HTC recently wrapped up its BrilliantU event that witnessed two new smartphones being unveiled by the Taiwanese technology outfit — the flagship HTC U Ultra and the mid-range HTC U Play. While there’s no difference as such between the builds and designs of both the handsets, their specs sheet do set them apart by huge margins.
Worth noting, HTC didn’t refer to the U Ultra as a flagship during the presentation at the event. Although, the handset’s specs leave little doubt over its high stature across HTC’s smartphone portfolio.
The handset boasts very powerful specs, including a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protected 5.7-in Super LCD 5 display with 2560 x 1440p resolution, as well as a secondary 2-inch display with 160 x 1040p resolution. As for the placement of the secondary display, it’s much akin to that of the LG V20. It can be typically used for keeping a tab on forthcoming events, custom notifications, weather forecasts, and so on.
At the heart of the device is a Snapdragon 821 processor, aided by 4GB of RAM. The device lets you choose from 64GB and 128GB storage options. In a rare inclusion, HTC is also offering a microSD card slot in the handset that allows the storage to be expanded all the way up to a whopping 2TB.
The 12MP camera is by and large the same as the one in the HTC 10, the previous generation HTC flagship. It comes equipped with 1.55-micron pixels, f/1.8 aperture, 4k video, high-resolution audio, as well as PDAF and OIS technologies. The 16MP front camera with 1080p video and UltraPixel modes also pretty impressive.
Other key specs include a 3,000 mAh non-removable battery, Quick Charge 3.0, fingerprint scanner, and USB Type-C port.On the software front, the handset comes with Android 7.0 out of the box with HTC Sense UI on top.
U Ultra will also have a voice-supported AI assistant called HTC Sense Companion. And finally, the phone lacks the 3.5mm headphone jacks, but it brings along the USonic earphones that can automatically detect sonic pulses and adjust the audio output based on the user’s need and taste.
The HTC U Ultra will hit the store shelves in Q1 2017, although the company didn’t disclose the exact date.