HTC U Ultra review

This gorgeous big phone costs too damn much

HTC’s new U Ultra smartphone oozes style, and for the most part it’s a very speedy, very well built flagship. That said, the company made some puzzling decisions here.

 This is a big phone with a big screen, but HTC fitted it with a relatively small 3,000mAh battery. The secondary screen above the main display falls short of being useful. The 12-megapixel camera can be quite good at times, but it’s easily outclassed by rival devices.

 The kicker is how much it costs: We’re being asked to pay $750 for a device that, in many ways, doesn’t feel completely thought through. It’s clear HTC paid close attention to the U Ultra’s fit and finish.

Performance

Under the hood, the HTC U Ultra comes with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, backed by the Adreno 530 GPU and 4 GB of RAM. This is the processing package of choice for most current generation flagships, including the LG G6. Real world performance of the U Ultra doesn’t hold any surprises.

Hardware

64 GB and 128 GB are the in-built storage options available with the HTC U Ultra, but if it is a concern, you do get expandable storage via microSD card up to an additional 256 GB. However, keep in mind that in markets where the dual-SIM variant of the phone is available, users will have to make the choice between dual-SIM capabilities and expandable storage, with the secondary SIM slot doubling as the microSD card slot.

Camera

The camera application is clean and easy to use, and offers a handful of shooting modes, including a Pro mode that comes with the ability to shoot in RAW. Of course, you won’t have to venture outside of the camera’s already fantastic Auto mode all that often.

The camera is quick to launch, fast to focus and snap photos, and the photos it takes are quite good. The image quality is at par with the camera of the Google Pixel, and just like the latter, the U Ultra camera shoots with HDR mode enabled by default. The photos are crisp and clear, color reproduction is pleasant, and it does quite well with handling exposure even in high contrast situations.

Colour Options

Mainly it has 4 colour options

Specifications

	HTC U Ultra
Display	Main: 5.7-inch Super LCD5 2560 x 1440 resolution 513 ppi Secondary: 2.05-inch LCD 160 x 1040 resolution
Processor	64-bit quad-core 2.15 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
GPU	Adreno 530
RAM	4 GB
Storage	64/128 GB
MicroSD	Yes, expandable up to 2 TB
Cameras	Main: 12 MP UltraPixel 2 with 1.55μm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, laser autofocus, PDAF, OIS, dual-tone LED Front: 16 MP with UltraPixel mode
Battery	3,000 mAh Non-removable Quick Charge 3.0
Connectivity	Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS + GLONASS USB Type-C (USB 3.1)
SIM	Nano SIM
Sensors	Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Motion G-sensor Compass sensor Gyro sensor Magnetic sensor Fingerprint sensor Sensor Hub for activity tracking
Sound	HTC USonic HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi edition 3D Audio recording with 4 microphones Hi-Res audio stereo recording Hi-Res audio certified Noise cancellation
Software	Android 7.0 Nougat HTC Sense
Dimensions and weight	162.41 x 79.79 x 3.6-7.99 mm 170 g