The HTC U11 is finally official and HTC Canada is setting the price at $899 CAD ($660 USD) on their website with estimated availability sometime in June. The HTC U11 will be sold unlocked directly through HTC’s website and support Rogers, Bell, Videotron, MTS, SaskTel, and Eastlink. It looks like the HTC U11 will not be sold directly through wireless carriers in the country, though that has yet to be confirmed. Canadian buyers will have the choice of three colors – Amazing Silver, Sapphire Blue, and Brilliant Black, leaving Ice White and Solar Red out of the picture. For a limited period, Canadian consumers are able to bring down the price of the device to $824 CAD ($606 USD) by using the promo code “LOVEU11CA” during checkout on HTC Canada’s official website.
The new HTC U11 shares a few features with the HTC U Ultra, specifically the liquid glass surface found on the back of the device. HTC used a process of layering highly refractive minerals across its back to give it a shiny new look that changes as you rotate the device. The real star of the HTC U11 is the new and innovative Edge Sense. This feature allows the user to squeeze the edge of the phone to perform certain functions, such as taking photos or launching their favorite app. Imaging capabilities are another selling point of the handset, with a 12MP sensor using HTC UltraPixel 3, UltraSpeed focus, OIS, dual-tone LED flash, and an aperture of f/1.7. This all adds up to a DxOMark score of 90, which makes the HTC U11 the highest-rated smartphone camera ever to be tested by the well-known imaging firm. The front-facing camera of the handset consists of a large 16MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.
The HTC U11 sports a 5.5-inch QHD LCD display panel and is protected by Corning’s latest Gorilla Glass 5. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core SoC clocked at 2.45GHz equipped with the Adreno 540 GPU is responsible for powering the device alongside 4GB of DDR4 RAM and 64GB of expandable internal memory. The smartphone has Hi-Res audio and the official HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi technology, sports a front-mounted fingerprint sensor, and supports conventional communications standards including WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, and NFC. A reversible USB Type-C port is used for charging the HTC U11 that also supports Quick Charge 3.0 and is powered by a 3,000mAh non-removable battery.