Friday, March 29, 2024

The U12+ is the best HTC phone you probably shouldn’t buy

Share

HTC isn’t the heavy hitter in the smartphone space that it used to be; in fact, the company hasn’t released a consumer-facing phone since 2018. However, its existing lineup is still worth looking into, especially now that each phone is available for a fraction of its original price. Here are the best ones you can grab right now.

Best overall

HTC U12+

htc-u12-plus-render.png?itok=uKudy_iR

Staff pick

The U12+ takes after its predecessor the 11+ with a 6-inch, 18:9 LCD panel, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, a whopping 3500mAh battery, and Android 9 Pie running Sense UI. It features dual cameras, one wide and one telephoto, along with Digital Buttons that replicate true power and volume buttons with haptic vibrations, and comes in three striking color options.

$439 at Amazon

Runner up

HTC U11

htc-u11-render.png?itok=Q7Rf01Fl

Despite being nearly three years old, the HTC U11 is still a solid phone with respectable specs like a Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 5.5-inch display. The U11 was also the first phone to feature Edge Sense, which detects squeezes along the phone’s sides to launch various apps like Google Assistant or the camera. While it originally launched with Android 7.1, the U11 now runs Android 9 Pie.

$340 at Amazon

Best budget phone

HTC U11 Life

htc-u11-life-render.png?itok=yV4v3RCo

The U11 Life doesn’t have the ultra-premium glass design or top-tier chipset of the U12+, trading the former for plastic and the latter for a Snapdragon 630, but it’s an excellent phone for an ultra-low price. The U11 Life follows a similar design language to the pricier U12+, and it’s similarly been updated to Android 9 Pie. It even has the same Edge Sense squeeze detection.

$150 at Amazon

Phones that held up surprisingly well

htc_u12%2B_hands_on_3.jpg?itok=x5qjCYTy

HTC may not be the mobile giant it used to be, but that doesn’t mean its phones aren’t still fantastic for die-hard fans and casual users alike. The U12+ was a high-spec phone when it was released in 2018, and despite a somewhat rough launch with problematic buttons, software updates have since made it a great flagship with a fairly modern build of Android 9 Pie.

The U11 is an even cheaper flagship from the year before, with the same rear fingerprint sensor, Edge Sense squeeze functionality, and an impressive camera. If you’re simply looking for the cheapest phone you can get, though, the U11 Life is a surprisingly good phone that’s running the same Android 9 software as the rest of HTC’s lineup, with a similarly modern design.

Read more

More News