HTC wants it to be all about U with U Ultra and U Play

HTC is hoping to capture the hearts and wallets of consumers with two of its new smartphones—the U Ultra and the U Play. The U Ultra is the flagship of the two and as leaked earlier has a secondary display reminiscent of the LG V10/V20. HTC drops the metallic look for a super glossy, all-glass exterior, which the company calls “Liquid Surface.” The more budget-friendly U Play doesn’t get the secondary screen but has that glossy exterior, too.

The “U” part in the name signifies a new artificial intelligence enhancement HTC calls HTC Sense companion. It merges built-in voice assistants from the company and Google’s own services. Like other AI features, it’s said to learn your habits and the like to predict what you’ll need from the device.

While this feature is new, the Taiwanese firm takes something else out of the devices. It drops headphone jack for both the U Ultra and U Play. The company touts its new USonic earphones, which are said to deliver better sound. But that better quality is supposedly dependent on the connection provided by digital USB-C interconnect than the standard headphone jack.

In terms of specs, the Android Nougat flagship U Ultra has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a choice of 64GB/128GB of storage with expansion of up to 2TB via microSD. It has a 5.7-inch Super LCD5 Quad HD display along with the 2-inch secondary screen with 160 x 1040 resolution. It still has the 12-megapixel UltraPixel camera of the HTC 10 but now has phase-detect autofocus. The front camera is now a 16-megapixel shooter that has an UltraPixel mode that can take 4-megapixel snaps. Battery capacity is at 3,000mAh.

As for the U Play, it runs on a MediaTek Helio P10 processor, 32GB/64GB internal storage with same expansion capabilities of up to 2TB, and Android Nougat. It also has a 16-megapixel rear camera with smaller pixels, 16-megapixel front camera, 1080p 5.2-inch Super LCD display, and 2,500mAh battery.

The 64GB model of the U Ultra is now available for pre-sale on HTC’s site for US$749 (approx. CA$980), and it comes in blue, black, white, and pink. Deliveries of the units in Taiwan will start by the end of January while the rest of the world will get it by March. The U Play doesn’t have a price yet and is said to be coming in the spring.

Source: The Verge