HTC has announced two new handsets today, the HTC U Ultra, which we’ve already talked about, and the HTC U Play. The U Ultra is HTC’s all-new flagship, while the U Play is the company’s mid-range offering. The two devices are somewhat similar in terms of the design, as they’re both sporting the so-called ‘Liquid Surface’ design, and are symmetrical. The HTC U Play comes with the HTC Sense Companion, just like its bigger brother, this is HTC’s all-new AI assistant which is supposed to learn from you in order to help you be more productive.
The HTC U Play also comes with HTC U-Sonic, which is the company’s new tech which analyses your inner ears with a sonar-like pulse and adapts sound to you specifically. The HTC U Play is slightly curved on both its front and back sides, and will be available in a number of color options, just like its sibling. This smartphone comes without the 3.5mm headphone jack, in case you were wondering. This smartphone is fueled by MediaTek’s Helio P10 64-bit octa-core processor, and it features a 5.2-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) Super LCD display which is protected by a layer of Corning’s Gorilla Glass. The HTC U Ultra comes with Gorilla Glass 5 on top of its display, but the company did not mention if that’s the case with the HTC U Play. The HTC U Play also packs in 3GB / 4GB of RAM and 32GB / 64GB of expandable internal storage.
On the back of this smartphone, you’ll be able to find a 16-megapixel OIS camera (f/2.0 aperture), while it seems like the company included that very same sensor on the front side of this phone as well. The dual-LED, dual tone flash is placed on the back of the HTC U Play, and the phone comes with dual microphones with noise cancellation. The 2,500mAh battery is also a part of this package, and it is not removable, while you’ll charge it through the Type-C USB 2.0 port. HTC Sense is placed on top of Android, and we do believe that this phone will ship with Android 7.0 Nougat just like the HTC U Ultra, even though HTC did not clarify if that will be the case. The HTC U Play will be available for purchase through Dixons Carphone in a number of color variants, the same goes for Brightstar and Data Select as well. As far as online purchases go, you’ll be able to purchase this handset from HTC.com, Amazon, Very.co.uk, etc., just like it was the case with the HTC U Ultra, HTC will share more info about this phone’s availability soon, and the device is expected to go on sale next month.
UPDATE: HTC did not reveal HTC U Play’s availability info in their press release or during hte press conference, but HTC Taiwan just did. The 3GB RAM variant of the HTC U Play will cost $440 and will become available in Q1 2017, while we still don’t know the pricing of the 4GB RAM model, but that variant will also go on sale in Q1 2017, probably February as HTC’s presser said.
