HTC at its ‘for U’ event has launched two new smartphones, dubbed as ‘HTC U Ultra’ and ‘HTC U Play’. Both the smartphones come with AI like feature, what the company is calling the ‘HTC Sense Companion’, which learns the user’s daily patterns to provide usage recommendations and friendly advice.
The HTC Sense Companion is said to learn from the user, and provide recommendations such as suggesting you dress worn and leave for work earlier on a snowy day; reminding you to charge if it figures you need more power to last until you get home, and even recommending the perfect restaurant when you are away for the weekend.
Both the smartphones run on Android 7.0 Nougat with HTC Sense UI on top and comes with Biometric voice unlocking and control. Both the phones have a glass finish on the front and back, and a metal frame and the rear glass is fully curved at all four edges.
The HTC U Ultra sports a 5.7-inch Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixel) Super LCD primary display and a 2-inch (1040 x 160 pixels) secondary display with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The secondary display has AI notifications, weather updates and more.
The U Ultra is powered by a 2.15GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 821 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt storage that can be expanded up to 2TB via a microSD card. HTC will also launch a premium version of the U Ultra which will have sapphire glass protection and 128GB of inbuilt storage.
The HTC U Ultra sports a 12-UltraPixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, 1.55-micron pixels, OIS, PDAF, Laser AF, dual-tone (dual-LED) flash, 4K video recording, Slowmo 720p @ 120fps. On the front, it sports a 16MP camera with BSI sensor and Ultra Pixel Mode. The fingerprint sensor is mounted on the home button.
The dual sim smartphone is backed by a 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth v4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, DLNA, Miracast, HTC Connect, and USB 3.1 Type-C. It measures at 162.41×79.79×7.9mm and weighs in at 170g. It also comes with HTC U-Sonic audio system, as well as 3D Audio recording support with 4 microphones.
On the other hand, the HTC U Play sports a 5.2-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) Super LCD display with Gorilla Glass protection. It is powered by an Octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC. It comes in two variants, 3GB of RAM with 32GB of inbuilt storage and 4GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, with expandable memory up to 2TB via a microSD card.
On the camera front, it sports a 16MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, BSI sensor, OIS, PDAF, Dual-tone flash. On the front also, it has a 16MP camera with f/2.0 aperture, BSI sensor and UltraPixel mode. The fingerprint sensor is mounted on the home button.
The dual-sim smartphone is backed by a 2500mAh battery with fast charging support (5V/2A). Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth v4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, DLNA, Miracast, HTC Connect, and USB 2.0 Type-C. It measures at 145.99×72.9×7.99mm and weighs in at 145g.
Both the HTC U Ultra and U Play come in Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, Cosmetic Pink and Ice White colors. However, the company has not provided exact pricing and availability details of the smartphones yet. Though, Indian availability is expected till March. Stay tuned for more updates!