are some good things about the HTC U11, its numerous flaws and shortcomings make it difficult to recommend at a price point of $750. With so many other great smartphones available at similar or lower prices, it's hard to see this device as a worthwhile investment for most users.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys I'm kbd here and this is the brand new HTC U Ultra and it is definitely the shiniest phone of all time and this happens to also be HTC's first big smartphone of 2017 and it's coming to the US with a price tag of $749 so this is definitely a high-end Flagship smartphone and people who buy $700 Android smartphones these are the pickiest of the bunch those are the biggest enthusiasts people who want the biggest baddest phone they can possibly get so this seems to be what HTC is setting the tone with those people with so it's rocking pretty high on specs the snapd dragon 821 the Adeno 530 GPU 4 gigs of RAM and quality materials all around I mean you haven't seen many phones like this that are basically a mirror finish on the back it's Glass and Metal it's got the HTC skin over Android 7.0 some sweet colors are available and the cherry on top is of course how great this thing looks so this thing might be a sleeper of a great phone but the more I look into it the more I use this thing the more I understand the U Ultra the more I realize this seems to be a really poor use of space this is a big phone I mean you look at its footprint compared to things like the iPhone 7 plus the Galaxy Note 7 and even the pixel XL which stands for extra large and it's bigger than all of those and even others with even smaller displays it's bigger bigger than all of them and it's still 8 mm thick so it's also definitely not trying to be a super thin phone in any way either so it seems like there should be all the room in the world to throw in every possible Flagship feature and perk right well you've probably already realized this even if it's in your head without me saying it the back of this phone definitely resembles another certain Rivals Flagship not the Galaxy S7 the Galaxy S6 back when there was a big old hump on the back for the camera in the Galaxy S6 that's when it looked the most like the U Ultra but of course the next year Samsung made the phone a little bit thicker with all its new upgrades and bigger battery Etc and ended up with a much smaller camera hump on the back there should be no need for such a big hump on an even bigger phone of the U Ultra so the camera bump in an already huge phone to me seems like a poor use of space and for the record just having a camera bump isn't always a big deal but on the U Ultra it is and then there's the headphone jack or the black of a headphone jack yeah no headphone jack at all in this huge phone now I understand USB type-c is great and it's the future and everything thing but Apple's main reason for getting rid of the headphone jack in the iPhone besides courage was to save precious space in such a compact interior of a phone other manufacturers have since continued putting headphone Jacks in their phones because they don't need that space and the portless future isn't quite here yet and htcu definitely could have also but you didn't for some reason seems like a poor use of space and then the battery the htcu ultra has a 3,000 mAh battery which doesn't seem that bad but for context yes some something's a little bit off here you would think that a phone this huge and this thick with this much internal space would have all the room in the world for maybe a two-day battery life maybe the biggest non- removable battery they could possibly fit but that was a missed opportunity here and this phone is stuck with average battery life at best seems like a poor use of space and even if I get a little picky these these buttons down here at the bottom of the phone have some pretty small touch targets and I can't help but think that something just looks a little bit off about them a bit out of place to the point where it took me a little bit of time to actually get used to pressing them in the right spot with a screen and a phone this huge HTC could have easily gone with onscreen customizable software buttons or at least given that option somewhere in the menus it's 2017 but they didn't instead they went with these small permanent capacitive buttons way down at the bottom now they could if they wanted to drop that in a software update so I won't rag too hard on that if they want to enable it but maybe they just wanted to have buttons on the side flanking a fingerprint reader cuz they just really wanted a fingerprint reader which is cool you can put one there but they managed to put one of the smaller ones on any flagship phone even on one of the biggest phones out there seems like a poor use of space this $750 phone is also not water resistant and with a body and all the internal space this big you would think they would be able to find the space to put the seams and the seals to make sure that it's water resistant just like a lot of the smaller flagships out there but they didn't seems like a PO of space and if you look in the sides and the corners of this display especially up at the top left corner right underneath the webcam you get some serious light bleed and I hardly ever notice actual light bleed in any Flagship smartphone I don't know if it's because in this phone the back lighting is too close to the display panel or if the insides are too clumped up there next to the webcam to get that space evenly lit I don't know what the problem is but it is actually noticeable and that rarely is a problem for me on smartphones so seems like a poor use of space again it's also a huge phone with tiny speakers at the bottom sure it's a stereo pair but it's definitely not the loudest and it's definitely tiny at high volumes poor space you see what I'm getting at also most glass-backed phones like this have wireless charging that's why they do it if you have a metal phone you can't do wireless charging because wireless charging doesn't work through metal but if you have this sort of a big glass back and a huge amount of internal space you would think you could at least have wireless charging but it doesn't po use of space now even all of that isn't the end of the world I mean there's phones that are also lacking all of those things I just talked about but they're all also less than this price so I think at $750 in the US it's pretty hard sell I mean people who are buying phones at that price are looking for something really special and I don't think you're getting that here I mean there are definitely some good promising things about this phone that have me psyched for HTC's next phone the camera in this guy is really good it's a 12 megapixel Ultra pixel camera and has phase detection autofocus that's really fast and photos look very good they can almost go toe-to-toe with the Google pixel so I'm really impressed with that it also has expandable storage which is definitely rare in most smartphones and appreciated in a high-end Flagship and the second display up at the top while it is a Shameless rip of the LG v20 it's also kind kind of useful sometimes like the one in the LG v20 you get some app shortcuts up there if you want I kind of like it when the display is off and I raise to wake and I just get that little bit of notifications and the time and the date that's my favorite feature of the second display but you know if you don't want to use it you can turn it off as well so there is good stuff here but aside from new HTC software There is almost nothing for 750 bucks that this phone does that you can't get somewhere else better or cheaper so with that I'll say skip this one and you can pretty easily wait for the htc11 to come out pretty soon or just grab a Galaxy S8 when that comes out or an LG G6 or pretty much any other $700 smartphone which will be a better use of space than this one so that's been it hope you enjoyed feel free to leave a comment if you agree or if you have some other stuff to share thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peacehey what is up guys I'm kbd here and this is the brand new HTC U Ultra and it is definitely the shiniest phone of all time and this happens to also be HTC's first big smartphone of 2017 and it's coming to the US with a price tag of $749 so this is definitely a high-end Flagship smartphone and people who buy $700 Android smartphones these are the pickiest of the bunch those are the biggest enthusiasts people who want the biggest baddest phone they can possibly get so this seems to be what HTC is setting the tone with those people with so it's rocking pretty high on specs the snapd dragon 821 the Adeno 530 GPU 4 gigs of RAM and quality materials all around I mean you haven't seen many phones like this that are basically a mirror finish on the back it's Glass and Metal it's got the HTC skin over Android 7.0 some sweet colors are available and the cherry on top is of course how great this thing looks so this thing might be a sleeper of a great phone but the more I look into it the more I use this thing the more I understand the U Ultra the more I realize this seems to be a really poor use of space this is a big phone I mean you look at its footprint compared to things like the iPhone 7 plus the Galaxy Note 7 and even the pixel XL which stands for extra large and it's bigger than all of those and even others with even smaller displays it's bigger bigger than all of them and it's still 8 mm thick so it's also definitely not trying to be a super thin phone in any way either so it seems like there should be all the room in the world to throw in every possible Flagship feature and perk right well you've probably already realized this even if it's in your head without me saying it the back of this phone definitely resembles another certain Rivals Flagship not the Galaxy S7 the Galaxy S6 back when there was a big old hump on the back for the camera in the Galaxy S6 that's when it looked the most like the U Ultra but of course the next year Samsung made the phone a little bit thicker with all its new upgrades and bigger battery Etc and ended up with a much smaller camera hump on the back there should be no need for such a big hump on an even bigger phone of the U Ultra so the camera bump in an already huge phone to me seems like a poor use of space and for the record just having a camera bump isn't always a big deal but on the U Ultra it is and then there's the headphone jack or the black of a headphone jack yeah no headphone jack at all in this huge phone now I understand USB type-c is great and it's the future and everything thing but Apple's main reason for getting rid of the headphone jack in the iPhone besides courage was to save precious space in such a compact interior of a phone other manufacturers have since continued putting headphone Jacks in their phones because they don't need that space and the portless future isn't quite here yet and htcu definitely could have also but you didn't for some reason seems like a poor use of space and then the battery the htcu ultra has a 3,000 mAh battery which doesn't seem that bad but for context yes some something's a little bit off here you would think that a phone this huge and this thick with this much internal space would have all the room in the world for maybe a two-day battery life maybe the biggest non- removable battery they could possibly fit but that was a missed opportunity here and this phone is stuck with average battery life at best seems like a poor use of space and even if I get a little picky these these buttons down here at the bottom of the phone have some pretty small touch targets and I can't help but think that something just looks a little bit off about them a bit out of place to the point where it took me a little bit of time to actually get used to pressing them in the right spot with a screen and a phone this huge HTC could have easily gone with onscreen customizable software buttons or at least given that option somewhere in the menus it's 2017 but they didn't instead they went with these small permanent capacitive buttons way down at the bottom now they could if they wanted to drop that in a software update so I won't rag too hard on that if they want to enable it but maybe they just wanted to have buttons on the side flanking a fingerprint reader cuz they just really wanted a fingerprint reader which is cool you can put one there but they managed to put one of the smaller ones on any flagship phone even on one of the biggest phones out there seems like a poor use of space this $750 phone is also not water resistant and with a body and all the internal space this big you would think they would be able to find the space to put the seams and the seals to make sure that it's water resistant just like a lot of the smaller flagships out there but they didn't seems like a PO of space and if you look in the sides and the corners of this display especially up at the top left corner right underneath the webcam you get some serious light bleed and I hardly ever notice actual light bleed in any Flagship smartphone I don't know if it's because in this phone the back lighting is too close to the display panel or if the insides are too clumped up there next to the webcam to get that space evenly lit I don't know what the problem is but it is actually noticeable and that rarely is a problem for me on smartphones so seems like a poor use of space again it's also a huge phone with tiny speakers at the bottom sure it's a stereo pair but it's definitely not the loudest and it's definitely tiny at high volumes poor space you see what I'm getting at also most glass-backed phones like this have wireless charging that's why they do it if you have a metal phone you can't do wireless charging because wireless charging doesn't work through metal but if you have this sort of a big glass back and a huge amount of internal space you would think you could at least have wireless charging but it doesn't po use of space now even all of that isn't the end of the world I mean there's phones that are also lacking all of those things I just talked about but they're all also less than this price so I think at $750 in the US it's pretty hard sell I mean people who are buying phones at that price are looking for something really special and I don't think you're getting that here I mean there are definitely some good promising things about this phone that have me psyched for HTC's next phone the camera in this guy is really good it's a 12 megapixel Ultra pixel camera and has phase detection autofocus that's really fast and photos look very good they can almost go toe-to-toe with the Google pixel so I'm really impressed with that it also has expandable storage which is definitely rare in most smartphones and appreciated in a high-end Flagship and the second display up at the top while it is a Shameless rip of the LG v20 it's also kind kind of useful sometimes like the one in the LG v20 you get some app shortcuts up there if you want I kind of like it when the display is off and I raise to wake and I just get that little bit of notifications and the time and the date that's my favorite feature of the second display but you know if you don't want to use it you can turn it off as well so there is good stuff here but aside from new HTC software There is almost nothing for 750 bucks that this phone does that you can't get somewhere else better or cheaper so with that I'll say skip this one and you can pretty easily wait for the htc11 to come out pretty soon or just grab a Galaxy S8 when that comes out or an LG G6 or pretty much any other $700 smartphone which will be a better use of space than this one so that's been it hope you enjoyed feel free to leave a comment if you agree or if you have some other stuff to share thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace\n"
