Alexz_Hong
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- Mar 9, 2008
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probably a bit late for review since most people already buy liao, but here goes a long long post.
It's one of HTC's best phone in a long time. It does almost all the basic things well. Good screen, good design, good speakers, good performance, good battery life, good camera, you get the idea.
SD835 is a pretty good chipset i have to say, much like on the XZ Premium. Both feels really quick and smooth for gaming. I notice that sometimes I'll have a recently used app being clear out of RAM though, which is weird for a phone with 6GB RAM. Not sure whether it's the Boost app messing things up. Didn't notice too much of this on the XZ Premium. But not a big deal since app launches up so quickly.
3,000mAh looks a bit small on paper, but still enough for a day of use, but of course bigger is better. On average around 5 hours of SOT for my use. I've seen close to 6 hours, but those are for heavier usage with lower overall run time. YMMV.
S7 Edge is a smaller phone all round and has 3,600mAh, but this complain applies to the a ton of other phones of course. Maybe all playing safe after note7. haha.
Lack of 3.5mm might be a deal breaker for some, but not a big deal for me. Big bezels isn't as "futuristic" looking as the taller screens with thin bezels, but it's actually still the norm now. Most phone are still 16:9. It's just Samsung and LG for now. Maybe that'll change next half of the year.
The camera is really good, though not my favourite overall smartphone camera experience. The image quality is superb, and image processing looks good to me. HDR boost mode works really great too.
The only complain i have is with lowlight. It has the tendency to go for a higher exposure in auto mode. Resulting in blown highlights when you have any sort of lighting. Most of the shots i have to keep sliding the exposure lower, which is a bit annoying.
example of clipping in auto vs adjusted exposure
The two image below are after adjusting exposure
The higher exposure does make like this type of shot look nicer, and the 5-axis OIS works wonders here. A lot of phone has trouble keeping steady in this type of super dim lighting.
The actual scene is like 2 stops darker than this
Then it's mostly just minor nitpicks and personal preference.
The additional features like edge sense and sense companion are not really super useful to me personally. Google assistant still works better overall, and edge sense is a bit hard to use for me. The phone is quite big, the frame is rather thin and rounder, so when squeezing, it feels like i might lose grip on the phone even at the lowest pressure. Even with a TPU case, it's still a little bit finicky for me to activate, maybe because of how I normally hold the phone.
Functionality wise it's fine. Having the ability to launch shortcuts is nice. it's still 1st gen after all. Maybe next gen they can improve on the sensitivity, the design of the frame. I have a feeling if they switch to taller screen and thinner width (like the G6 design), it'll make the squeezing a lot easier for people with smaller hands.
With 128GB and 6GB RAM, HTC is at least taking things a bit more seriously. For those in SG, i know the OnePlus 5 is tempting too at its price and it seems like it does all the basics well too, but well, I'll still recommending supporting companies that at least give a sh!t about selling and supporting their phones in Singapore, like HTC. Even though they're not doing amazingly well, they put in the effort at least.
I posted a long "rant" in OP5 forums too. haha. if you're interested, http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/108775340-post287.html
Anyway, the main thing is... I don't think it's a phone that will disappoint people. it's a step above the HTC 10 (despite preferring HTC 10 design) in almost every way. Like HTC 10 was a good phone that does almost everything well. But U11 is a phone that does almost everything very well. So yeah... just hope that HTC can keep this up.
They have a habit of being a bit up and down.
It's one of HTC's best phone in a long time. It does almost all the basic things well. Good screen, good design, good speakers, good performance, good battery life, good camera, you get the idea.
SD835 is a pretty good chipset i have to say, much like on the XZ Premium. Both feels really quick and smooth for gaming. I notice that sometimes I'll have a recently used app being clear out of RAM though, which is weird for a phone with 6GB RAM. Not sure whether it's the Boost app messing things up. Didn't notice too much of this on the XZ Premium. But not a big deal since app launches up so quickly.
3,000mAh looks a bit small on paper, but still enough for a day of use, but of course bigger is better. On average around 5 hours of SOT for my use. I've seen close to 6 hours, but those are for heavier usage with lower overall run time. YMMV.
S7 Edge is a smaller phone all round and has 3,600mAh, but this complain applies to the a ton of other phones of course. Maybe all playing safe after note7. haha.
Lack of 3.5mm might be a deal breaker for some, but not a big deal for me. Big bezels isn't as "futuristic" looking as the taller screens with thin bezels, but it's actually still the norm now. Most phone are still 16:9. It's just Samsung and LG for now. Maybe that'll change next half of the year.
The camera is really good, though not my favourite overall smartphone camera experience. The image quality is superb, and image processing looks good to me. HDR boost mode works really great too.
The only complain i have is with lowlight. It has the tendency to go for a higher exposure in auto mode. Resulting in blown highlights when you have any sort of lighting. Most of the shots i have to keep sliding the exposure lower, which is a bit annoying.
example of clipping in auto vs adjusted exposure
The two image below are after adjusting exposure
The higher exposure does make like this type of shot look nicer, and the 5-axis OIS works wonders here. A lot of phone has trouble keeping steady in this type of super dim lighting.
The actual scene is like 2 stops darker than this
Then it's mostly just minor nitpicks and personal preference.
The additional features like edge sense and sense companion are not really super useful to me personally. Google assistant still works better overall, and edge sense is a bit hard to use for me. The phone is quite big, the frame is rather thin and rounder, so when squeezing, it feels like i might lose grip on the phone even at the lowest pressure. Even with a TPU case, it's still a little bit finicky for me to activate, maybe because of how I normally hold the phone.
Functionality wise it's fine. Having the ability to launch shortcuts is nice. it's still 1st gen after all. Maybe next gen they can improve on the sensitivity, the design of the frame. I have a feeling if they switch to taller screen and thinner width (like the G6 design), it'll make the squeezing a lot easier for people with smaller hands.
With 128GB and 6GB RAM, HTC is at least taking things a bit more seriously. For those in SG, i know the OnePlus 5 is tempting too at its price and it seems like it does all the basics well too, but well, I'll still recommending supporting companies that at least give a sh!t about selling and supporting their phones in Singapore, like HTC. Even though they're not doing amazingly well, they put in the effort at least.
I posted a long "rant" in OP5 forums too. haha. if you're interested, http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/108775340-post287.html
Anyway, the main thing is... I don't think it's a phone that will disappoint people. it's a step above the HTC 10 (despite preferring HTC 10 design) in almost every way. Like HTC 10 was a good phone that does almost everything well. But U11 is a phone that does almost everything very well. So yeah... just hope that HTC can keep this up.
They have a habit of being a bit up and down.
