HTC unveils U11, a smartphone that you squeeze to interact with

The pricing for HTC's latest flagship starts from $649

HTC unveiled on Tuesday its latest flagship device, HTC U11, the successor to last year’s HTC 10.

With a 5.5-inch Quad HD display and new glass and metal design, U11 is the perfect blend of high-end power with a striking aesthetic.

The latest HTC device is one of the best designed by the company. The front of the phone is covered by a curved slab of Gorilla Glass 5.



Under the hood, U11 has the latest Snapdragon 835 octa-core chipset. While HTC users in some regions will be getting the new flagship device with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, in others, customers will receive 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal memory. The device runs on Android 7.1 Nougat.



Further, the HTC U11 has a 3000mAh battering powering the device, which is the same as the Samsung Galaxy S8. The device is rated IP68, which means it is dust- and water-resistant.

One of the most interesting features of U11 is “Edge Sense” that lets you interact with your phone by squeezing the sides of the device to perform different functions. The squeezing feature can be configured to assign a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes. For example, you can set a short squeeze to open the camera and then take a picture when the camera app is open. You can even set up different shortcuts for quick squeezes and longer squeeze-and-holds.


Interestingly, it seems that HTC thought having one AI assistant is too mainstream so it decided to throw in Amazon’s Alexa along with Google Assistant, although both can do the same thing.



Talking about camera, HTC U11 has a 12-megapixel rear camera with quick dual-pixel focusing and an f/1.7 aperture coupled with a 16-MP camera on front. The company also claimed that its latest flagship has received the highest DxOMark score for a smartphone camera to date.

HTC has also abandoned the standard 3.5mm headphone jack and is relying on its USB Type-C port for charging, data transfer, and audio function. The phone comes with HTC U Sonic headphones, which have been upgraded to include active noise cancelling.



HTC U11 will be available in five colours including Solar Red, Amazing Silver, Brilliant Black, Ice White and Sapphire Blue and will be released in some markets this week, while others will get it in June. The pricing starts from $649.


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