Review: HTC U11

The HTC U11 is a very smart device - but not quite up there with the Samsung Galaxy S8

HTC was one of the early beneficiaries of the Android smartphone revolution, making a good bet on the Google-backed operating system, and producing some good devices that caught buyers' imagination.

But despite having this rich legacy behind it, for whatever reason, it just hasn't been able to make its last few years of smartphone releases work.

Now, with the HTC U11, HTC's follow-up to the excellent HTC 10, the Taiwanese company is bringing the big guns: a Snapdragon 835 processor, up to 128GB storage and, wait for it, squeezy tech.

Design In addition to innovative input methods, HTC is also bucking the LG/Samsung trend of making long phones with 18:9+ aspect ratios. Instead, on first impression, the HTC U11 is actually a bit underwhelming. It isn't particularly thin at 7.9mm, it hasn't got narrow bezels, and it looks a bit squat with its 71.4 per cent screen to bezel ratio.

It could easily be mistaken for an HTC U Ultra from the back, or a Huawei P10 Plus from the front. Don't get us wrong, these are all premium looking and feeling phones, but as premium as the U11 is, it isn't quite showcasing futuristic, standout design like the Galaxy S8.

It does manage to impress with its colours though, in particular, the new 'solar red' and 'amazing silver', changing hue as you change your viewing angle.

Save for Edge Sense, the official name for the squeeze tech either side of the phone, the inputs dotted around the HTC U11 are very traditional. To the right is a volume rocker and power button, down at the base is a USB-C port and there's a SIM card tray with room for a microSD card as well. You'll notice that there's no 3.5mm headphone jack on here, though the U11 does ship with an adapter/DAC, complete with Hi-Res audio support.

The Liquid Surface design looks sleek and the U11 has curved Gorilla Glass 5 around the back, elegantly moulded to seamlessly transition into the metal frame. In the hand, it does feel excellent, with attention to detail paid to elements like the power button - sporting a texture so a thumb can easily distinguish it from the volume rocker.

An unavoidable by-product of a glass back plate is a fingerprint-loving smartphone. It's better than the HTC U Play, for example, but it is still worth mentioning. In the box, there's also a case which is a nice touch, though frustratingly, its hard plastic scratches incredibly easily.

Despite all the glass, the U11 doesn't feel fragile thanks to excellent weighting, the knowledge it's IP67 water and dust resistant and the blasted metal frame holding everything together. This frame also provides a good amount of grip and a soft curve, making it comfortable to hold for long periods.

The fact it has a bit of side-bezel is actually not a bad thing for handheld ergonomics, though the upper and lower bezel could have been a little more tapered.

Below the screen sits a fingerprint scanner that doubles up as a home button while either side of it are capacitive navigation buttons. Using ultrasound technology, the sides and screen of the HTC U11 can be interacted with even when wet.

Screen QHD resolution paired with a 5.5in size equates to a tried and tested screen spec. It's the same size and resolution found on the Google Pixel XL, Huawei P10 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

This is a good thing, delivering a pixel density of 534 pixels-per-inch. The HTC U11's screen, therefore looks incredibly sharp and the SLCD technology looks much better than it did on the HTC 10. It has excellent viewing angles, decent brightness levels and a host of display options.

Dive into the settings and you can customise the phone's screen colour temperature, turn on Night Mode, in other words, apply a blue light filter, and control the display and font size, shrinking or blowing up the UI as you see fit.

With the glass feeling rich to thumb over and interaction being responsive, while not as punchy as an AMOLED display, and despite no HDR video support, in isolation, the U11's display is perfectly competent, with no notable shortcomings.

Next page: User interface and Edge Sense

Review: HTC U11

The HTC U11 is a very smart device - but not quite up there with the Samsung Galaxy S8

User interface Android 7.1 is paired with HTC's custom interface, HTC Sense. This combination is bolstered by a host of app-based enhancements HTC hopes will differentiate the U11 in a sea of customised versions of Android.

The fundamentals of the UI are familiars - home screens, an apps tray, and a notifications/quick toggle menu. HTC's Blinkfeed is also to the left of all the home screens, aggregating news and social media content. This is handy for mindlessly scrolling through a feed that isn't Facebook or Instagram, though, for anyone who prefers to be a bit more mindful, you can easily disable it.

As far as additional apps go, the most in your face is HTC Sense Companion. This volunteers up information like weather, local restaurants, your daily step-count and battery saver suggestions.

It also gets to know you over time, offering restaurant suggestions at lunch time and reminding you to charge your phone if it thinks you won't quite make it through a day. After only a week with the U11, our tailored suggestions were limited, though useful weather updates and charging suggestions were well-timed and welcome.

HTC's Boost+ app is also onboard helping with smartphone housekeeping like cache file clearing and app management. Giving you the ability to mass uninstall applications and control the resolution games are displayed - thereby saving you battery, it's a handy, comprehensive tool that doesn't really feel like bloatware.

The final pre-loaded app of note is the UA Record app. This is Under Armour's own suite of fitness tools, pairing with UA branded accessories like the excellent JBL Sport Wireless headphones and HTC Health Box. This delivers heart-rate monitoring from the headphones paired with your GPS tracking from your phone for accurate calorie burning information. For fitness enthusiasts, it's a great app and it can easily be uninstalled, so doesn't really classify as bloatware.

The U11 has the same theme experience the HTC 10 does, with a choice of freestyle themes or traditional Android skins. There's also a neat option to create a theme from a picture or current wallpaper, so personalisation is comprehensively accounted for.

As for personal assistants, currently, only Google Now is available for the U11, though by the end of June, Amazon's Alexa will be on-board too, available to download from the Google Play Store.

Edge Sense Unique, gimmicky, bonkers - all words that come to mind when thinking about the new squeezy tech, aka, Edge Sense found on the U11. Squishing the bottom half of your phone between your thumb and fingers acts as an input, with HTC offering tons of customisation around the experience.

By default, squeezing is set to launch the camera app, while a long squeeze will fire up Google Now. You can customise your own squeeze level in the settings, so it only activates when you want it to.

Other optional squeeze associations include launching an app, taking a screenshot, turning the flashlight on and off, starting a voice recording, launching HTC Sense companion and finally, toggling the U11's WiFi hotspot. Down the line, HTC has also promised in-app customisation, so you can interact with third-party apps with a squeeze, but that feature hasn't dropped just yet.

The first question to ask is - does it work reliably? The answer is 'yes'. After customising your squeeze level it's relatively comfortable to use while on a surface and in your hand, and can be used while wearing gloves and when wet - also handy.

The second question to ask - is it worthwhile? This is less cut and dry. After cycling through commands, the best answer to that question is, maybe. HTC already offers a quick launch camera feature by double tapping the power button. This felt less awkward than squeezing the U11 when quickly trying to take a snap.

The long press for Google Now was handy, but doubles up what a verbal "Okay Google" can do, which is a means of interaction we've got used to. As a result, on our U11, Edge Sense toggled the WiFi hotspot with a short squeeze and turned the flashlight on with a long squeeze.

The Honor 7 had an additional hardware key, the Honor 8 had a fingerprint scanner button, the Samsung Galaxy S8 has a less useful Bixby key. This just feels like much of the same when it comes to real-world use. As a result, right now, Edge Sense feels more like a gimmick than a key selling point, which is a shame.

Next page: Multimedia, camera, performance and battery

Review: HTC U11

The HTC U11 is a very smart device - but not quite up there with the Samsung Galaxy S8

Multimedia Sound is a big part of the HTC U11's story. The phone supports Hi-Res audio, ships with noise cancelling USonic headphones and has really loud BoomSound stereo speakers.

Given the fact there's no 3.5mm headphone jack on the U11, the USonic headphones plug in via USB-C. Calibrating them in the settings is a must if you intend to use the out of the box headphones. This enables the in-ear cans to scan your ear shape and adapt sound accordingly. The difference after the scan was less flat audio and increased volume. Sure, these are all EQ adjustments, but it still results in better a listening experience which is great.

The noise cancelling feature of the supplied headphones is pretty weak. We have used a lot of active noise cancelling headphones, including those that shipped with the Xperia Z3, and these are by far the least aggressive. So while excellent quality for an included pair of earbud headphones, curb your expectations if you're looking to drown out your neighbours rave or in-flight engine hum.

As for the BoomSound speakers, these are very, very loud and clear. They are incredibly close to being the best smartphone speakers around. In fact, they may be in terms of pure sound - never has a YouTube clip played for friends at a dinner been so audible or generated so many lols.

That said, holding the U11 in landscape while you're watching movies or gaming on it more often than not covers up phone's more powerful speaker - there is one by the USB-C port, and one by the in-call speaker.

This results in muffle. So while unequivocally better than, say, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium's front speakers when it comes to volume and quality, when gaming, making kitty litter of Batman with our sharpest Catwoman claws in Injustice 2 is way less fun when you're constantly adjusting your grip.

Speaking of gaming, there's nothing the HTC U11 can't do that any other modern day flagship can. Probably the most graphically challenging game around, the aforementioned Injustice 2 looks spot-on, interaction across titles is swift and with 64GB or 128GB storage, there's plenty of storage space.

Despite packing an identical processor/RAM combination, we actually got better framerates from the U11 than the Sony Xperia XZ Premium - likely due to the 4K display on Sony's flagship, so when it comes to graphics alone, the HTC U11 could be the best Android gaming phone money can buy.

Camera With 12MP around the back paired with an f/1.7 aperture and OIS, the HTC U11's camera specs read well from the get go. HTC has also introduced something called Instant HDR, imbuing pictures with higher dynamic range without the waiting usually associated with HDR pictures.

Despite the comparatively low resolution, the picture quality on the U11 is plenty sharp, beating out the 19MP XZ Premium, with low-light performance being exceptional. The optical image stabilisation counteracts handshake beautifully and colours have a healthy amount of punch and pop. The U11 also resists the urge to overexpose shots unlike Sony and LG's latest flagships, resulting in less noise than much of the competition and more accurate results.

The only gripe we have with the camera is the refresh rate of the live viewfinder. It's a bit slow, so can make you think you're taking a worse picture than you actually are. This, however, is definitely not a deal breaker as chances are, the end result will look brilliant.

The host of shooting modes include manual mode, offering exposure times of up to 32 seconds, RAW support, Panorama, Hyperlapse and Slow motion video.

Capable of up to 4K resolution, the HTC U11's video camera is truly excellent. Focus is incredibly fast, accurate and detail looks sharp. It isn't perfect - while OIS does mean handshake is steadied out, it also results in a rolling shutter effect, aka, a warped, windswept look when quickly panning. Still, in most cases, the U11's camera nails it.

HTC hasn't neglected the front camera either. The 16-megapixel sensor sports an f/2 aperture and can down-sample photos when taking selfies in low-light. Again, the results are great, with detail looking spot-on and a good amount of versatility across lighting conditions. There's an optional Live makeup mode, Selfie Panorama as well as video recording up to a resolution of 1080p.

Performance and connections Qualcomm's latest chipset, the Snapdragon 835. powers the U11 and boy does this thing fly. Paired with either 4GB or 6GB RAM - we had the 4GB variant - and it still wiped the floor with most of the competition.

Antutu benchmark scores came in at a staggering 176,755, beating out the Sony Xperia XZ Premium and Samsung Galaxy S8+ and corroborating our experience with framerates when playing Injustice when compared to the still excellent Sony flagship.

Meanwhile, a Geekbench score of 6,355 firmly cements the HTC U11 as one of the most powerful phones money can buy, and certainly the most powerful Android phone you can pick up in the UK.

With 64GB or 128GB storage and microSD card support, a USB-C port for speedy file transfers and NFC, the U11 is also relatively well connected. There's no IR blaster, 3.5mm headphone jack or wireless charging though, so if any of those are must haves, check out the Samsung Galaxy S8 or Huawei P10 Plus.

Battery Much to our surprise, the HTC U11's 3,000mAh battery got us through a full day, day in day out. HTC has been banging the 'software optimisation' drum for a long time. The U Ultra however simply wasn't good enough, but it elates us to say, this time round, 3,000mAh nails it.

The U11 also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 so it won't take you forever to top-up on the off chance you fall short before the day's up.

In short The HTC U11 is excellent and worth the £649 asking price when looking at the competition. But is excellent enough?

Depending on what you value, it absolutely is. HTC gets audio more right than any other manufacturer, making speakers that shout louder, headphones that work harder and sound recording that captures everything at higher quality. Gaming is also an area the HTC U11 nails it - save for the ease with which the bottom speaker can be covered up. Finally, it has among the best smartphone cameras around.

All this is enough to make the U11 a solid 9/10, even if the design isn't as futuristic as the Galaxy S8's and the killer new feature, Edge Sense, feels more like a gimmick than anything else, at least for now.

The good
Class-leading audio and camera, well built.

The bad
Edge Sense feels gimmicky. No headphone jack.

The ugly
Big bezels.

Our score
9/10