

The bold back colors aren't built into the glass, but rather they slide underneath the glass, so they won't fade as some metal finishes can with time and use. The U11's back is the main glass part of the handset, and technically the device still has a unibody design-you just can't tell by the placement of the glass as it sits atop the aluminum underneath. Samsung's Galaxy S8 has an all-glass design, and while glass is pretty, it's not as durable as metal, especially for devices that you use and abuse every day. 31 inches)Įdge Sensor, fingerprint sensor, ambient light sensor, G-sensor, gyro-sensor, voice commands with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, Motion Launch Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, up to 2.45GHzĦ4GB (expandable up to 2TB with microSD card)Ĩ02.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, NFC

That shine complements the bold colors it comes in (red, sapphire, silver, and black), but every time it catches your eye, you'll be compelled to wipe down the phone. The U11 has an all-glass back that makes it strikingly shiny but also a wild collector of fingerprints. Ars' Ron Amadeo appreciated the simple yet solid metal design of HTC's 2016 flagship, but the company certainly deviated from that blueprint with this device.

The U11 smartphone looks and feels flashier than the HTC 10, but that doesn't mean it's better. The HTC 10 was one of our favorite flagship smartphones last year, and the U11 is a thoughtful upgrade from that, even if its design is polarizing. It supports Google Assistant as well as HTC's own Sense Companion AI, with Amazon Alexa support coming soon after it ships in the US on June 9. With an all-glass back and no headphone jack, the U11 chooses which of the typical flagship design choices it wanted to keep and forgoes others. The U11 is HTC's newest flagship and follow-up to last year's HTC 10, and it looks significantly different from last year's device.

HTC introduced the "U" smartphone line back in January with the U Ultra and U Play handsets, and those were just a taste of what the company had coming.
