We’ve been hearing about HTC possibly launching a new flagship smartphone and sure enough the company delivered. Officially dubbed the HTC U11, this is HTC’s latest attempt at a flagship mobile device and just like the rumors have suggested, it appears to indeed come with a touch sensitive frame around its body.
According to the official specs, the HTC U11 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset under its hood with an octa-core processor clocked up to 2.45GHz. It will also come with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and support for microSD. We’re also looking at a 5.5-inch QHD display with Gorilla Glass 5, IP67 certification, a 12MP UltraPixel 3 camera with a f/1.7 aperture, 4K video recording, and a 16MP front-facing camera with BSI, voice selfie features, and Full HD video capture.
The handset will also feature HTC’s BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition sound technology, and USonic with Active Noise Cancellation. Now that the specs are out of the way, let’s look at one of the key features of the phone, or what HTC is calling Edge Sense. This is thanks to the touch sensitive frame in which users can squeeze the phone gently to interact with it.
This includes launching apps like the camera, sending text messages by squeezing the phone and then speaking into the phone in which it will translate voice to text, or alternatively you can even customize the squeeze gesture to suit your needs, like launching a different app, a game, or so on. HTC points out that Edge Sense is based on actual pressure applied to the phone, so it is not a capacitive touch feature, so wearing gloves or using it while wet should not present an issue.
In terms of pricing and availability, HTC has announced that the handset can now be pre-ordered from Sprint where it is priced at $29 a month over 24 months and will be available come 9th of June. Those who pre-order the handset early can also expect to receive two Amazon Echo Dot devices for free.