HTC U23 Pro review

A quad-camera setup with plenty of fluff

HTC seemingly went for quantity over quality when it came to the camera selection on the U23 Pro and the versatility of the camera setup. Four rear cameras with a 108MP snapper at the helm sound pretty good on paper. However, dig a bit deeper, and you'll quickly realize that these include a dedicated 5MP macro cam and a 2MP depth sensor. We would have preferred a telephoto camera instead to go along with the 8MP ultrawide. Then again, the main 108MP cam has plenty of resolution and could capture at least decent 2x zoom shots.

Before we get to that, however, we should do a rundown of the camera hardware the U23 Pro is working with. The primary 108MP camera is based on a Samsung s5khm6 sensor. It is more commonly known as the ISOCELL HM6. It has a nonapixel RGB Bayer arrangement, 1/1.67" optical format and 0.64µm individual pixels. The U23 Pro has it sitting behind an f/1.7 lens with OIS support. There is PDAF as well.

Then, there is the 8MP ultrawide cam. It is based on the Samsung s5k4h7 sensor or, more colloquially - the ISOCELL 4H7. It has a 1/4" size and 1.12µm individual pixels. It sits behind a rather dim f/2.4 lens and has no autofocus.

Then, there is the 5MP dedicated macro cam. It is also fixed focus and uses a Hynix hi556 sensor. It sits behind an f/2.2 lens. Finally, on the rear, we have a 2MP depth sensor. It is based on the GalaxyCore gc02m1 (1/5" size and 1.75 µm individual pixels) sensor and sits behind an f/2.4 lens.

On the front, the HTC U23 Pro has a 32MP selfie cam. It uses a Quad-Bayer OmniVision ov32c sensor with 1/3.2" optical format and 0.7µm pixels. The lens has a rather dim aperture of f/2.5. It has a fixed focus, so there is nothing fancy here, either.

The camera app on the U23 Pro is well-organized and mostly orderly, though some aspects are confusing here and there. The main photo interface, for instance, has a rather perplexing star toggle on the top, which we didn't manage to decipher. There are also toggles for HDR and AI scene detection here. You can only have one of the three enabled simultaneously for some reason. All of our samples were captured with AI scene detection turned ON.

Camera app UI

Beyond that, the settings menu is straightforward. We appreciate the inclusion of a lens distortion correction toggle, as well as one for the built-in QR reader and the optional "smile capture".

Camera Pro mode

There is a fairly feature-rich Pro mode available as well. You can adjust the metering mode, ISO (100 - 1600), shutter speed (1/4000 - 32s), exposure compensation (-12 - +12), white balance and manual focus. There is no focus peaking, though, nor is there a histogram or anything really fancy like that.

Before any sort of quality assessment, we need to mention that in its current state, the HTC U23 Pro camera app has quite a few stability and functional issues. It froze on us frequently during testing and crashed a few times. The worst behavior we observed, however, was the camera not saving some of our shots, despite behaving seemingly normally, as if it should have done so. HTC really needs to work on polishing the experience.

Daylight camera quality

The main camera on the U23 Pro captures photos in exactly 12MP resolution by default. These look decent, with nice natural colors and an acceptable, though largely unimpressive, level of detail. The shots are a bit on the contrasty side without going overboard.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera samples

In terms of criticism, finer detail, like foliage, doesn't look particularly well rendered. Dynamic range is also narrower than we would have liked. Shadows frequently get crushed. The photos also look a bit grainy, particularly on uniform surfaces like the sky.

You can force the main camera to capture in its full 108MP resolution. This, however, doesn't really result in more resolved detail.

HTC U23 Pro: 108MP main camera samples

In fact, you get softer, less processed photos with less sharpening and contrast applied. Surfaces tend to look a bit less grainy as a result, but that's about the extent of the benefits you get from shooting in this mode. We honestly would not recommend it, especially since you have to deal with huge file sizes.

The U23 Pro lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, but it still has plenty of resolution to do decent 2x zooms on its main 108MP cam. These shots look pretty similar to their 1x counterparts in terms of overall quality. That is to say, they are decent but unremarkable.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera 2x zoom samples

Detail is merely fine and not overly impressive. Contrast is cranked a bit, and there is some sharpening applied. Dynamic range is still limited with crushed shadows.

The U23 Pro doesn't do a particularly great job of portrait photos from its main camera.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera samples

Subject detection and separation are far from perfect. On the plus side, at least the quality of the background blur is nice and convincing.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Non-human subjects don't work particularly well with portrait mode. Getting it to detect and trigger is quite fiddly.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Before we move on, here is how the main camera on the U23 Pro stacks up against competitors in our extensive photo compare database.

HTC U23 Pro against the Realme 11 Pro+ and the Samsung Galaxy A54 in our Photo compare tool

Just like the main camera, the ultrawide can best be described as decent but unimpressive. Detail is decent, but that's about the only highlight. Dynamic range is decent.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera samples

There is plenty of noise in the frame and softness, particularly around the edges. There is a red tint in all of the colors.

The dedicated 5MP macro camera does a surprisingly decent job capturing close-up shots. These are nice and detailed, with great colors.

HTC U23 Pro: 5MP macro camera samples

The 32MP selfie camera on the U23 Pro captures 8MP photos, as expected from its Quad-Bayer setup. These photos look pretty good, with nice colors and facial tones.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera samples

Detail and facial texture could be a bit better.

Portraits captured with the selfie camera are surprisingly better overall than those from the main camera. Subject detection and separation are cleaner, though still not perfect. Background blur looks great.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video capture quality

The main camera on the U23 Pro can capture video at up to 4K. These are saved in a standard AVC (H.264) video stream at around 75Mbps and a stereo 48 kHz AAC audio stream inside an MP4 container.

Quality-wise, you get good detail and decent, if a bit washed-out, colors. There are no traces of noise in the frame. Dynamic range could be wider since detail in shadows gets crushed and highlights blown out.

Here is how the main camera compares to its competitors in terms of video capture in our extensive video comparison database.

HTC U23 Pro against the Realme 11 Pro+ and the Samsung Galaxy A54 in our Video compare tool

The U23 Pro has OIS available for video capture and there is additional, optional EIS. However, EIS caps out at 1080p, drastically impacting the level of detail the main camera captures. Plus, the stabilization itself is imperfect, with plenty of shakes left behind.

The 2x zoom 4K videos from the main camera generally look quite similar to 1x ones in terms of quality. Contrast is a bit high, likely to combat any potential extra softness from zooming in.

The ultrawide camera can capture videos at up to Full HD resolution. Just like photos, these have a noticeable red tint to them. Softness is a major issue, especially around corners.

The selfie camera also maxes out at 1080p resolution. These videos are decent but unimpressive as well. Detail is good for this resolution, but contrast is a bit too high, and dynamic range is a bit narrow.

Low-light camera quality

Low-light photos from the main camera can best be described as unimpressive. These are soft with plenty of noise. The contrast is cranked way too high, and plenty of oversharpening artifacts exist.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera low-light samples

Light sources are also handled very poorly and often blown out. Highlights are clipped.

The camera app on the U23 Pro applies some amount of night mode processing by default. There is also a dedicated night mode. It cleans up photos a bit. There is less noise in the frame and less sharpening and contrast. Light sources are handled much better. These photos are generally brighter as well.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera night mode samples

Even so, these photos are not overly impressive in the grand scheme of things.

At 2x zoom mode, the main camera captures similar quality shots, but naturally a bit softer and perhaps slightly noisier than 1x ones.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera low-light 2x zoom samples

You can also have night mode enabled at 2x zoom. The effects are very similar. This mode cleans up photos, removes some noise, brightens up everything, and has better light source handling overall.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera night mode 2x zoom samples

The ultrawide camera is quite disappointing in low-light conditions. These photos are very noisy and soft. Light sources are badly blown out, too.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Capturing with night mode on the ultrawide camera helps a lot in relative terms. Detail is much better, and so are light sources.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

Even with the extra processing, these photos still look very soft and noisy.

The selfie camera also has a bad time with low light. Faces come out soft with almost no skin texture and discernable features. At least colors and skin tones look good, but that's little consolation.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera low-light samples

Enabling night mode on the selfie cam doesn't dramatically affect the overall quality. Perhaps the backgrounds look a bit sharper and more detailed, but the subject still looks soft.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera night mode samples

4K low-light videos from the main camera look decent but unimpressive. Detail is good and colors are nice. Light sources are handled quite well.

Unfortunately, the dark areas are too dark, and detail is almost entirely crushed.

At 2x zoom, the main camera can still capture 4K videos. These look noticeably softer than 1x ones. Light sources are also blown out.

Unfortunately, the ultrawide camera does quite poorly in low-light conditions. Its 1080p videos are extremely dark and very soft. There is practically no detail left to work with. These are borderline unusable.