HTC’s latest smartphone duo – the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play are officially launched in Malaysia. Announced a month ago, the HTC U series wants to stand out with a 4-way 3D glass back which gives it a distinctive look in various lighting conditions. Another differentiation would be its HTC Sense companion that tries to learn from you through continuous machine learning.
HTC U Ultra
The HTC U Ultra gets a 5.7″ Quad HD Super LCD 5 display that’s accompanied with a secondary 2.0″ screen. The smaller screen shows your notifications and you can use it to access your favourite contacts and apps. Under the hood, the U Ultra runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor with 4GB of RAM. On-board it has 64GB of storage that’s expandable via microSD.
For taking pictures, the U Ultra gets a 12MP f/1.8 HTC UltraPixel 2 main camera with LaserAF, PDAF and OIS assistance. Meanwhile, selfies are taken with its front mounted 16MP UltraPixel camera. The U Ultra also comes with a fingerprint sensor upfront which is accompanied by two capacitive buttons for navigation.
Like the HTC 10, the U Ultra gets a similar BoomSound HiFi edition speaker set up that utilises both the top earpiece and down firing speaker for audio playback. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm headphone jack but you get a USB Type-C based USonic Hi-Res audio headphones bundled in the box. For better audio pickup, the U Ultra gets 4 mics that supports 3D Audio recording. Keeping the lights on is a 3,000mAh battery which supports Quick Charge 3.0 via its USB Type-C port.
HTC U Play
For a more affordable alternative, the HTC U Play is a smaller 5.2″ device that does Full HD resolution. Powering the device is a modest MediaTek Helio P10 processor that also comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage.
For imaging, it uses 16MP f/2.0 cameras for both front and back. Similar to the U Ultra, it doesn’t have a headphone jack and it relies on the same pair of USonic headphones that plug into the USB Type-C port. Since it’s a smaller device, the U Play gets a 2,500mAh battery which charges with a standard 5V/2A brick.
The HTC U Ultra is priced at RM2,999 while its more budget friendly HTC U Play is going for RM1,899. Both models will be available online and in outlet stores in Malaysia beginning early March 2017. Would you consider the HTC U Ultra if you’re looking for a new flagship smartphone? Let us know in the comments below.
