Now that the first wave of flagships has already received the 18:9 display back in 2017, it’s now time for the mid-range ones. After the recently announced Samsung Galaxy A8+ (2018), HTC now also has a product at a similar price point called the HTC U11 Eyes. Besides a taller display, the mid-range phone from HTC also has dual front cameras, hence the name “Eyes”.
HTC wants the phone to be positioned as a premium mid-ranger that stands closer to the company’s premium smartphone – HTC U11+. The company was suggested to be coming out with a phone of this sort a few days before it was officially announced. The HTC U11 Eyes went official earlier today in Taiwan and will go on sale there starting February 1.
The phone shares a lot of design elements from the flagship HTC U11+, majorly because of that display. Talking about the display, it is a 6-inch Super LCD3 panel with an FHD+ resolution and comes covered with Gorilla Glass 3. Like many of the modern HTC phones, this one also comes with the Edge Sense feature that allows the user to interact with the phone with a simple squeeze.
However, it still runs on Android 7.1 Nougat out-of-the-box instead of Oreo that has been out for months now. Moreover, the HTC U11 Eyes comes powered by a Snapdragon 652 processor, that itself is about a couple of years old. It is paired with Adreno 510 GPU and 4GB of RAM along with an internal storage of 64GB. It has a 3930mAh battery with support for Quick Charge 3.0 and the phone is also IP67 rated.
For the rear camera, the phone has a single 12MP UltraPixel 3 unit that supports PDAF, OIS, f/1.7 aperture, and can record videos at 4K. In comparison, the camera on Galaxy A8+ (2018) is limited to recording 1080p videos. Over at the front, there are two 5MP camera sensors with f/2.2 aperture and both having 80-degree wide-angle lens. With the dual cameras, the phone also supports bokeh effects in real-time.
HTC U11 Eyes was announced today and is already up for pre-orders in Taiwan. It will be made available in Red, Silver, and Black colour options at launch. As mentioned above, the phone will start shipping from 1st February for NT$14,900 (USD 504 or Rs. 32,000 approx.).
