HTC may be an underdog in the smartphone world, but it’s still making some of the best handsets on the market.
There are a lot of smartphones out there, and Taiwanese manufacturer HTC makes some of the best — even if it doesn’t sell anywhere near as many as the market leaders. Such is life.
New phones are always coming and going, and we get that it can be a little difficult to keep up with things. So this is our continuously updated list of the HTC phones that you need to be aware of. These are the phone’s we’re most likely to be writing about, and the ones you’re most likely to want to consider
HTC U12+
The HTC U12+ takes after last year’s U11+, with a 6-inch, 18:9 LCD panel, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, a whopping 3500mAh battery, and Android 8.0 Oreo with the promise of an update to Android P. It features dual cameras, consisting of a wide angle and a telephoto, that take some of the best photos of any phone on the market.
There’s no regular U12, so the U12+ serves as HTC’s sole flagship of 2018. Along with a huge battery, a large display, and three striking color options, the U12+ expands on HTC’s Edge Sense functionality with new squeeze-enabled features, and it can even detect how you’re holding the phone to automatically lock and unlock your orientation. On top of all of this, you get great specs with a Snapdragon 845 and 6GB of RAM.
The new Digital Buttons have had a number of problems, though HTC is actively improving them with software updates.
More: Read our HTC U12+ review
See at Amazon
HTC U11
The U11 reinvented HTC’s design language after years of the the same look with a bold new glass-backed chassis in a range of shimmering colors. And it’s the first smartphone to include Edge Sense, a new shortcut function that lets you squeeze the sides of the phone to jump quickly into the camera, take a photo, or launch your favorite personal assistant.
The U11 is a solid flagship phone with last year’s top-tier specs — a Snapdragon 835, 4 or 6GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of storage, and an excellent camera. HTC’s Ultrapixel shooter features always-on “HDR Boost” post-processing, similar to the Google Pixel’s HDR+ trickery.
Add to that HTC’s clean, near-stock Sense UI, and last year’s flagship is still a great phone today — and at a price that’s not quite as painful as many other flagships.
More: Read our HTC U11 review
See at Amazon
HTC U11+
The HTC U11+ expanded upon the U11’s design with an 18:9 display, a 3,930mAh battery, and a flatter, more grown-up aesthetic, with software based on Android 8.0 Oreo. What’s more, in the UK you’ll get 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage as standard, alongside dual SIM functionality.
While the U11+ never made it to the United States, it can be ordered unlocked on Amazon, with price tags that compare favorably to other high-end Android “phablets” like the Google Pixel 2 XL. Of course, the U11+ still has HTC’s signature Edge Sense technology, along with real hardware buttons — the latter of which the newer U12+ lacks.
More: HTC U11+ coverage
See at Amazon
HTC 11 Life
Available with HTC Sense in the United States through T-Mobile, or with Android One internationally, HTC’s mid-level phone mirrors the design language of its flagship counterparts, while downsizing the screen and specs — and most importantly, the price. There’s a Snapdragon 630 processor running the show, packed into an “acrylic glass” exterior with biometric security and a surprisingly decent 16-megapixel rear camera.
On the software side, the Android One U11 Life ships with near-stock Android Oreo, while the T-Mo version originally shipped with Nougat and HTC Sense, though it’s since been updated to Android 8.0.
More: Read our HTC U11 Life review
See at T-Mobile
See at HTC
Updated July 2018: We’ve added the U12+ to the top of the list as HTC’s new best phone.
