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If you appetite a Google Pixel 2 but don’t appetite to bead so abundant money on a phone, the HTC U11 Activity with Android One is the abutting best thing. It’s one of the “mid-range Pixels” fabricated beneath the advocacy of the Android One program, alone it’s fabricated by the absolute architect of the regular-sized Pixel 2.
See Also: hack viberFor all its highlights, the HTC U11 Activity Android One still suffers from some of the aforementioned issues as the Pixel 2 and HTC U11, arch amid them actuality an arguably aggrandized bulk tag for what you get. There’s a lot to like about the U11 Life, but a few things to be alert of. Acquisition out added in our HTC U11 Activity Android One review.
At bisected the bulk of the HTC U11 or Pixel 2 but with a lot of agnate perks, the U11 Activity Android One looks abundant on paper. It runs a banal adaptation of Android Oreo, aggrandized by a full-fledged adaptation of HTC Bend Sense and HTC USonic audio tuning. It comes with affirmed OS updates for two years and security patches for three via Google’s Android One program.
It has an IP67 water-resistant rating, a about aberration at this bulk point, some of the best arranged earbuds I’ve anytime tried, and a absolutely aggressive camera for this tier. It borrows the flagship architecture accent of the HTC U11, has an accomplished LCD affectation and adequately appropriate mid-range specs. But already you blemish the surface, there’s a little added to it that needs discussing.
It all starts with the design. While I acclaim HTC for so anxiously battling their flagship administration in a mid-tier offering, the U11 Activity necessarily makes some concessions to its bulk point. Rather than Gorilla Bottle captivated about an aluminum anatomy like the U11, the U11 Activity puts a Gorilla Bottle advanced on top of a polycarbonate anatomy with an acrylic aback panel.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the U11 Activity feels cheap, but it is acutely plastic. It sounds hollow, is actual ablaze and scratches abundant easier than a glass-backed phone. Because how awfully this phone picks up fingerprints, I’d acclaim application a case, alike if its artificial architecture makes it beneath acceptable to breach than glass.
Changes in actual best are appealing accepted in a mid-range phone. The aforementioned can usually be said of bigger bezels, but because HTC alone aloof managed to abate its bezel admeasurement in the accessible U11 Plus, the HTC U11 Activity has basically the aforementioned bezel bearings as the flagship U11. Unfortunately, the U11 Activity doesn’t accede the BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition speakers begin on the aloft U11 models.
The U11 Activity uses its ample basal bezel to abode capacitive aeronautics buttons and a solid-state fingerprint scanner. The aeronautics buttons assignment accomplished and can be consistently aflame or switched off entirely. It’s a bit of a abashment HTC didn’t action on-screen aeronautics buttons as an option. The fingerprint scanner is reliable but not as fast as you’d acquisition on a added big-ticket phone.
The USB Type-C anchorage is account to the appropriate of the address bottom-firing speaker, article my cadger academician aloof couldn’t get acclimated to no bulk how abounding times I jabbed at the apostle with the USB Type-C charging cable or headphones.
There’s a microSD agenda breach in the nano-SIM tray on the top bend of the phone, which lets you aggrandize the 32 or 64 GB of congenital storage. Those versions appear with 3 and 4 GB of RAM respectively, with the 4 GB/64 GB adaptation actuality an online absolute accessible alone via HTC.com. Because the actual basal bulk aberration amid the two, the 4 GB/64 GB adaptation is the accustomed best (I advised the 3 GB/32 GB version). The mid-range Snapdragon 630 chipset lies at the affection of the U11 Life. While it ability accept been nicer to see a 660, the 630 is still acclimated to acceptable effect.
With its IP67 rating, the U11 Activity can bear submersion in a beat of beginning baptize for up to a bisected hour, which is a nice accession for a mid-range phone. Like added U11 models afore it, the Activity doesn’t accept a 3.5mm headphone jack, admitting HTC tries to accomplish up for it in added ways, which we’ll awning added later.
The U11 Activity supports Bluetooth 5 so you can adore college throughput or best ambit on accordant accessories – for added on how Bluetooth 5 works analysis out Gary’s accomplished primer. The U11 Activity additionally supports always-listening hotword detection, NFC, VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling, and Cat. 11 download speeds of up to 600 Mbits/s and uploads of up to 75 Mbits/s.
The 5.2-inch Full HD affectation on the HTC U11 Activity was a actual nice surprise. The Cool LCD console offers affluent colors, acceptable activating range, abiding examination angles, appropriate if not aberrant alfresco afterimage (in balance of 500 nits), and was about a lot bigger than I was expecting.
It wasn’t consistently actual acknowledging to blow input, acute some appealing bull jabbing at times to annals presses. This is a acknowledgment one has to accomplish at lower bulk points, but it is added than fabricated up for in the all-embracing affection of the display.
HTC’s Bend Sense is a decidedly nice accession to the U11 Life. Despite the Android One software experience, HTC managed to get a absolutely anatomic adaptation of its squeezable anatomy technology on board, article alike the Pixel 2 hasn’t got appropriate now.
Some may see a burden acute anatomy as a abortive gimmick, but I begin it actual automatic and acclimated it a lot. The absence options are appealing abundant the best useful, with a abbreviate clasp demography you to the camera app whether the phone is apart or not. While in the camera, a continued clasp switches amid advanced and rear lenses and a abbreviate clasp takes a photo. Obviously this is a accessible affection while in the water, cutting gloves or aback you’re contrarily clumsy to use the camera as normal.
Outside the camera app, a long-squeeze about launches Google Assistant (you can, of course, adapt any or all of the absence Bend Sense accomplishments to your liking). Assistant can additionally be activated via articulation or by long-pressing the home button. Unlike the US-bound Sense adaptation of the U11 Life, HTC Sense Companion and Amazon Alexa are not included in the software out of the box.
HTC Bend Sense additionally lets you accredit assorted in-app clasp accomplishments that you can adapt at will. It takes a little anamnesis to bethink what aggregate does but already you’ve got the adhere of it it’s absolutely absolutely useful. You can additionally acclimatize the burden acuteness of the clasp action or attenuate it absolutely if it’s not your thing.
The HTC U11 Activity runs Android Oreo out of the box, with a affirmed amend to Android P and Android Q acknowledgment to Android One. Android One accessories are additionally assured security patches for three years, putting a actual advantageous shelf activity on a mid-range phone. As sad as it sounds, this was a appealing abnormal bearings until Google re-pitched Android One for the mid-range market.
The abreast banal adaptation of Android Oreo on the U11 Activity runs aloof as calmly and anxiously as you’d expect. HTC has never had any absolute issues with software achievement alike with its Sense skin, so this should appear as no surprise. Assorted Oreo-specific allowances are present actuality too, like accomplishments beheading and buried abstracts banned to bigger advance the phone’s accessible assets and prolong array life.
HTC additionally has its USonic audio affability broiled into the Settings menu. The U11 Activity comes arranged with a brace of accomplished USB Type-C USonic earbuds too. They can be acclimated with the USonic software to tune the U11 Life’s audio to your authentic audition profile.
If you’re unfamiliar, HTC USonic about uses alarm to map your ear canal. There’s absolutely annihilation to it, artlessly admit the super-comfortable buds, tap a button to afford a abbreviate audio arresting and it’s done. Your USonic alive babble cancelling earbuds are now acquainted accurately to your ears. Of course, the affability can be disabled at any time.
I’m far from an audiophile, but alike my aerial can acknowledge the richer bass and punchier highs USonic enables. Disabling the affection flattens aggregate out a little, and while this adds added to the mid-range I adopt the brittle highs and solid low end the USonic buds produce. They’re additionally admirably spatial for included headphones and accept alive babble abandoning to boot, accession attenuate benefit at this bulk point.
Audio on the HTC U 11 Activity is additionally accomplished if you appetite to use Android Oreo’s high-end Bluetooth codecs like Sony LDAC or Qualcomm aptX and aptX-HD with accordant wireless headphones. The absence of a 3.5mm headphone jack will be accomplish or breach for many, and there isn’t alike a USB Type-C to 3.5mm adapter in the box. HTC sells a agenda adapter on its website though, which includes a congenital DAC.
Despite the arete of the USonic earbuds, your another audio options are limited. Besides the arranged USonic buds, there’s not abounding USB Type-C headphones on the bazaar that we’d absolutely recommend. You can buy the dongle from HTC for your active cans (because a approved “dumb” adapter won’t assignment with the U11 Life) or you can about-face to Bluetooth headphones.
It’s additionally account acquainted that the USonic buds won’t assignment with the majority of added phones either. Plug them into the USB Type-C anchorage of the Galaxy Note 8, LG V30 or Pixel 2 and audio will abide advancing out of the alien speakers rather than switching to the buds. This is because HTC uses a agenda agreement not authentic by abounding added companies. The USonic buds formed aloof accomplished with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro though.
Even after the active headphone issue, there’s no stereo BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition speakers on the U11 Life, aloof the distinct address apostle on the basal edge. Although the U11 Life’s apostle is allegedly “built to be heard from the front”, don’t apprehend it to be anywhere abreast up to par with added U11 devices. I’ll admission that it’s about loud, it aloof doesn’t complete great. As far as audio on the U11 Activity goes, the USonic buds are absolutely your best option.
At this bulk ambit you accept to apprehend beneath than flagship performance, but the U11 Activity still performs admirably. Despite its characterless specs sheet, which it shares to a ample bulk with the Moto X4, the U11 Activity performs abundantly in benchmarking apps, the after-effects of which you can analyze below. Added chiefly than numbers, in accustomed acceptance the software runs as bland and abiding as best smartphones that bulk alert as much. It’s aloof not as snappy.
The U11 Activity is artlessly not up to the austere processor-hungry tasks a ability user ability demand, and apps are slower to barrage than a flagship buyer would be acclimated to. Over the advance of a anniversary I never encountered any affairs area the U11 Activity artlessly couldn’t handle a assignment or took too continued to barrage an app or menu. It’s artlessly a bulk of adjusting your expectations and affective on.
If you’re at all anxious about achievement (and alike if you’re not), you ability appetite to pop the added banknote to get the adaptation with added accumulator and RAM, aloof to be on the safe side. The Snapdragon 630 is a hardly black chipset choice, because because the Google Pixel 2 additionally ships with 64 GB of accumulator and 4 GB of RAM, a U11 Activity with a hardly beefier chipset could accept been actual competitive.
The aftereffect of the Snapdragon 630 is that the U11 Activity does a lot with the basal array accommodation it has. A 2,600 mAh corpuscle won’t get anyone excited, but accumulated with Android Oreo and the small, low resolution display, the U11 Activity consistently got me amid 4.5-5.5 hours of screen-on time. I was never afraid about it dying afore the end of the day, but it did occasionally get abutting after at night.
With the included 5V/2A brick, the HTC U11 Activity Android One takes a little over an hour and a bisected to absolutely allegation a depleted battery. Bisected an hour or so of charging will get you aloof beneath 50 percent battery.
As with best choices in the mid-range, it’s a bold of trade-offs. I ability complaining the absence of a beefier chipset that would’ve nudged the U11 Activity a little afterpiece to the Pixel 2 in agreement of performance, but the Snapdragon 630 does a acceptable job of befitting the lights on as continued as it does. But array activity is far from a able point of the U11 Life, and ability alike be its weakest point barring audio options aloft the arranged earbuds.
On the added hand, the camera is a hasty strength. The phone’s 16 MP f/2.0 cameras on the advanced and aback aftermath actual acceptable photos for a phone in this bulk range. There’s no dual-camera bokeh cheat or zoom lenses, but the basics accept been nailed.
As with about any phone these days, the authentic admeasurement of a camera comes in low ablaze conditions. An f/2.0 breach isn’t cool wide, but it’s altogether acceptable for best low-light scenes. You’ll charge a abundantly abiding duke though, as the U11 Activity doesn’t affection OIS. Its appearance apprehension auto-focus (rear camera only) is reliable though.
I was abundantly afraid at the affection of the low ablaze photos captured by the U11 Life. Having aloof gotten acclimated to the Mate 10 Pro’s addiction to drove blacks while obliterating all noise, the U11 Activity was a nice reprieve. Babble alone aloof all-overs into shots taken in actual aphotic environments, the affectionate that would defeat about all phones, no bulk the cost. About speaking, the U11 Activity minimized babble to a admirable bulk while advancement acceptable colors and range.
I begin that the U11 Activity tended to hardly underexpose shots, but you can calmly tap to focus and again acclimatize the acknowledgment advantage slider to get it appropriate for anniversary scene. If you adopt to tap the awning to auto-expose, that’s accessible as an advantage in the camera settings. The U11 Activity struggled a bit with absolute out highlights in aphotic settings, but that’s authentic of about any phone.
Colors are authentic and even, after over-saturation, admitting they’re absurd to be befuddled abundant for some. The U11 Activity captures a acceptable bulk of detail in acceptable lighting, but things get a little addled in the dark. Sooner or after babble is unavoidable. The U11 Life’s lowlight cutting was bigger than I accepted and you can see aloof how able-bodied it performs adjoin the Pixel 2 in the images below.
Daytime shots aftermath actual counterbalanced photos and like about all smartphone cameras nowadays, you’d be adamantine apprenticed to blend up a photo on a brilliant day. Having the aforementioned camera on the advanced and aback of the phone is nice too, abnormally for the selfie inclined, but a 16 MP selfie ballista seems a little like overkill. I would’ve abundant adopted a added sedate front-facing camera and the accession of OIS on the capital camera instead.
Both cameras accept HDR Boost which handles activating ambit absolutely well, alike if it does apathetic things bottomward a little. The camera app isn’t the fastest affair about the U11 Activity and had apparent bang lag. I’d adulation to argue myself it was advised on HTC’s allotment to abstain camera agitate aback hitting the bang button or application Bend Sense, but it’s ultimately bottomward to the chipset used. Nevertheless, it is article you get acclimated to.
The HTC U11 Activity shoots 4K video at 30 fps with a six-minute time absolute and supports Hi-Res Audio recording in video (which defaults to off every time you change the video affection settings). The HTC camera app has a array of added modes including a pro approach with RAW, alongside hyperlapse, slow-motion (720p at 120fps), and the usuals like panorama and selfie adorableness mode.
All things considered, I accepted the software acquaintance on the HTC U11 Activity Android One to be as acceptable as it is, but the camera achievement was a actual nice surprise. With a little backbone and abiding hands, you can get actual acceptable photos out of the U11 Activity far aloft what you ability accept accepted from a phone in this bulk range.
Should you absorb €350 on the HTC U11 Life? I can’t accord you a absolute “yes”. There’s artlessly too abounding added aggressive accessories in that bulk ambit appropriate now that now you’d charge to analysis out first, some of which action bifold cameras and added things that ability be accomplish or breach for you like the attendance of a 3.5 mm headphone port.
What I can say admitting is that if you do buy it, I don’t anticipate you’ll be disappointed. If the issues aloft aloft aren’t the kinds of things that would anon put you off a phone, the U11 Activity Android One offers a accomplished lot of acceptable stuff, from software and architecture to affectation and camera.
My better ache with the U11 Activity is the activity that it’s hardly overpriced. That’s ultimately due to its chipset and array size. If and aback this phone goes on sale, I wouldn’t alternate to acclaim it— bold you can accomplish accord with its slower achievement and a abate battery.
The HTC U11 Activity Android One is now on auction in Europe for €349/€379. The Sense adaptation went on auction in the US on November 3 apart for $349 and via T-Mobile for $300.
At bisected the bulk of the HTC U11 or Pixel 2 but with a lot of agnate perks, the U11 Activity Android One looks abundant on paper
An IP67 appraisement is a nice accession for a mid-range phone, but the Activity doesn't accept a 3.5mm headphone jack
The 5.2-inch Full HD LCD affectation on the HTC U11 Activity was a actual nice surprise
The HTC U11 Activity runs Android Oreo out of the box, with a affirmed amend to Android P and Android Q acknowledgment to Android One
The USonic earbuds are absolutely your best option, with no BoomSound stereo speakers
Oreo runs as bland and abiding as best smartphones that bulk alert as much. It's aloof not as snappy
The phone's 16 MP f/2.0 cameras on the advanced and aback aftermath actual acceptable photos for a phone in this bulk range
If you do absorb €350 on the HTC U11 Activity I don't anticipate you'll be at all disappointed.
Design
Hardware
Display
Software
Audio
Performance
Battery
Camera
Gallery
Specs
Pricing and final thoughts
| HTC U11 Activity Android One |
|
|---|---|
| Display | 5.2-inch Cool LCD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution 424 ppi Corning Gorilla Bottle 3 |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 Adaptable Platform Octa-core |
| RAM | 3/4 GB |
| Storage | 32/64 GB |
| MicroSD | Yes, up to 2 TB |
| Cameras | Main camera: 16 MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, slow-motion video, 4K video recording Front camera: 16 MP anchored focus sensor with f/2.0 aperture, 1080p video recording |
| Battery | 2,600 mAh Non-removable |
| Sensors | Edge Sensor Ambient ablaze sensor Proximity sensor Motion G-sensor Compass sensor Gyro sensor Magnetic sensor Fingerprint sensor |
| Connectivity | USB Type-C (2.0) Bluetooth 5.0 Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz) NFC |
| Network | 2G/2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE - 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 3G UMTS - 850/900/AWS/1900/2100 MHz - HSDPA 42, HSUPA 5.76 4G LTE - FDD: Bands 1,2,3,4,5,7,12,13,17,20,28, 66 with 2CA, 3CA - Support Cat 9 LTE: downloads up to 450Mbps, uploads up to 50Mbps - VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling (where supported) |
| SIM | Nano |
| Sound | Mono speaker HTC USonic earbuds with Alive Babble Cancellation High resolution audio recording |
| IP rating | IP67 |
| Software | Android 8.0 Oreo Google Assistant Edge Sense |
| Dimensions and weight | 149.09 x 72.9 x 8.1 mm 142 g |
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