Meet and Squeeze the HTC U11

[tsk]

Quote

The headline feature for the HTC U11 is its new method of interaction: Squeezing. If you’ve encountered any of the marketing material on the device, it’s all about the squeeze. HTC’s new philosophy is that smartphones are stagnating: every generation is just a spec update to the previous model, and the only thing that drives the industry is related to new interaction methods and ways of streamlining the use of a device. Hence the squeeze: by holding the U11 naturally and squeezing between the thumb and the other side of the hand, the squeeze action will do a number of things.

Specs

Spoiler

The device looks similar to the recently launched U Ultra, which looks nice, but can it stand out next to the tiny bezels of the Galaxy S8 and G6? I'm not sure.
The big focus here is the squeeze feature, which at first seems like a huge gimmick to me, but we will have to wait for reviews to draw any conclusions.

Other feautures include; boomsound, IP67 dust and water resistance and a fancy new DAC to compensate for no 3.5mm headphone jack.

Source

[Majestic]

15 minutes ago, tsk said:

Also; no headphone jack.

[tsk]

I think a lot of people will  be angry about no 3.5mm headphone jack, personally I charge and use headphones simultaneously quite often while I'm reading or watching videos in bed.

[LePawel]

Well, my M7 is barely working now, but no headphone jack, so it's time to switch brands... any non-samsung SD835 recommendations?

[Majestic]

26 minutes ago, tsk said:

I think a lot of people will  be angry about no 3.5mm headphone jack

With good reason. The industry forcing you to dump your premium headphones for some dinky battery on your head, or be required to use the adapter, is beyond arrogant.

[tsk]

34 minutes ago, Majestic said:

With good reason. The industry forcing you to dump your premium headphones for some dinky battery on your head, or be required to use the adapter, is beyond arrogant.

Honestly the included adapter adds very little bulk to your headphones, I agree with the argument of charging and using headphones at the same time, but this little adapter isn't the end of the world. 

 

[WereCat]

First you squeeze, then you jack off.

[Majestic]

1 minute ago, tsk said:

Honestly the included adapter adds very little bulk to your headphones, I agree with the argument of charging and using headphones at the same time, but this little adapter isn't the end of world. 

If they all supply the adapter free of charge and the connector is as sturdy as a jackplug, sure.

[tsk]

5 minutes ago, Majestic said:

If they all supply the adapter free of charge and the connector is as sturdy as a jackplug, sure.

True, it should definitely be included in the box like it is with this phone. As for the sturdiness of USB C I don't know, if it holds up as well as my micro USB and lightning ports, I see no problem, as they have both survived 3 years of abuse without much damage. 

For people that want the 3.5mm jack to live they must vote with their wallets. 

[atrash]

You should include that they also boast having the highest DXO rating for a phone camera and that sexy looking design especially that liquid surface which comes in 5 different colours 

 

 

Only 3000mAh battery on a 5.5" device? Why tho? not like the phone is small

[Exprima]

I don't care too much for bezels especially because of the hardware buttons being there instead of software buttons taking up screen space. However the lack of a headphone jack is really disheartening to me. My HTC 10 is still chugging along nicely so hopefully HTC brings the headphone jack back next year.

[ResidentRad]

Is this a joke? 

 

5.5" device with iPhone grade bezels and only a 3k battery? Knowing how spotty Android can end up being on battery life, this just seems silly. Squeeze sides? I guess they didn't want to ape a pressure sensitive display that would be more useful and instead went for a bigger gimmick

 

I feel like HTC is just circling the tube at this point. These devices are not compelling over a Pixel or S8. 

[DocSwag]

2 hours ago, atrash said:

You should include that they also boast having the highest DXO rating for a phone camera and that sexy looking design especially that liquid surface which comes in 5 different colours 

 

 

Only 3000mAh battery on a 5.5" device? Why tho? not like the phone is small

I personally think it's super ugly from the real life pics I've seen . The S8, iPhone 7, Google Pixel (yes, I think this is worse), and the HTC 10 look better. It reminds me of cheapo shiny plastic glass stuff you use for art projects  

[Foxxer]

Hmm, cool. But why ditch aluminum, I love the 10. 

[ashypanda]

if i had the £649 for it, i'd probably pre-order it, as the sky blue one looks amazing even though i'll probably wait for project treble to become reality before getting a new phone, although that's going head to head with the sony xperia XZ premium.

 

also the phone comes with "hi-res" certified earphones, 

 

5 hours ago, LePawel said:

Well, my M7 is barely working now, but no headphone jack, so it's time to switch brands... any non-samsung SD835 recommendations?

Xiaomi Mi6 or sony xperia XZ premium.

[Doobeedoo]

Wish they used the extra top and bottom bezels for front facing speakers and touch buttons though.

[atrash]

2 hours ago, DocSwag said:

I personally think it's super ugly from the real life pics I've seen . The S8, iPhone 7, Google Pixel (yes, I think this is worse), and the HTC 10 look better. It reminds me of cheapo shiny plastic glass stuff you use for art projects  

I really like that material. especially the blue colour as it reminds me to one of my favourite phone I've ever owned, the Motorola KRZR.

  

 

Anyway, to add to the lack of headphone jack, I honestly couldn't careless about it. I barely use it on my 6S anymore. Bluetooth headphones all the way for me simply for the convenient and barely noticeable sound quality different imo. Surprised that HTC is not jumping on the OLED and 'borderless' display fade this time. Also,does it even have wireless charging? 

[tsk]

Some hands on from arstechnica
 

http://video.arstechnica.com/watch/gear-gadgets-hands-on-with-the-htc-u-11-smartphone

[HarmFull]

6 hours ago, LePawel said:

Well, my M7 is barely working now, but no headphone jack, so it's time to switch brands... any non-samsung SD835 recommendations?

next month the OnePlus 5 is coming. SD 835, 4000mAh, (at least) 6GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB expandable storage.

OnePlus uses Oxygen OS, which is a near stock version of Android. Also, OnePlus devices are known to have good support on XDA developers. 

 

450 USD for the base model rumoured.

 

It's probably one of the best price/performance devices of this year.

[Trixanity]

24 minutes ago, atrash said:

 Surprised that HTC is not jumping on the OLED and 'borderless' display fade this time. Also,does it even have wireless charging? 

No wireless charging. Probably have trouble sourcing good OLED panels and at the same time they avoid the caveats of OLED while delivering a 'good enough' display. Eliminating the bezels might be next on their to-do list but then again they might not do it because of design language (whatever the reasoning behind it may be).

13 minutes ago, HarmFull said:

next month the OnePlus 5 is coming. SD 835, 4000mAh, (at least) 6GB of RAM, 64GB or 128GB expandable storage.

OnePlus uses Oxygen OS, which is a near stock version of Android. Also, OnePlus devices are known to have good support on XDA developers. 

 

450 USD for the base model rumoured.

 

It's probably one of the best price/performance devices of this year.

All of that is rumored. 

I doubt you'll see expandable storage and there have been rumors of anywhere between 3000 and 4000 mAh batteries. The rest is a given except price. OnePlus is slowly pushing the price up.

[Spenser1337]

1 hour ago, Doobeedoo said:

Wish they used the extra top and bottom bezels for front facing speakers and touch buttons though.

It has boomsound 

[Doobeedoo]

13 minutes ago, Spenser1337 said:

It has boomsound 

But one is front facing speaker, the other is not.

[ashypanda]

9 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

But one is front facing speaker, the other is not.

it's boomsound HI-FI, which is still pretty good, and even on the 10 it sounds clearer than the M8's dual front speakers.

[Doobeedoo]

7 minutes ago, ashypanda said:

it's boomsound HI-FI, which is still pretty good, and even on the 10 it sounds clearer than the M8's dual front speakers.

Just saying though. Seems waste of space on front.

[Trixanity]

23 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Just saying though. Seems waste of space on front.

The speaker can't sit on top of fingerprint sensor + capacitive buttons. The speaker setup is much improved compared to the 10. However I suspect it's at the expense of battery life. I'm not sure about the science behind it but the resonance chamber (or whatever it's called) probably requires some space to function, so I can imagine increasing the battery size compromises that.