HTC U Ultra hands-on: a major change for HTC

Arriving significantly earlier than previous HTC flagships, the HTC U family has two different models, the high-end U Ultra and the mid-range HTC U Play. In this post we’ll be focusing on the former.
Editor’s note: HTC did not allow us to record any footage of the HTC U Ultra and U Play due to the non-final software.

It’s still unclear whether the HTC U Ultra is meant to replace the HTC 10 or is merely a new lineup and a bit of a stopgap until their next flagship, though given its larger overall size, we’d say it probably is meant to compliment HTC’s smaller flagship range. That’s all unconfirmed at the moment though.

So what does the HTC U Ultra bring to table? Let’s dive in and find out.

HTC U Ultra specifications

Display	5.7-inch Super LCD5 display with Quad HD resolution 2.0-inch secondary display with 160 x 1040 resolution
Processor	2.15 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor Adreno 530 GPU
RAM	4 GB
Storage	64/128 GB expandable via microSD up to 2 TB
Camera	12 MP HTC Ultrapixel 2 camera, 1.55μm pixel, laser auto focus, PDAF, OIS, f/1.8 aperture, dual tone LED flash 16 MP front-facing camera
Connectivity	Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS + GLONASS USB Type-C (USB 3.1)
Software	Android 7.0 Nougat
Battery	3,000 mAh
Dimensions	162.41 x 79.79 x 3.6-7.99mm 170 grams

While it would have been nice to see the HTC U Ultra launch with the brand new Snapdragon 835, the phone still rocks pretty solid specs including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, 4GB RAM, and either 64 or 128GB storage, as well as microSD expansion up to 2TB. However, one of the biggest spec standouts is the display.

The HTC U Ultra’s screen is significantly larger than the HTC 10’s 5.2-inch display at 5.7-inches with a resolution of QHD. Even more interesting, HTC has seemingly taken a page from LG’s playbook, introducing a 2-inch secondary display above the main one, with a resolution of 160 x 1040. As you’d imagine, this second display is for notifications, contacts, reminders, and even certain special apps.

Under that display is a button configuration that is very familiar to those who used the HTC 10 or the A9. With the HTC U Ultra you once again get a home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner, which HTC promises is as fast and efficient as ever. And on top you’ll find a front facing 16MP camera that also can be easily switched to “UltraPixel” mode, giving you “unparalleled light sensitivity” or a high resolution, depending on your situation.

Moving around back, you’ll find a 12MP UltraPixel 2 camera sensor with laser autofocus, phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilization (OIS), a 1.55µm pixel size, and an f/ 1.8 aperture. At least on paper, this camera sounds very similar to the HTC 10, but considering the 10 had a pretty solid camera, this certainly isn’t a bad thing.

Just like the HTC 10, you get a non-removable 3000 mAh battery, though it’s hard to say what this means for battery life, considering the display is a great deal larger than the 10. Of course you still get Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 so you can charge your phone back up in a hurry, even if you do end up running it down.

Overall, there’s a lot to like about the spec sheet, but we have to point out one area that isn’t so positive: the headphone jack is gone. As we saw with Apple last year, HTC has removed the headphone jack to save on a little internal space. Whether this is a deal breaker or not probably depends on your own personal tastes and needs.