HTC’s latest flagship smartphones continues to show off how good HTC is at designing smartphones.
HTC didn’t actually announce the HTC U Ultra at Mobile World Congress this past week, they announced it in January, but this is the first time that many people got a chance to see it in person, and it definitely is a stunner. Now this isn’t a surprise, HTC has always been known for building not just quality smartphones, but great looking smartphones as well. While some didn’t like the large bezels on the HTC One M7, One M8, and One M9 due to the front-facing speakers, you can’t deny how great those smartphones looked. And now the HTC U Ultra stuns people in the same way.
With the HTC U Ultra, the Taiwanese company did a few things differently here. Instead of sticking to an aluminum unibody, they opted for a metal frame and a glass back. The glass back looks amazing, but of course as is always the case with glass-backed smartphones, it does attract fingerprints like crazy. This is also a fairly large smartphone, clocking in at about 5.7-inches. The backside of the phone is slightly curved, although it isn’t really noticeable in pictures. This will help you hold onto the HTC U Ultra, as it is glass already, it’ll be tough to hold onto, so this is definitely a good thing. The camera does also protrude a bit, but that’s not really the end of the world.
When it comes to specs, the HTC U Ultra does have a 5.7-inch display as already mentioned. It’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, which is their latest high-end silicon. That comes paired with 4GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of storage, depending on the model you pick up. The most expensive one, which comes with 128GB of storage, actually features a Sapphire Display, which means it’s almost impossible to shatter. All of this is powered by a 3000mAh battery, which is non-removable as you might expect.
One of the key features of the HTC U Ultra is that secondary display. It’s something that many critics say they took from LG, who did something similar with their V10 and V20 smartphones. This secondary display will show you your notifications so when they come in they don’t interrupt what is on the display, especially important for when you are watching a video or something. That display measures in at about 2.05-inches (remember displays are measured diagonally). Of course, the HTC U Ultra does not come with a 3.5mm headphone jack, similar to the HTC Bolt that they announced late last year. This seems to be becoming the new standard with smartphones, so we can’t really knock HTC for that.
The HTC U Ultra may have been one of the best looking smartphones in Barcelona last week, even though it was officially announced well ahead of the show. The HTC U Ultra does come in a few different colors, and should be available here in the US fairly soon.
