HTC U11 Life review

Benchmarks and performance

The HTC U11 Life is among the first smartphones to use the new mid-range chipset by Qualcomm - the Snapdragon 630. It is replacing the widespread and very efficient Snapdragon 625 that was the heart of a lot of smartphones throughout 2017.

The Snapdragon 630 chip offers a classic octa-core Cortex-A53 processor now clocked at 2.2GHz (up from 2.0GHz in S625). The GPU in charge of graphics is Adreno 508 and should improve on the average gaming performance of its predecessor.

Finally, the U11 Life may come with either 4GB or 3GB of RAM, depending on the region and base storage.

GeekBench is where we go first, and the U11 Life scored some odd results here. They are not bad, just on the contrary, but the scores are on par with the slower 2.0GHz CPU available on the Snapdragon 625 inside the Xiaomi Mi A1.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  916
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  901
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  888
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  877
• HTC U11 Life
  873
• Motorola Moto X4
  866
• Moto G5 Plus
  847
• Huawei P10 lite
  834

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A1
  4292
• Moto G5 Plus
  4255
• HTC U11 Life
  4140
• Motorola Moto X4
  4136
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  3783
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  3509
• Huawei P10 lite
  3344
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  3251

We mentioned the GPU upgrade and the benchmarks this time around show the boost. Looking at some GFXBench offscreen fps scores, the Adreno 508 inside the U11 Life is on par with or better than the Mali-T830MP3 that's in charge of the graphics department in the Galaxy A5 (2017). Those two GPUs are on top of the charts in this selection.

Since all phones we picked have 1080p screens, the onscreen benchmarks scores are the same as the offscreen ones.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
  15
• HTC U11 Life
  14
• Motorola Moto X4
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  9.9
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  9.8
• Moto G5 Plus
  9.7
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  9.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  9
• Huawei P10 lite
  7.8
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  6.5

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto X4
  9.8
• HTC U11 Life
  9.6
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
  9.1
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  6.4
• Moto G5 Plus
  6.4
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  6.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  6.2
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  5.8
• Huawei P10 lite
  4.6
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC U11 Life
  5.4
• Motorola Moto X4
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
  5.2
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  4
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  3.7
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  3.5
• Moto G5 Plus
  3.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  3.4
• Huawei P10 lite
  2.8
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  2.6

The HTC U11 Life shows a 40% improvement over S62x phones in the BaseMark X test - quite a significant increase.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto X4
  14479
• HTC U11 Life
  14286
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  10472
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  10446
• Moto G5 Plus
  10406
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  9543
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  9034
• Huawei P10 lite
  7588
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  7004

With comparable CPU performance and superior graphics results, it's no wonder the U11 Life excels in compound benchmarks as well. In AnTuTu test, for example, the U11 Life is comfortably ahead of the competition and it's doing great in BaseMark OS 2.0, too.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• HTC U11 Life
  72854
• Motorola Moto X4
  71224
• Moto G5 Plus
  63390
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  61762
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  61616
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
  61020
• Huawei P10 lite
  60895
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  58068
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  57996
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  55657

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto X4
  1532
• Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)
  1417
• HTC U11 Life
  1342
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite / Honor 9i
  1309
• Huawei P10 lite
  1284
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  1262
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  1198
• Moto G5 Plus
  1089
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  1050
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  379

The HTC U11 Life delivers performance to be expected from its class, but punches above its weight when it comes to 3D graphics. Or rather, the Snapdragon 630's GPU has taken the lower tier of the 600 series (65x and 66x excluded here) a notch higher, and the U11 Life is reaping the benefits.