The Taiwanese company HTC has not yet released an update for the former flagship HTC 10; instead, a new advanced smartphone has appeared with better hardware, a larger screen and a rather high price tag. HTC U Ultra is released in all world markets, including Russia.
This is another unique attempt by the company to regain its lost leading position in the smartphone market. How good this attempt is can be concluded by reading our review of the HTC U Ultra and evaluating other new HTC smartphones.
Price and main characteristics
The manufacturer asks $750 for his brainchild, and offers the following characteristics:
- display: 5.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, covered with protective glass Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (64 GB version) or sapphire glass (128 GB version); additional 2-inch IPS display with a resolution of 160x1040 pixels;
- processor: 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with a frequency of 2.15 GHz;
- RAM: 4 GB;
- internal memory: 64 or 128 GB + micro SDXC flash cards up to 128 GB;
- camera: front - 16 MP; main - 12 megapixels with laser autofocus, dual flash and optical image stabilization system;
- communication: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, LTE;
- battery: 3000 mAh with support for Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging.
Whether such a smartphone at such a price can be successful in sales is very doubtful, but let’s take a closer look.
Screen
HTC decided to take LG's idea and add a secondary screen above the main display. The idea is implemented in the same way; the screen looks like a small strip located at the top of the front part of the case. It is needed to display basic information and is just over two inches in size.
The convenience of another screen is noticeable when working with notifications; they come here and do not use the workspace of the main display.
The main screen has a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels and a 5.7-inch Super LCD matrix. The high pixel density ensures high-quality image transmission; there are also no problems with color rendering, except that sometimes it seems that the picture is too oversaturated. But with maximum brightness, not everything is so smooth; under the sun's rays it is difficult to see what is happening on the screen. When tilted, the picture is not distorted except for the black color, which becomes somewhat dimmer.
Performance
The smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 821 processor and 4 GB of RAM. This combination has managed to show itself worthy on many analogues; this is confirmed by the results of benchmarks, in which HTC U Ultra, although it does not occupy the first lines, is still in the top, competing with the LG V20, sometimes even ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
In everyday use there are no lags, switching between tabs occurs quickly, and the smartphone can handle any 3D games without problems. The device already has 64 GB of memory built-in, which should be quite enough, however, as a last resort, you can always install an external memory card.
HTC U Play specifications
However, although the U Play doesn't really stand out, the smartphone can surprise us with a wide-angle front camera and cool stereo sound with U Sonic technology. The start date of sales and the cost of the new product are unknown.
sapphire crystal body , a wide-angle front camera, an additional screen - all this is really cool, but it was already in last year’s flagships from Samsung and LG. HTC didn't show anything fundamentally new.
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