At the end of May, back when HTC U12+ was unveiled, we quickly did a hands on preview of the device. It feels like the next logical step from the HTC U11+, albeit with 4 cameras and no physical buttons this time. The device is priced at $799 and we unboxed it below. Keep in mind it’s an unofficial box this one, but it does hold the official accessories.
This is Snapdragon 845 flagship, a 6 inch smartphone with a very glossy and glassy case. Inside its box we find an USB Type-C cable, a pretty thick and sturdy one actually, a Quick Charge 3.0 charger and a pair of USonic headphones. There’s also a metal key used to access the card slots, manual and headphone plugs, plus a case that protects the back and a bit of the sides.
The handset is available in Translucent Blue (letting you see its components through the case), Flame Red (looking lovely like the Lilac Galaxy S9) and Black. Frankly speaking I doubt my version is truly black, since it looks more brown beige to me. The device has a Liquid Surface design, with a very fluid way of catching light, as if it were molten lava dripping on it.
The biggest change this time is the fact that we only have touch buttons here, not physical ones. They feel a bit off, but at least they vibrate when you touch them. Think of the change from the iPhone 6s Home button to the iPhone 7 one and you’ll get the drift of what we get here. The phone still has Edge Sense, you know, the feature that lets you squeeze its edges to trigger apps and functions.
Now it’s version 2.0 with more commands and features. Otherwise, this feels like the typical 2018 flagship, with a Snapdragon 845 CPU, 6 GB of RAM and dual camera at the back. But wait, there’s also a dual front camera. The handset has an IP68 certified glass body, 64 or 128 GB of storage and a microSD card slot. At the back we find a 12 MP camera with wide angle lens and Ultrapixel technology, plus a 16 MP telephoto lens.
Bokeh is available too, for both the back and front camera. A dual LED flash, HDR Boost and RAW phoot capture are all here, as well as 4K 60 FPS video. No Super Slo Mo though. Upfront we have two 8 MP cameras with AR stickers and Bokeh. HTC U12+ packs a 3500 mAh battery, runs on Android Oreo and gets both a fingerprint scanner at the back and face unlock.
It uses BoomSound and HiFi tech for its dual speakers, but it doesn’t have an audio jack. This device sounds like it has everything and then some, but will it be enough to woo people back to HTC? At $799 it’s a pretty sweet deal, but we’ll let the review do the talking.
