Review of New HTC Flagship Phone – two screens, AI and no headphone jack

Price: 5.7 inch U Ultra – $749

HTC seems to have ignored its tradition by announcing the new U Ultra earlier than expected. This 5.7 inch smartphone is an inauguration of a new U series and will be accompanied by a smaller and lesser U Play with a 5.2 inch size, reports SMP Gadget.

The new U series smartphone comes with AI assistants as well as a second screen on top of the main one for showing notifications. In addition, it has no headphone jack, a trend set by Apple’s iPhone 7, Lenovo’s Moto X and HTC Bolt.

The Design

Among the top things that strike you regarding the U Ultra and U Play is a new design. Holding the two smartphones is shockingly glossy. HTC has decided to offer us with an all-glass exterior. Both phones come with an ultra smooth surface and you may want to keep them in a case lest it slides off your hands.

The second screen is also a major change that comes with the U Ultra. Residing to the right of the front camera and above the Super LCD 5 screen, the 2-inch strip screen is primarily for showing notifications. The 5.7 inch model has the Quad HD resolution on its main display with a pixel resolution of 160 x 1040. Apart from the notifications, the second screen is for reminders, music playback controls and also shortcuts to frequent contacts.

Specifications

The flagship product comes with specs that are in line with its status. It has a 4GB RAM and you get to chose between the 64GB and 128GB storage. It has also included a feature it rarely comes with – a MicroSD card slot which is expandable to 2TB of extra storage.

There is also an upgrade to the camera with an autofocus feature. However, it remains to be a 12MP shooter. The new HTC device still gives you laser autofocus, large pixels, an f/1.8 aperture, and optical image stabilization. In an amusing step, the front camera has a higher resolution of 16 MP and has the UltraPixel mode that produces 4-megapixel snaps.

Via SMP Gadget

The flagship U series has made no changes to the battery size, retaining it at 3000mAh. This is quite de-servicing considering the large display. A similar statement can be made for the 2,500mAh in the U Play.

The differences between the U Ultra and U Play are not insignificant. The storage of the younger bro has been halved to 32GB and 64GB and the front camera has lower megapixel resolution compared to the Ultra model. The processor is equally a differentiating factor as U Play swaps the Snapdragon for a Helio P10 processor from MediaTek.

However, the biggest differentiating factor might be the software. The U Play will ship with Android Marshmallow while U Ultra comes with pre-installed latest Android 7 software, Nougat.

HTC depends on the hope that the two smartphones will stand out in the software. As long as you allow the phone to learn your habits, it will begin suggesting for you the time to recharge if you are likely to be far away from your source of power. It can also tell you whether to dress warm or cold for the day. HTC already has some geographically and contextually aware suggestions in previous iterations of Sense. It seems things will become more interesting in 2017 after including the AI.

No headphone jack?

Apple may not have been the first manufacturer to ignore the headphone jack but its exclusion from the iPhone 7 marked an important age in the wireless headphones. It now seems more firms are following suit with Samsung Galaxy S8 expected to come without he headphone jack.

HTC has become the first 2017 smartphone to remove the 3.5mm port. To compensate for the deficit, HTC points to its bundled USonic earphones.

The firm explained their reason for removing the headphone jack saying that they “believe the audio experience on the phone can be so much more than just the simple transmission of sound.”

It is now obvious that the entire mobile phone industry is making steps to remove the headphone jack.