Top notch premium smartphone, that’s all we can say about the newly launched android smartphones from HTC. The mobile vendor has launched HTC U Ultra, the premium range, and HTC U Play, the affordable variant android smartphones. On a quick glance, the mobiles pack a new premium design, speedy Snapdragon chipset, UltraPixel camera on the front and back, latest Android with Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning incorporated.
New Design, Dual Display
The HTC U Ultra and the affordable variant HTC U Play got a perfect blend of metal and glass. The glass is moulded around the sides and edges forming a symmetrical construction. There is even a sapphire edition with ultra strong Sapphire glass on the front panel. For those who are looking for style options the, mobile comes in sapphire, black, white, and pink color.
Very much like the LG V20, the HTC U Ultra also comes with two screens. Main display flaunts a 5.7-inch 2560×1440 Super LCD 5 display and the secondary ticker display is being 2.0-inch 160×1040 pixel. The second display uses HTC’s Sense Companion to display important information you need – like your top contacts, app shortcuts, event notifications etc. HTC U Play however, boasts a 5.2-inch Super LCD full HD display with no second screen.
Performance and Camera
The premium HTC U Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor coupled with 4GB of RAM. For storing all your media contents the mobile comes with 64GB of internal storage. The storage can be further expanded up to 128GB using microSD card. Comparing this, HTC U Play gets a cut down in its performance with a MediaTek Helio octa-core processor coupled with up to 4GB of RAM. You also got an internal storage choice of 32GB or 64GB with the mobile. It also offers storage expansion with support for microSD card.
For photography, the HTC U Ultra packs a 12-megapixel UltraPixel 2 rear camera. It features f/1.8 lens, super-fast laser focus and new Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF). On to the front, we got a 16-megapixel camera with HTC UltraPixel mode. HTC U Play, on the other hand, packs a 16-megapixel rear camera featuring f/2.0 aperture, OIS, and PDAF. On the front, it got the same 16-megapixel camera from HTC U Ultra with HTC UltraPixel mode.
Connectivity and Features
On to connectvity, both HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play is dual SIM capable (in India at least) with support for 4G LTE networks that works with all Indian 4G bands. For HD voice calling and video calling both mobiles also comes with VoLTE support. Other connectivity options include 3G, 2G, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz), BlueTooth 4.2, NFC and USB Type-C. Both mobiles come with latest Android 7.0 Nougat with HTC Sense UI out of the box. They also come with a fingerprint sensor embedded in the front home button.
Now to the fun parts, both the smartphones lacks a 3.5mm headphone port. Instead, the audio is now routed through USB Type-C which also supports the BoomSound. Another feature it got is the HTC USonic which analyzes your inner ears with a sonic pulse and then adapts the sound to it. Another most touted features are the HTC Sense Companion with Voice Recognition. It’s an AI-powered personal companion that keeps learning your behavior and enhances user experience with custom alerts and notifications.