Though the company has not officially declared the exact nomenclature of its upcoming device, the market has stuck to the HTC U 11 and it is being used in this description as well.
The HTC U 11 might be the first phone out in the market with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset after Samsung Galaxy S8 and HTC has a lot at stake in ensuring that this new flagship proves to be a success in the market.
Great results in benchmarking tests
The latest leaks about HTC U 11 have actually emerged from a benchmarking site and it is better to start from there itself. According to this benchmarking site, the HTC scored 1912 and 6137 on the single core and multiple core tests respectively. To put this in perspective, the corresponding scores for the Galaxy S8 were 1916 and 6011 and for the Samsung Galaxy S8+, the numbers were 1929 and 6084. So this is a very good start for the HTC U 11, in terms of being technically evaluated, as equal to or slightly better than, the latest flagships from the South Korean major.
In terms of the other specs, the display will be 5.5inch QHD display offering a resolution of 1440x2560 pixels and with a Gorilla Glass 5 on top. The operating system will be the Android Nougat version 7.1 and the UI from HTC, Sense 9 will ride on top of it.
The battery is likely to be 3000mAh and it comes with Qualcomm’s 3.0 Quick Charge facility. The HTC U 11 will be launched in two main versions, a 4GB RAM version with 64GB storage and a 6GB RAM version with 128GB storage. The slot for microSD card to expand the storage will also be standard. The phone can accommodate two SIMs.
The camera set-up will witness a large 16MP camera in the front and a smaller 12MP in the rear. Both the sensors will be from Sony. The audio department will also be quite strong with four microphones to create a surround sound effect while recording. Besides, there will be Boomsound, Hi-Res audio and HTC USonic Tech, all of which will go towards making the overall recording and playback functions extremely professional.
Edge Sense
A major technological breakthrough the new HTC U 11 will bring to the table is going to be what is called Edge Sense. In this, sensors will be embedded on the phone’s frame and by squeezing the edges and swiping it, you can call up several functions, like the camera or the HTC Sense or Google Assistant and so on. This could be a differentiator when it comes to the discerning phone buyers who look for something novel or exciting in a new device.
As for the colours in which the HTC U 11 will be made available, the information is not complete. There are expected to be five different colours; white, blue, black, red and silver but the company may not launch all colours in all the markets.
The price at which the HTC U 11 may be released is still quite speculative. Indications are that it might be around USD700 which is around Rs.45,000. The phone is scheduled to launch on May 16.