HTC U11unveiled with Edge Sense and DXOMark 90 camera

HTC has launched its flagship U11 smartphone at an event in Taipei. The smartphone is packing the latest internals with some novel flagship features.

To start off with the list of additions, the U11 is built around the 10nm Snapdragon 835 chipset. It is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage, while some international markets will also get a version with 6GB/128GB.

There have been multiple leaks regarding the U11, the major one being the "Edge Sense" feature. According to the teaser, you can squeeze the phone to perform certain actions on the smartphone. The side frame of the U11 contains eight microsensors embedded under it. The sensors are always active, like active fingerprint sensors.

They are pressure sensitive as well, which explains the short and long squeeze on the frame of the U11. The squeeze gestures can let you do multiple functions like take a photo, switch the camera, change music and so on. As of now, the two gestures can be customised to gain a shortcut to any other app from the home screen.

There is a 5.5-inch QHD Super LCD 5 panel, with Gorilla Glass 5 on top. The rear camera is a 12MP UltraPixel 3 unit  f/1.7 aperture, optical image stabilisation, a dual-LED flash, and 4K video recording. The camera can capture slow motion video in 1080p at 120fps. The front 16MP front camera records 1080p Full HD video and has a Selfie Panorama mode. HTC claims that U11 has the highest rated smartphone camera, with a DXOMark of 90.

The “3D audio recording” on the U11 uses four microphones. The handset is Hi-Res Audio certified, and comes with HTC's BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition which makes the earpiece acts as one speaker, set up as a tweeter, while the speaker on the bottom takes care of the bass.

HTC has not included the 3.5mm headphone jack and has instead gone for USB-C powered lightweight headphones, bundled with the smartphone. The smartphone is also IP67 rated, which means that it can handle splashes and submersion with ease.

HTC has included a new Sense Companion assistant on the U11. It looks to us as a Samsung Bixby rival, capable of showing information related to commuting, step count, weather forecast, phone performance, power-up reminders and recommendations. Apart from this, the HTC U11 has Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa built into it for handling voice-based AI assistants.

The phone has a 3,000 mAh battery with the support of Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 as well as two different power saving modes. The HTC U11 will be available in Amazing Silver, Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, Ice White, and Solar Red colours and will be available worldwide from May 2017 onward.