HTC has taken to IFA 2018 in Berlin to announce its latest smartphone in the U series. It’s the U12 Life, the successor to the U11 Life from last year. This smartphone from HTC sports a 6-inch, 18:9 aspect ratio display with a resolution of 2160×1080 for a full HD+ panel here. HTC is using the Snapdragon 636 chipset to power the U12 Life, along with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage. There is still a micro SD card slot available for expanding storage as well.
The HTC U12 Life has a rather unique design here, with a dual finish on the backside. It features soft, subtle stripes on an acrylic glass unibody, while still sporting a metal-like design that surrounds that 6-inch display on the front. This gives the HTC U12 Life a rather striking appearance, while still being a glass smartphone. HTC says that it is a “totally fresh take on our Liquid Surface-inspired design” that it debuted with the U12 Plus earlier this year. The fingerprint sensor on the back of the U12 Life matches the bottom portion of the phone, and gives it a really nice looking two-tone finish.
HTC has kept the camera bump on the U12 Life here, it doesn’t appear to be as big of a bump as on some other phones, but there is still one here. HTC has also opted to use a vertical dual-camera module here, with the dual-LED flash in the center. This is a departure from the horizontal camera module that was centered on the U12 Plus. And yes, it is very similar to the iPhone X camera setup, that just about every smartphone has decided to use in 2018.
The rear-cameras on the HTC U12 Life consist of a 16-megapixel main sensor and a 5-megapixel sensor for gathering depth information. HTC does include Phase-Detection Autofocus here, as well as dual LED flash. It sports a f/2.0 aperture, and can record in up to 4K resolution. The front-facing sensor is 13-megapixels with the same f/2.0 aperture. There is no front-facing flash here, but it does have video recording up to 1080p.
HTC is not launching with the latest version of Android, which would be Android 9 Pie. Instead, the U12 Life is coming with Android 8.1 Oreo and HTC Sense on-board. That isn’t a huge surprise, considering the facet that Android 9 Pie just came out earlier this month, and many phones being announced right now will not run that version. HTC did pack a 3600mAh capacity battery in the U12 Life, which should keep it running all day long.
As far as availability and pricing goes, HTC has not announced availability yet, but we do know that this will be rather inexpensive, with a price of £299 in the UK. It will not be coming to the US, and will be staying in Europe (perhaps making its way to Asia). HTC is going to offer the U12 Life in two colors – Moonlight Blue and Twilight Purple.
