HTC U ultra

Okay! So the HTC’s U ultra is HTC’s phablet of 2017. I will mainly talk about its pros and strengths since really the market had a higher expectation than what HTC delivered with the U ultra. Let’s dig in.

Design and Build

Design-wise, HTC did do a good job with the U ultra’s design. From a personal point of view, the HTC U ultra is top five in my list of the most beautiful of smartphones is 2017, and 2016 too. The U ultra has a glass back plate that really makes it. With its liquid glass finish and scratch resistant protection, the U ultra does look gorgeous. It is one of those phones that just begs you to pick them up any time you see them. Its face features a home key that also serves as a fingerprint sensor which is pretty fast in unlocking the U ultra. On both sides besides it are the recent and back capacitive touch keys. Although I will mention this on display, its second display screen at the top of the phone constitutes its general build. The U ultra is a big phone, at 162.4 x 79.8 x 8 mm it weights 170g.

Display

The U Ultra features two screens. Let’s talk about the main display first. It is a 5.7 inch Super LCD5 capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors with a 69.7% screen-to-body ratio. The small s-t-b ratio makes room for the second display. It does support multi touch and had a 1440 x 2560 pixels (513 ppi pixel density) resolution. The phone U ultra has two different types of screen protection depending on the version you pick. Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (64 GB version) and Sapphire crystal glass (128 GB version).

The secondary display sits on top of the main one and it is a 160 x 1040 pixels, 2.05 inches. Although we have seen this display on phones like the LG V10https://phoneplacekenya.com/product/lg-v10/and V20https://phoneplacekenya.com/product/lg-v20/, the display does prove effective with functions like showing notifications and time, appointments, hourly weather focus, quick shortcut toggles like flash light and Bluetooth. Reviewers feel it was an embarrassing move to copy LG but really, I wouldn’t care less, the display is there and since it works perfect I totally have no problem with it.

Both displays are sharp and allow for clear visibility in bright conditions like direct sunlight.

Camera

Here, HTC U ultra gives it a good shot. It has a 13 MP primary camera with full manual mode, 3D audio effect in video recording (this feature will wow the HTC U ultra-users).  It also features a 16 MP Selfie camera with seven different modes to choose from. Both cameras feature auto –focus, geo tagging, panorama and all those goodies you would expect from a flagship phone’s camera.

The flash on the primary camera is dual LED with laser & phase detection autofocus.

Video recording stands at 2160p@30fps.

The HTC U ultra’s cameras did impress me. I’ll give HTC a thumbs up here.

Performance and Memory

I had earlier mentioned it will come in two versions. A 64GB and a 128GB both running on 4GB of RAM.

Both versions will have a Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821, Quad-core (2×2.15 GHz Kryo & 2×1.6 GHz Kryo) CPU with an Adreno 530 GPU.

Battery

The HTC Ultra comes with a 3000mAh battery. I will be honest. For a 5.7 inch display, with a secondary 2.05 inches screen, I think HTC under delivered here. Not that the U Ultra won’t last you a full day, but really HTC should have packed in a bigger battery to power the U Ultra. But thanks to quick charging 3.0 the HTC U ultra will hit 100% charge in just an hour and a couple of minutes.

Connectivity, Sound and Network

The HTC U Ultra supports Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and comes with a type 3.1 type C 1.0 reversible USB connector, which really is the future. And HTC takes advantage of the USB port by doing away with the 3.5mm jack and delegating its functions to the usb port, the result is a fine sound output on head phones or normal earpieces, especially those supplied by HTC with the U Ultra. Noise cancelation with the U Ultra is good since there is a dedicated mic for that purpose.

Network: it supports GSM, HSPA and LTE networks. Dual sim with dual standby.

Check out HTC U Ultra official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LqqLSA6lXI

Official website: http://www.htc.com/in/smartphones/htc-u-ultra/