HTC U12+, a smartphone from HTC that features futuristic pressure-sensitive side buttons, upgraded Edge Sense, a translucent glass back offering users a glimpse of what’s inside the phone, and has no notch. The translucent glass back is available only with Translucent Blue color variant. Other color options include- Ceramic Black which looks silvery when comes in contact with light and Flame Red (not coming to the US). HTC U12+ is the successor to HTC U11+ which was launched last year.
According to DxOMark ratings, it has got a great dual camera setup with an overall score of 103 which places the smartphone at the second position right behind Huawei P20 Pro. Pros listed by DxOMark in the still photography department are- very fast and accurate autofocus, pleasant color and accurate white balance, good balance between texture and noise, attractive bokeh simulation, and accurate exposure and white dynamic range. Here are the Cons ’cause nothing is perfect- visible noise in low-light images, visible artifacts in HDR images, and loss in detail in long- and medium-range zoom shots in low-light conditions.
HTC has added more functionalities to the pressure-sensitive sides of the smartphone as compared to U11+ and also introduced pressure-sensitive buttons instead of traditional, mechanical power and volume rocker buttons. HTC’s pressure-sensitive tech for the side buttons delivers futuristic feel and offers haptic feedback. It’s a great move by HTC and we will soon witness other companies following the same tech ’cause it’s a trend nowadays.
What’s more is the Edge Sense 2 which utilizes the pressure-sensitive sides of the HTC U12+ to provide a whole lot of functionalities. The tech works with the tap, squeeze, and hold gestures and allows users to customize their own shortcuts within apps. You can double-tap to launch an app, activate one-handed mode, perform an action, or activate the digital assistant. You can also tell the phone what to do when you squeeze its sides like capture photos, launch voice assistants or the Edge launcher. The Edge Sense works almost with every app available in Play Store which means you can zoom in/out a map using U12’s sides or control music playback. The pressure-sensitive sides also interpret how you’re holding the phone and automatically control between screen modes and stop the screen from rotating to landscape mode when you don’t want it which is kinda irritating in other phones.
Coming to the specifications, the HTC U12+ sports 6-inch QHD+ (1440×2880 pixels) Super LCD 6 display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, 537ppi pixel density, HDR10 support and on top is the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protecting it. It is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver) 845 SoC paired with Adreno 630 GPU and 6GB of RAM. It comes in two internal storage options- 64GB and 128GB expandable up to 2TB via microSD card.
The smartphone sports dual rear camera setup comprised of 12MP (f/1.75 aperture, 1.4-micron pixel size) wide-angle HTC UltraPixel 4 sensor and a 16MP (f/2.6 aperture and 1.0-micron pixels) telephoto sensor with phase detection autofocus, laser autofocus, OIS (optical image stabilization), EIS (electronic image stabilization), 2x optical zoom, and up to 10x HDR boost. The rear camera setup comes paired with dual-LED dual-tone LED flash and can shoot HDR videos, 2160p videos at 60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps. Other rear camera setup features include bokeh mode in real-time, AR (augmented reality) stickers, panorama, and face detection. On the front, the device features dual selfie camera setup as well consisting of two 8MP (f/2.0 aperture and 1.12-micron pixel size) 84-degree wide-angle sensors.
The smartphone comes with an IP68 rating for water (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes) and dust resistance and runs HTC Sense UI based on Android 8.0 Oreo. Depending on regions, it comes pre-installed with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa AI voice assistants. The smartphone will be upgraded to Android P once available. HTC U12+ packs company’s BoomSound Hi-Fi edition speakers to deliver 100 percent more loudness and 150 percent improvement in Dynamic Range Audio and supports wireless HD audio with LDAC and Qualcomm aptX HD audio codecs to produce high-quality sound experience over Bluetooth. It comes coupled with HTC USonic headphones that feature active noise cancellation.
It accepts, depending on regions, single SIM (Nano) or dual SIMs (Nano) in a hybrid configuration and packs 3500mAh battery that supports fast charging via Quick Charge 3.0 charging adapter (up to 50% in 35 minutes). Connectivity options onboard HTC U12+ include 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5GHz) with MU-MIMO, NFC, HTC Connect (it allows wireless streaming of media from the phone to compatible multi-room audio systems, TVs, portable speakers and home entertainment systems), GPS/ A-GPS/ GLONASS/ Galileo/ BeiDou, Bluetooth v5.0, and USB Type-C. Sensors on the smartphone include proximity, ambient light, edge sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, sensor hub for activity tracking, magnetic sensor apart from the fingerprint sensor that comes mounted on the rear panel below the camera module.
HTC U12+ is up for pre-order in the US, UK, and Canada priced at $799 for 64GB and $849 for 128GB in the United States while CAD 1,099 for 64GB and CAD 1,169 for 128GB in Canada. Only US, Canada, and China get the 128GB storage variant. The 64GB variant of U12+ has been priced at €799 in Europe or GBP 699 in the UK. The shipping of the smartphone will begin in mid or late June depending on the regions. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are offering different plans to its subscribers and if you are one of them and interested in buying the all-new HTC smartphone then you should pay a visit to their stores either offline or online. Pricing and availability details for other international markets including India are not yet available.
