The HTC company has long lost the market, releasing something unclear for whom at exorbitant prices. The logic of a simple buyer works something like this: “Yes, for that price I can get an iPhone.” You don’t have to explain to your friends what kind of Chinese (actually Taiwanese) smartphone this is - just show the apple on the back cover and there will be no questions.
The HTC U12+ is supposed to be a lifeline, but it faces the same fate. With an official price starting from 60 thousand rubles, the company can only count on geeks with money or devoted fans, if, of course, there are still such people left.
It's a pity. The smartphone is excellent.
Thank you for not being another iPhone X clone
U12+ is the most distinctive flagship of 2020. The Taiwanese opted for frameless design, a notch in the screen, and made the smartphone partly old school. Whether this is good or bad, everyone decides for themselves. Personally, I like it.
A premium smartphone that glares in the sun, a little angular, but overall a beautiful smartphone that definitely looks expensive. The frame is made of metal and the back is made of curved 3D glass. The front is also thick glass, which extends perhaps a quarter of the side edge. The coolest version is the blue one with clear glass. Underneath, the elements of the device are not particularly visible, but it looks at least interesting. There is also flame red and ceramic black (that's just a name, it doesn't use ceramics). The first one will definitely attract attention. I found only one downside - the glass gets dirty instantly. Next we’ll talk about the design features.
The assembly is perfect, everything fits perfectly - no creaks, no backlashes. There is protection against water according to the IP68 standard. The smartphone is monolithic and very smooth, and therefore very slippery. The likelihood of dropping the gadget also increases due to its dimensions - it is large, thick (almost 1 cm in the middle!) and weighty. More for a man's hand, I would say.
The kit comes with a bad plastic case that leaves the sides exposed for the company's Edge Sense technology, which has been updated to version two. But more on that later.
There is a microphone at the top end, and another microphone and a BoomSound speaker at the bottom. On the front there is a display with sensors, a speaker and an LED notification indicator. On the back there is a dual camera, flash and fingerprint scanner. On the left is a hybrid slot for a memory card and SIM, or for two SIMs, on the right... and on the right it’s a pain. More precisely, the lock and volume buttons. Now I will explain why you will suffer.
How Honor 7C “looks” on the Internet
More detailed technical characteristics of the yet to be presented Honor 7C are currently “known” only based on rumors about this device.
According to these assumptions, the 5.99-inch display of the smartphone in question with a full-screen design, covered with curved 2.5D glass, will be characterized by a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels. A chipset with an eight-core central processor, the clock frequency of which, as noted above, reaches 1.8 gigahertz, will be combined in the Honor 7C with 3 or 4 gigabytes of RAM.
The estimated capacity of the built-in storage of the new product from Honor, which will be shown to the general public soon, will be 32 gigabytes. However, microSD support will allow the user of the new device to expand the available storage capacity with a memory card up to 256 gigabytes.
Existing rumors about the smartphone in question also pointed to the likely characteristics of a dual camera located on the back of the Honor 7C. The 13-megapixel sensor will be combined with an additional 2-megapixel sensor. The main camera of the device will be equipped with a light-emitting diode (LED) flash.
Like most modern smart phones, Honor 7C will also be equipped with a selfie camera located on its front panel, the sensor resolution of which will be 8 megapixels.
One of the most important characteristics of a mobile device is its battery capacity. After all, it largely determines how often the user will have to charge his smartphone. As is currently believed, the Honor 7C will be powered by its 2900 mAh battery.
Connection options for the yet-to-be-announced smart phone from Huawei's Honor sub-brand include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS. The fingerprint scanner of the device will be located on its back panel, which is the most common approach to placing this sensor in smartphones with a trendy “frameless” design. Weighing 164 grams, the expected dimensions of the new device (in millimeters) are 158.3 (height) x 76.7 (width) x 7.8 (thickness).
This is what you might hate about U12+
This is the most stupid implementation of the side volume and power buttons. Now they are not physical, but sensory. Made like the Home button in the iPhone 7. Only worse.
Much worse.
How can I describe this... Remember how you press the power button. You grab the smartphone, holding it at both ends, but by and large, only the phalanges of one finger, most often the thumb, are involved. So on HTC U12+ you need to squeeze the entire hand. You have to really make an effort.
You can compare these sensations with squeezing a hand expander, only it is rubber, not metal. In addition, the buttons are quite sharp, and the Sleep button also has a texture. As a result, we have: rough metal protrusions that need to be pressed hard with soft fingertips. Can you imagine what it's like? The pressing force cannot be adjusted - and this is the main problem. If on an iPhone you always know how and with what force a button is pressed, then on the HTC U12+ it’s a surprise every time. It works, it doesn't work. In short, it's annoying!
In addition, you cannot take screenshots either. You have to get out and: 1) hold down the power button and press the “Home” button; 2) adjust the screenshot to Edge Sense squeezable edges.
Please adjust the pressing force in the next generation and there will be “space”. But for now it's just annoying.
Features of HTC U12 Plus
One of the marketing headlines for this device is the Edge Sense system. Pressing the edges of the case activates various features. It appeared in last year's models and this time the second version is used. Some people think this option is interesting, others just an unnecessary quirk. Double edge tapping is now supported. It is possible to program various actions within applications, although in practice the results may be disappointing. As with the buttons, the system is unstable and more often annoying than helpful.
Edge Sense System
On the software side, HTC once again delivers a fast and responsive version of Android. The graphic theme store and the artificial intelligence companion have returned, both of which you can also live without. If they were of higher quality, there would be more benefits, but for now they are just toys.
Google and Amazon Alexa assistants are supported; in China, Baidu assistant is used instead. For a company with limited resources, this is a smart solution: device owners can choose between assistants themselves.
And yet, something is being forced on them, namely integration with HTC News Republic. This is not the best news app that we only found out about thanks to our connection with HTC. It provides push notifications on the lock screen and notification panel. Everything happens intrusively and the information content is lame. You can disable the application, but such an expensive smartphone should not initially irritate with excesses.
Other software features include the keyboard, which is terrible. Before I could switch to the Google Gboard keyboard, the device presented a list of applications to install, most of which fall into the category of bloatware, not including the game Candy Crush Soda Saga. Again, not too solid for such an expensive model.
Best IPS on the market
But I can’t say anything bad about the screen. Not OLED, but among IPS it is clearly top. Diagonal 6 inches, resolution 2880×1440 pixels (537 ppi), ratio 18 to 9. There is a night mode, support for HDR 10, DCI-P3, sRGB profiles and Always-On mode. On paper, compared to the HTC U11, they lowered the contrast a little (in my opinion this is a plus) and raised the brightness. Is the difference really noticeable? Not really. The picture is close to its predecessor, just as rich and with good color rendition.
By default, U12+ has Quad HD+ resolution (that is, maximum). It can be reduced to Full HD+, saving battery power. I have not checked how much is saved this way.
There's really nothing special to add. It seems like we’ve already gotten used to high-quality displays, so it’s hard to be surprised now. What’s unusual is the mode of working with gloves, which is quite relevant for the Russian cold.
Camera. Simply gorgeous
Many believe that in 2020, the quality of shooting is almost the decisive parameter when buying a phone. Like everything else is the same, plus or minus. I don't agree with this statement, but to hell with it.
In fact, for the first time, a flagship dual camera appeared in an HTC smartphone, and not just one, but two at once. The main one received two modules of 12 (f/1.8 aperture) and 16 (f/2.6 aperture) megapixels. For the front camera, we chose two eyes of 8 megapixels each with the same aperture f/2.0.
First of all, you need to evaluate the quality of pictures using the “auto” mode - this is how most users take photographs. And with this, HTC U12+ is in perfect order, in my opinion.
But I don’t take photographs as often as I would like. Therefore, I asked Olga Dragunova from the Telegram channel “Mobile Photography” to test the camera. Over to her.
What's in the menu: flash, masks with animals, timer, frame format (1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 18.9) and its size, HDR mode. At the bottom there are buttons for the front camera, video shooting, portrait mode and zoom. The fact that the masks are placed on the main panel on top for the main and front cameras personally puzzles me. Animal faces are not at all what mobile photographers and adults usually need every day.
Let's start with the front camera. Here you can enable or disable “portrait decoration”. The mode works in two directions: skin smoothness and facial brightness. You can set everything to “auto”, but the software processing seemed very soapy and rude to me. I got the impression that when taking a selfie, the camera slightly distorts the proportions of the face, no matter what angle I shoot from. Perhaps this is just my problem. There are no questions about bokeh; auto and manual adjustment of the background blur zone works very well even on a complex background.
To the main camera. Auto mode with HDR produces predictably great photos. I liked the quick start-up gesture; you take out the camera and shoot instantly. Focusing and shooting speed is super. I only wanted to turn off HDR when shooting a sunset, when I needed to darken the buildings and not emphasize shadow details. I liked the color rendition of the photos - there is no over-saturation of individual colors or the opposite effect with whitened shades after HDR.
Portraits with the main camera are fantastic! The background is blurred softly and even better than on the iPhone X. But I liked the Apple smartphone more in terms of colors.
iPhone X
HTC U12+
HDR worked strangely in places, but in others it helped capture more detail in the shadows.
I have mixed impressions from the zoom. Double optical magnification of norms. Tenfold, of course, is a mess.
All other modes, except auto, are removed to the drop-down menu in the right corner: panorama, pro mode, video, hyperlapse, slow motion, photo selfie, panoramic selfie, video selfie. In the settings, you can enable touch exposure metering and a 3 by 3 grid, if someone is more accustomed to shooting this way.
In the manual mode of the camera - aka pro - you can adjust the white balance (you can select the exact temperature 2300–7500 K), exposure, ISO, shutter speed and focus area (macro landscape). In this case, any parameter can be set to auto mode and work precisely with what is needed. User settings can be saved by clicking on the “+” in the upper left corner. The camera in pro mode allows you to shoot in JPG or RAW (DNG). If anyone is interested in seeing an example of an evening photograph in DNG format, you can download it here.
Thanks to Olga. On my own behalf, I’ll add that the average user can’t find fault with the camera - everything is so good. Honestly, I did not expect such a level of shooting and in the end I was amazed. Over the course of this month, the camera phone has proven itself to be a worthy all-rounder. Daytime shots are a bomb, in the evening, of course, not Huawei P20 Pro, but also at a high level. It can take portraits from both the front and rear cameras. Well, what else do you need?
Fans of shooting video will highly appreciate the features of the HTC U12+ - there is 4K recording with 60 frames per second, optical stabilization and smooth cinematic zoom. Plus, the smartphone records excellent sound, thanks to four microphones. Perhaps the best on the market. You can choose one of three recording modes: Hi-Res, 3D or audio focusing.
Examples with originals of all photos and videos, including 4K and slow-mo, are on Google Drive.
Let's summarize. The HTC U12+ camera easily competes with current flagships and, moreover, outperforms in some scenarios (remember portrait photography). The smartphone is ideal for the “take it out and take a picture” scenario - you are almost guaranteed to get a great photo that you can immediately upload to Instagram. An absolutely pleasant experience.
HTC even prepared a detailed guide on using the smartphone camera and a description of all the functions. Well done!
Android 8.0 + HTC Sense = ?
Love. Definitely.
Sense has always been one of the best third-party skins. Nothing has changed - it is still beautiful, comfortable and with its signature features. The main one is Edge Sense 2, which allows you to squeeze the edges of the smartphone to perform any actions. It appeared in HTC U11 and managed to appear on Pixel smartphones, but under a different name. What's new in the second version?
Desktop
Application screen
Edge Sense selector
One-handed mode
Notification curtain
Settings
Local Google Now
Now you can not only squeeze edges, but also tap them on both sides. By default, for example, double tap enables one-handed control. The actions are configured in the parameters, but there are not very many options: double knock, compression and compression with hold. The strength can be adjusted, which is also good. However, you should not configure it too weakly - random activations will torment you.
There is a cool “Smart Rotate” function - when you lie on your side with the phone, it understands that you are still holding it and does not change the orientation of the screen. And you don’t need to squeeze anything—the sensors themselves recognize your palm.
No matter how I tried to accustom myself to Edge Sense, I couldn’t. It seems like it should be convenient, but you just forget about this feature because it’s easier to do everything with your finger. On the other hand, the touch frame works even when the smartphone is locked. That is, right from the screen being turned off, you can turn on the camera or call up a selector with quick actions and applications, which is also accompanied by a full-size calendar. In any case, it will be useful to someone. If you don't like it, you can turn it off.
You can add another page to the navigation buttons panel, which is called up by swiping. Buttons for screencasting, creating a screenshot, and so on are placed here. Otherwise, it's almost pure Android. The only pity is that the normal Google Now is not on the left - there is a local personalized news feed from HTC.
Edge Sense
The Edge Sense interface in the U12+ is a feature that was previously used in the previous flagship. The technology is made with special sensitive edges located along the edges. They perceive the location and force of pressing and implement certain functions depending on the duration and intensity of the signals. For example, holding the phone for a long time will unlock it, double tap will open an application, etc.
The technology really helps to use a large “shovel” with one hand - it is sorely lacking in other phones with a screen diagonal of over 6 inches. By customizing it to your needs, you create convenient, quick access to camera applications, contacts, assistants, etc. In general, Edge Sense offers many options for using sensitive edges.
The gadget comes with a special plastic protective case with open edges for Edge Sense, which is nice.
Performance
The most boring part of any review.
U12+ is powered by an eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with an Adreno 630 graphics core. There is nothing cooler in Android smartphones now, so everything works great. Inside there are 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. There is also a basic version with 64 GB of memory. The microSD tray can accommodate a flash drive with a capacity of up to 2 TB.
During the month of use, I did not notice any crashes or glitches. Everything works stably, considering that I have a sample on my hands and not a retail sample.
In Antutu, the smartphone scores more than 240 thousand points. In Geekbench 4, the result in the single-core test was almost 2400 points, in the multi-core test - 8200 points. After a half-hour session in PUBG, the phone did not heat up at all. Throttling is also not noticeable. So the U12+ can be called a gaming smartphone.
In general, all you need to know: very fast. Just a rocket. The system flies at breakneck speeds, I only had time to enjoy it.
There is an NFC chip so Google Pay works. It is important.
Combination of high performance and weak battery
The combination of a fast Snapdragon 845 processor and 6GB of RAM performed well in testing, with the U12 Plus delivering maximum performance. The system responds very quickly and smoothly, and surfing the Internet or 3D games is a pleasure. This is one of the fastest models currently on the market.
However, the HTC U12 Plus's battery life is disappointing: in our online testing with the display on, the 3,500-mAh battery only lasted 7:38 hours. For comparison: the regular (but smaller) U11 works with a 3000 mAh battery under the same conditions for 10:14 hours, Huawei Mate 10 Pro - almost 12 hours. You will have to charge the battery every day.
By the way, it takes more than 197 minutes to fully charge the battery, which is more than three hours. Other smartphones with similar specs often charge up to an hour faster.
Fast Snapdragon 845 delivers maximum performance
Finger and face
Apparently no one makes scanners faster than Xiaomi’s. HTC U12+ is a bit mediocre when it comes to unlocking. The fingerprint sensor is not the fastest; it is inferior in speed to Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s and even OnePlus 5T. But there is a standard.
Another option is Face Unlock or as HTC officially called it - photo password. An exclusively software thing, which in speed is already comparable to OnePlus 5T, for example. So you can use it. The only complaint is that activating the screen by tap works is unclear. The display lights up either after one click, or after a double click, or even after a swipe.
To be sure that face scanning will work, you need to press the power button on the side (and we have already found out that this is a so-so idea), or you can configure the activation of the photo password for Edge Sense compression gestures - quite a case.
By the way, push notifications can be hidden from prying eyes if the phone is locked. The same is done in the iPhone X.
About sound
HTC is very proud of the U12+'s musical performance. There is a reason: the smartphone received BoomSound stereo speakers and a USonic headset included. First about the speakers.
They are loud, that's a fact. But the sound quality here is not outstanding; the iPhone X sounds nicer. Quieter, but without overwhelming the frequencies and giving a picture that is close to reality. I also didn’t like that when watching videos on YouTube, I felt a slight sound vibration under the back cover. Apparently this whole thing resonates inside the case. The feeling is unpleasant.
In the settings you can select two profiles: “theater” and “music”. I didn't notice any difference between them. Overall, the speakers are enough to watch YouTube. You probably only listen to music through headphones. And they are included in the kit.
HTC USonic is a vacuum headset (or simply “plugs”) with active noise reduction. Connects to a smartphone via Type-C, yeah, there is no 3.5 mm audio jack here. Headphones are a gun!
Nowadays, very few manufacturers include a headset in the kit, let alone a high-quality one and, one might say, a smart one, even more so. The fact is that USonic have automatic acoustic adjustment to the parameters of your ear. You need to connect the headset and go to the appropriate item in the settings.
How this magic happens: I heard “white noise” for a second and then the music started playing. During this time, the headphones scanned my ear canal (don't ask me how) and created a unique sound profile for me. You can immediately turn it off and compare the sound of the headphones without individual settings. The sound is amazingly transformed, thanks to a mixture of sound insulation (they are vacuum, after all), active noise cancellation and a personal acoustic profile. It seems to envelop you. There is plenty of volume reserve, the sound is clear and there is a lot of rich bass.
You can buy such headphones for some money, but here they are already included. Plus they have a built-in microphone, so you can make calls. It's a pity there are no volume control buttons - that would be really nice.
If you are a fan of this type of headphones, you will be delighted. If you have already stepped into the wireless era, then the U12+ has Bluetooth 5.0 with support for the aptX HD protocol for Hi-Res sound.
Working hours
The HTC U12+ battery capacity is 3500 mAh, which is significantly less than the U11+. It is difficult to objectively estimate the operating time, it depends on your use cases. In my mode - mainly instant messengers, social networks Twitter, Instagram and YouTube - the phone gives 5-6 hours of screen operation. This is a standard result.
But when using Yandex.Navigator, the battery quickly began to discharge. A strange situation, which again can be attributed to crude firmware or some bugs specifically for this application. In airplane mode, by the way, the smartphone’s battery life is simply unrealistic. In general, U12+ shows the usual operating time for 2020.
Despite the glass cover, the smartphone does not have wireless charging. But there is Quick Charge 3.0 out of the box. Quick Charge 4.0 is also announced, but the included charger does not support it.
Specifications
The table shows some technical specifications of HTC U12 plus.
| Display | SuperLCD6 (IPS) 2880×1440, 6 inches, 538 pixels per inch |
| CPU | Snapdragon 835 |
| GP | Adreno 630 |
| RAM/ROM | 6 gb/64 gb, 6 gb/128 gb |
| Connection | GSM, HSDPA |
| Data | 4G LTE Cat.18 (both SIMs simultaneously) |
| Sensors | Acceleration, compass, gyroscope, lighting, proximity, fingerprint scanner |
| Wireless technologies | Bluetooth 5, WiFi, NFC |
| Main camera | 12MP color + 16MP monochrome, hybrid autofocus (phase and laser), image stabilization, flash |
| Front camera | 8MP+8MP, fixed focus |
| Peculiarities | Customizable EdgeSense system, IP68 water and dust resistance |
| Battery | 3500 mAh |
HTC U12 plus on Yandex Market
The model is made of glass on a strong metal frame, weighs 188 g, has dimensions 157x74x9.7 mm.
The HTC U12 plus smartphone has received full protection from the environment. The device is not afraid of water and dust. The IP68 standard requires complete immersion in 1 m of water for 30 minutes or being under a continuous stream of water without deteriorating the performance of the device. Such protection greatly expands the consumer audience. However, the glass body still prevents extreme sports enthusiasts from using the HTC U12 plus with complete freedom. The phone is highly likely to be broken.
The model features a 3D Audio three-dimensional sound system. It is served by as many as 4 microphones. This number of points allows you not to worry about the position of the smartphone in your hand when recording video with sound. In addition, microphones can change settings depending on the distance of objects when zooming.
Almost got it
HTC's logic is clear - everyone is charging crazy prices, and why are we any worse? And compared to their competitors, they have the right to set such a price. High-quality build, beautiful design - U12+ really looks premium. It has only two obvious disadvantages - side touch buttons and a cosmic price tag, otherwise it is an excellent device. And if you have no prejudices about the brand, then it’s worth taking a closer look. The question is different.
Let's admit that for this money, few people would want to buy a little-known brand. Buyers will be more willing to buy the Galaxy S9, iPhone X or Huawei P20 Pro - those smartphones that are popular. Those smartphones whose brands are known to everyone.
A modern flagship is not only a device that we use every day, but also a status item. U12+ may look beautiful, but it lacks one thing.
Big name.
