HTC U11

Kerplunk · 23 May 2017 at 20:55

I have a question, if I was to get this phone.... Currently I am under contract with Vodafone directly, I am also at the moment eligible to upgrade now (although the contract officially ends in July), I dont seem to be able to get the HTC U11 through Vodafone direct but I can through Carphone Warehouse, so if I upgraded through CPW today for example, would I be paying Vodafone (until July) and now also Carphone Warehouse monthly as its a new contract? Or does it transfer? Im not sure how it all works!

esoteric · 25 May 2017 at 22:30

As it's an upgrade your old contract should end. Also your monthly payments will be with your carrier, so Vodafone in your case.

Bradmax57 · 25 May 2017 at 22:34

Quite tempted to get one of these, just wish they'd kept the alu body of the 10 rather than the glass

esoteric · 31 May 2017 at 19:10

My U11 is arriving tomorrow. Cant wait

Earth[Tera].bin · 31 May 2017 at 20:47

One of the lucky ones, I read that all but a few have been delayed till 8th.

Rimsy · 1 Jun 2017 at 00:07

esoteric said:
My U11 is arriving tomorrow. Cant wait

Did you order from HTC directly?

Bradmax57 · 1 Jun 2017 at 12:46

silver ones in stock at cpw don't really fancy that one so will wait for black ones, apparently monday

esoteric · 1 Jun 2017 at 17:35

Rimsy said:
Did you order from HTC directly?

Ordered through CPW.

Bradmax57 said:
silver ones in stock at cpw don't really fancy that one so will wait for black ones, apparently monday

I ordered silver, probably would have gone red if it was listed, I have the phone now and it looks blue.

Bradmax57 · 1 Jun 2017 at 18:12

esoteric said:
Ordered through CPW.

I ordered silver, probably would have gone red if it was listed, I have the phone now and it looks blue.

yes that's what I thought, more blue than silver, I'm going to hold off till black is available

Rimsy · 1 Jun 2017 at 18:23

Having read the review on phonearena I'm pretty much sold on getting one. Ticks all the boxes aside from headphone jack which is a pain but given the battery life appears to be better than even the S8+ it may not be the end of the world.
Sort of tempted to see what the pixel2 brings to the table but roumers suggest it's going to have some sort of edge display which puts me off.
Seems like HTC have delivered a great phone all in all.

kona786 · 1 Jun 2017 at 19:22

HTC needs all the customers they can get. I hope they stick around.

Nailing the camera and having good battery life is a solid start to recovery.

esoteric · 1 Jun 2017 at 19:26

It's really quick, nice and snappy in it's response and it's hard, for me, to imagine how a phone could be so much faster.. but it is.

It has a quick charge 3.0 charger in the box as standard so rapid charge ahoy! the actual cable is about 1m which is a bit shorter then the cable that came with my HTC One M7 so it's a bit hard to charge and use at the same time. Oh and there is also a plastic case in the box too that covers the entire back and corners but not the sides, no screen protector either. I wasn't expecting it to be so big either but honestly I didn't look at the size before hand, my M7 is engulfed at every dimension.

Any questions I'll answer if I can.

Bradmax57 · 1 Jun 2017 at 19:52

Is it 7.1.1 out the box?

esoteric · 1 Jun 2017 at 22:58

Bradmax57 said:
Is it 7.1.1 out the box?

Yes.

Rimsy · 1 Jun 2017 at 23:12

kona786 said:
HTC needs all the customers they can get. I hope they stick around.

Nailing the camera and having good battery life is a solid start to recovery.

Indeed.. my wish list is basically:
A great camera, water resistance, flat screen with a normal aspect ratio (I really don't want a phone that resembles a glass TV remote), close to stock android with no lag due to an over zealous skin, good battery life, 3.5 headphone jack, decent DAC and a good level of android update support.

The U11 doesn't nail it but it seems the closest I'm going to get in this day and age of form over function which Samsung seem to have created in their quest to become the apple of the android world.
That being said I really miss the s-pen so might treat myself to a tab S3 to replace my Z4 tablet.

esoteric · 2 Jun 2017 at 15:04

Rimsy said:
Indeed.. my wish list is basically:
A great camera, water resistance, flat screen with a normal aspect ratio (I really don't want a phone that resembles a glass TV remote), close to stock android with no lag due to an over zealous skin, good battery life, 3.5 headphone jack, decent DAC and a good level of android update support.

The U11 doesn't nail it but it seems the closest I'm going to get in this day and age of form over function which Samsung seem to have created in their quest to become the apple of the android world.
That being said I really miss the s-pen so might treat myself to a tab S3 to replace my Z4 tablet.

The camera really is as great as you are reading about, the screen in flat and the back of the phone is flat but for the 0.2'ish mm ridge around the camera but once you have the case on, completely flat. Yeah, it's a big phone and I would have been happy if it was the same size as my M7. I don't know how close to stock android it is but it's very fast and I see no lag at all. Battery life seems okay so far and with the quick charger its.. quick to charge, very quick. When I turned it on yesterday it was at 45%, I plugged it in within 5 minutes it was at 60%. Even if the battery life isn't what you expect you aren't going to be waiting long for it to charge. One area I've not had a play with yet is the sound quality or loudness.

esoteric · 2 Jun 2017 at 20:01

I've had a play with the audio features now and first off HTC U Sonic is amazing, the thing where it scans your ear canal and sets up an audio profile. On the result page it plays an awesome tune which I'm trying to find to add to my music library, there is also a toggle where you can turn U Sonic on and off in real time so you can hear the difference.

The headphones are USB-C so they plug into the same port as the charger and there is a USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor in the box if for some reason you don't want to use the Sonic earphones.

For anyone pitting this against the Samsung S8, my brother bought one, I'll make some comparisons. The HTC U11 is wider and taller, about 4mm each dimension and it's thickness me and my brother agree is the same. Despite the difference in vertical height the S8 has a bigger vertical display . The S8 isn't as ugly as it looks in photo's but personally I'm not keen on the edgeless sides curving the display, if you look at the phone side on you can see the curved display but it's just light so it's kinda redundant, it's kinda like a letterbox film effect. The back of the S8 is nothing special, almost completely flat like the U11 except for a small ridge around the camera. The U11 has the liquid glass mineral finish.. basically it's pearlascent and a mirror.

I'll see if I can nab it later to try and ascertain UI speed, any lag, sound differences.

Rimsy · 2 Jun 2017 at 21:37

Good stuff sounds like you're enjoying it! Ordered the black/green version last night so hopefully will be with me in the next week or two.

stoosh · 2 Jun 2017 at 21:48

kona786 said:
HTC needs all the customers they can get. I hope they stick around.

Nailing the camera and having good battery life is a solid start to recovery.

Wholeheartedly agree with you kona. I thought the HTC 10 was an underrated device with very slight issues which HTC have fixed this time around with the U11.

It's looking like the device that will get HTC back on track as we need OEMs to stay in the market and give consumers choice against the usual slew of Galaxy devices.

Bradmax57 · 2 Jun 2017 at 23:48

Currently still using an HTC 10, I think its great so can only look forward to trying a U11, think this is my 3rd 10 lol kept changing minds went htc 10 to S7E back to 10 then IPhone 7+ then S8+ and now back with the 10 pretty much ticks all the boxes, I think ill enjoy the bigger screen of the U11