HTC has long lost the market, releasing it is not clear what and it is not clear to whom at exorbitant prices. The logic of a common buyer works something like this: “Yes, for such a price, I can take an iPhone.” You don’t have to explain to your friends what kind of Chinese (actually Taiwanese) smartphone – just show the apple on the back cover and there will be no questions.

HTC U12 + should be a lifeline, but it will face the same fate. With an official price list of 60 thousand rubles, the company can rely only on geeks with money or loyal fans, if, of course, there are still some.

It’s a pity. The smartphone is great.

Thank you for not just another iPhone X clone

U12 + is the most distinctive flagship of 2018. The Taiwanese have hammered on bezellessness, a cutout in the screen and made a smartphone somewhat of the old school. Good or bad, everyone decides for himself. Personally, I like it.

A premium, sun-glare, slightly angular, but generally beautiful smartphone looks unambiguously expensive. Metal frame and 3D curved glass back. There is also thick glass in the front, which comes in, perhaps, by a quarter of the side edge. The coolest version is blue with clear glass. Under it, the elements of the device are not particularly visible, but it looks at least interesting. There is also fiery red and ceramic black (this is just a name, ceramics are not used in it). The first will definitely be eye-catching. I found only one minus – the glass is splattered instantly. Further on, about the design features.

The assembly is perfect, everything is fine-tuned – no squeaks, no backlashes. There is protection against water according to the IP68 standard. The smartphone is monolithic and very smooth, and therefore very slippery. The likelihood of dropping a gadget is also increased due to its size – it is large, thick (almost 1 cm in the middle!) And weighty. More for a man’s hand, I would say. 

The kit includes a bad plastic case that leaves the sides open for the proprietary Edge Sense technology, which has been updated to the second version. But more on that later.

At the top there is a microphone, at the bottom there is another microphone, a BoomSound speaker. Front display with sensors, speaker and LED notification indicator. On the back are dual cameras, flash and fingerprint scanner. On the left is a hybrid slot for a memory card and a SIM, or for two SIMs, on the right … and on the right is a pain. More precisely, the lock and volume buttons. Now I will explain why you will suffer.

For that, you might hate U12 +

This is the most stupid implementation of the side volume and off buttons. Now they are not physical, but sensory. Made like the Home button on the iPhone 7. Only worse. 

Much worse.

How can I describe it … Remember how you press the power button. You grab the smartphone, holding it from both ends, but by and large, only one finger, most often the thumb, is involved. So in HTC U12 + you need to squeeze the whole brush. You have to really make an effort.

You can compare these sensations with the compression of a hand expander, only it is rubber, not metal. In addition, the buttons are quite “sharp”, and the Sleep button also has a texture. As a result, we have: rough metal bulges, which need to be strongly pressed with soft fingertips. Imagine what it would be like? The pressure force cannot be adjusted – and this is the main problem. If on iPhone you always know how and with what force you press a button, then on HTC U12 + it is a surprise every time. It works, it doesn’t work. In short, infuriates!

In addition, screenshots cannot be taken either. You have to get out and: 1) hold down the shutdown button and press the “Home” button; 2) customize the screenshot to squeeze edges of Edge Sense.

In the next generation, please, adjust the pressing force and there will be “space”. But so far this is only annoying.

Best IPS on the market

But I can’t say anything bad about the screen. Not OLED, but among IPS, this is clearly the top. The diagonal is 6 inches, the resolution is 2880 × 1440 pixels (537 ppi), the ratio is 18 to 9. There is a night mode, support for HDR 10, DCI-P3, sRGB profiles and Always-On mode. On paper, compared to the HTC U11, they reduced the contrast a little (as for me this is a plus) and raised the brightness. Is the difference really noticeable? Well no. The picture is close to its predecessor, the same saturated and with good color rendition.

By default, U12 + is set to Quad HD + resolution (i.e. maximum). It can be downgraded to Full HD +, saving battery power. How much is saved in this way, I did not check.

There is nothing special to add. It seems that they have already got used to high-quality displays, which is now difficult to be surprised. From the unusual – the mode of operation with gloves, for the Russian cold weather is quite a topical thing.

Camera. Just gorgeous 

Many people think that in 2018 it is the quality of the shooting that is almost the decisive parameter when buying a phone. They say everything else is the same plus or minus. I disagree with this statement, but to hell with it. 

A flagship dual camera appeared in the HTC smartphone for the first time, and not one, but two at once. The main one received two modules for 12 (f / 1,8 aperture) and 16 (f / 2,6 aperture) Mp. For the front camera, we chose two eyes of 8 megapixels each with the same f / 2,0 aperture.

First of all, you need to evaluate the quality of pictures using the “auto” mode – this is how most users take pictures. And with this, HTC U12 + is in complete order in my opinion. 

But I don’t take photos as often as I would like. Therefore, I asked Olga Dragunova to test the camera from the Telegram channel “Mobile Photography”. Her word.

What’s on the menu: flash, animal masks, timer, aspect ratio (1: 1, 4: 3, 16: 9, 18,9) and its size, HDR mode. Below are the buttons for the front camera, video, portrait mode and zoom. The fact that the masks are placed on the main panel from above for the main and front cameras personally puzzles me. Animal faces are not at all what mobile photographers and adults usually need every day.

Let’s start with the front camera. Here you can enable or disable the “portrait decoration”. The mode works in two directions: skin smoothness and face brightness. You can put everything on “auto”, but the software processing seemed very soapy and rough to me. I got the impression that when taking a selfie, the camera distorts the proportions of the face a little, no matter what angle I shoot. Perhaps this is just my problem. There are no questions about bokeh, auto and manual adjustment of the background blur zone works very well even on a complex background.

To the main camera. Auto mode with HDR produces predictably great shots. I liked the quick start with a gesture, took out the camera and immediately took pictures. Focusing and shooting speed is super. I wanted to disable HDR only when shooting a sunset, when I needed to darken buildings, and not accentuate the details from the shadows. I liked the color reproduction of photos – there is no brute force with the saturation of individual colors or the inverse effect with bleached hues after HDR.

Main camera portraits are fantastic! The background is blurred softly and even better than on the iPhone X. But in terms of colors, the Apple smartphone liked more.

In some places, HDR worked strange, but somewhere it helped to capture more detail in the shadows.

From the zoom, the impressions are mixed. XNUMXx optical zoom norm. Tenfold, of course, a mess.

All other modes, except for auto, are removed from the drop-down menu in the right corner: panorama, pro mode, video, hyperlapse, slow motion, photo selfie, panoramic selfie, video selfie. In the settings, you can enable touch metering and a 3 by 3 grid, if someone is more accustomed to shooting this way.

In the manual mode of the camera – aka pro – you can adjust the white balance (you can choose the exact temperature of 2300–7500 K), exposure, ISO, shutter speed and focus area (macro-landscape). In this case, any parameter can be set to auto-mode and work pointwise with what is needed. Custom settings can be saved by clicking on the “+” in the upper left corner. The camera in pro mode allows you to shoot in JPG or RAW (DNG). If anyone is interested in spinning an example of an evening photo in DNG format, you can download it here.

Thanks to Olga. From myself I will add that an ordinary user cannot find fault with the camera – everything is so good. To be honest, I did not expect this level of shooting and in the end I was amazed. This month the camera phone has proved to be a worthy all-rounder. Daytime shots are a bomb, in the evening, of course not Huawei P20 Pro, but also at a high level. He can portraits both from the front camera and from the rear camera. Well, what else do you need?

Video enthusiasts will appreciate the HTC U12 + ‘s features – 4K recording at 60 frames per second, optical stabilization, and smooth cinematic zoom. Plus, the smartphone is excellent at recording sound, thanks to four microphones. Perhaps the best on the market. You can select one of three recording modes: Hi-Res, 3D or Sound Focus. 

Examples with originals of all photos and videos, including 4K and slow-mo, are available on Google Drive.

Let’s summarize. The HTC U12 + camera easily competes with current flagships and, moreover, outperforms in some scenarios (remember portrait photography). The smartphone is ideally suited for the scenario “took out and snapped” – it is almost guaranteed that you get an excellent picture, which can be immediately uploaded to Instagram. An absolutely pleasant experience.

HTC even prepared a detailed guide to using the smartphone camera and a description of all the functions. What good fellows!

Android 8.0 + HTC Sense =?

Love. Definitely.

Sense has always been one of the best third-party skins out there. Nothing has changed – it is still beautiful, comfortable and with its own signature features. The main one is Edge Sense 2, which allows you to squeeze the edges of the smartphone to perform any action. It appeared back in HTC U11 and managed to look at Pixel smartphones, but under a different name. What’s new in the second version?

The faces can now not only be squeezed, but also tapped on them from both sides. By default, for example, double tap turns on one-handed operation. Actions are configurable in the parameters, but there are not very many options: double knock, squeeze and squeeze with hold. The strength can be adjusted, which is also nice. However, it’s not worth setting up too weakly – random activations will torture you. 

There is a cool function “Smart turn” – when you lie on one side with the phone, it understands that it is still being held and does not change the orientation of the screen. And you don’t need to squeeze anything – the sensors themselves recognize your palm.

As much as I tried to accustom myself to Edge Sense – I could not. It seems to be convenient, but you just forget about this trick, because it’s easier to do everything with your finger. On the other hand, the touch frame works even when the smartphone is locked. That is, right from the off screen, you can turn on the camera or call the selector with quick actions and applications, which is also accompanied by a full-size calendar. In any case, it will be useful to someone. If you don’t like it, you can turn it off.

You can add another page to the navigation buttons bar, which is invoked by swipe. Here are the buttons for screencast, screenshot creation, and so on. Otherwise, this is almost pure Android. The only pity is that there is no normal Google Now on the left – there is a local personalized news feed from HTC.

Performance

The most boring part of any review.

U12 + is powered by an eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with an Adreno 630 graphics core. There is nothing cooler in Android smartphones now, so everything works fine. Inside there are 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. There is also a basic version with 64 GB of memory. In the microSD tray, you can put a flash drive up to 2 TB.

For a month of using any crashes and glitches, I did not notice. Everything works stably, considering that I have a sample in my hands, not a retail sample.

In Antutu, the smartphone is gaining more than 240 thousand points. In Geekbench 4, the result in a single-core test was almost 2400 points, in a multi-core test – 8200 points. After a half-hour session in PUBG, the phone did not warm up at all. Throttling is also not noticeable. So the U12 + can be called a gaming smartphone.

In general, all you need to know: very fast. Just a rocket. The system flies at breakneck speeds, I only had time to enjoy.

There is an NFC chip, so Google Pay works. It is important.

Finger and face

Apparently no one makes scanners faster than Xiaomi. The HTC U12 + is a bit brooding in terms of unlocking. The fingerprint sensor is not the fastest, it loses in speed to the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s and even the OnePlus 5T. But there is a standard.

Another option is Face Unlock, or as it was officially called by HTC – a photo password. A purely software thing, which in terms of speed is already comparable to the OnePlus 5T, for example. So you can use it. The only complaint is that activating the screen by tapu works in an unclear way. The display is backlit after one press, then after a double, then generally after a swipe. 

To be sure that the face scan is triggered, you need to press the power button on the side (and we already found out that this is a so-so idea), or set up the activation of the photo password for the Edge Sense compression gestures – quite a case.

By the way, push-buttons can be hidden from prying eyes if the phone is locked. The same is done in the iPhone X. 

About sound

HTC takes great pride in the musical quality of the U12 +. There is a reason: the smartphone received BoomSound stereo speakers and a USonic headset included. First, about the speakers.

They are loud, that’s a fact. But the sound quality is not outstanding here, the same iPhone X sounds nicer. Quieter, but without dropping frequencies and giving a picture close to reality. I also did not like that when watching YouTube videos, I feel a slight sound vibration under the back cover. Apparently inside the case, this whole thing resonates. Feelings are unpleasant.

In the settings, you can select two profiles: “in the theater” and “music”. I did not notice the difference between them. In general, the speakers are enough to watch YouTube. You probably only listen to music through headphones. And they are included in the kit.

HTC USonic is a vacuum headset (or simply “plugs”) with active noise cancellation. It connects to a smartphone via Type-C, yeah, there is no 3,5 mm audio jack. Headphones are a cannon!

Now, in general, few manufacturers put a headset in the kit, let alone high-quality and, one might say, smart, even more so. The fact is that the USonic has automatic acoustic adjustment to the parameters of your ear. You need to connect a headset and go to the appropriate item in the settings. 

How this magic happens: I heard “white noise” for a second and then music started playing. During this time, the headphones scanned the ear canal (don’t ask how) and created a unique sound profile for me. You can turn it off immediately and compare the sound of the headphones without individual adjustment. The sound is surprisingly transformed, thanks to a mixture of soundproofing (they are still vacuum), active noise cancellation and a personal acoustic profile. It seems to envelop. The volume is in bulk, the sound is clear and there is a lot of juicy bass. 

You can buy such headphones for some money, but here they are already included. Plus, they have a built-in microphone, so you can make calls. It is a pity, there are no volume control buttons – it would be quite good. 

If you are a fan of this type of headphone, you will love it. If you are already stepping into the wireless era, then the U12 + has Bluetooth 5.0 with support for the aptX HD protocol for Hi-Res audio.

Working hours

The battery capacity of HTC U12 + is 3500 mAh, which is significantly less than in the U11 +. It is difficult to objectively estimate the runtime, it depends on your use cases. In my mode – mostly messengers, social networks Twitter, Instagram and YouTube – the phone gives out 5-6 hours of screen time. This is a standard result.

But when using Yandex.Navigator, the battery quickly began to discharge. A strange situation, which, again, can be attributed to raw firmware or some bugs of this particular application. In airplane mode, by the way, the smartphone holds a charge is simply unrealistic. In general, the U12 + shows the usual operating time for 2018.

Despite the glass cover, there is no wireless charging in the smartphone. But there is Quick Charge 3.0 out of the box. Quick Charge 4.0 is also announced, but the bundled charger does not support it.

Prices and start of sales

HTC U12 + for the version with 64 GB of memory costs 59 rubles, and the 990 GB model costs 128 rubles. Pre-orders are already open on the official website, delivery is promised from July 64. For some reason, there is no red, but with a transparent cover, the version is only 990 GB. 

It would cost him at least 50 thousand …

Almost happened

The logic of HTC is clear – everyone breaks a frantic price, and why are we worse? And after all, they have the right to set such a price relative to competitors. Build quality, beautiful design – the U12 + really looks premium. It has only two obvious drawbacks – side touch buttons and a space price, otherwise this is a great device. And if you have no prejudice about the brand, then it is worth taking a closer look. The question is different.

Let’s face it, few people will want to buy a little-known brand for this money. Buyers are more likely to take the Galaxy S9, iPhone X or Huawei P20 Pro – those smartphones that are on the rumor. Those smartphones whose brands are known to everyone.

A modern flagship is not only a device that we use every day, but also a status thing. The U12 + looks pretty, but it lacks one. 

Loud name.