The HTC U 11 might be able to record 360 videos

The HTC U 11 will be revealed next week on 16 May 2017. This would be HTC’s highly anticipated flagship device after its lacklustre HTC U series.

Ahead of its big reveal, HTC has teased what appears to be a 360 video recording feature that’s built in with the HTC U 11.

According to HTC Malaysia’s tweet, the Taiwanese smartphone brand has taken taken its camera to a whole new “degree”. In the video, a man appears to be recording a group of motorcyclists in a circular formation while standing still.

From the looks of it, we are guessing that the HTC U 11 is capable of shooting 360 VR content using both front and rear camera lens. To do that on a smartphone is extremely rare especially when it doesn’t have identical cameras on both sides. According to its purported leaked specs, the HTC U 11 will get a 12MP f/1.7 HTC Ultrapixel 3 camera at the rear while the front comes with a 16MP f/2.0 shooter.

This isn’t the first time a smartphone maker has integrated a 360 VR camera. A Chinese based company had introduced one with two 13MP wide-angle fisheye lenses at the top. At least that configuration makes more sense and it would be interesting to see how HTC is going to pull this off on a slim smartphone. I’m unconvinced that it would be as good as other dedicated 360 cameras like Samsung’s Gear 360.

The U 11 is probably the most important device for HTC and it needs more than just a squeezable phone in order to stand out. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch the trailer below: