HTC U11+ review

27 November 2017
HTC U11+ could have been the next big Pixel, but it just wasn't meant to be. Instead, it became the next squeezable HTC flagship fully equipped to compete with Google's XL sequel. Underdog or not, the HTC U11+ has the dog tags of a fighter.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • ss1
  • 28 Nov 2017

What’s wrong with HTC?

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • nf4
    • 28 Nov 2017

    Is it for certain that the phone used for the test was not damaged or having an error, eg. with the display ? Will be there an offical statement by HTC for the rather disappointing test result regarding the display and battery life ?

      • h
      • htcbg
      • 0Eg
      • 28 Nov 2017

      This review is done too early and is therefore not very objective!
      An update is expected soon to improve screen and battery performance.
      And the phone is still not officially sold!

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • pWQ
        • 28 Nov 2017

        acemang, 28 Nov 2017so, how they test it? factory default? or they remove all a... moreHere you go, read this: https://www.gsmarena.com/gsmarena_lab_tests-review-751p6.php

          • D
          • AnonD-481725
          • StN
          • 28 Nov 2017

          AnonD-59558, 28 Nov 2017Is it me or the low light pictures are far better than the ... moreSoftware, i have noticed long before that the U11+ is better, this how the U11 is going to be the next update.
          It was clearly noticeable that U11 lowlight photography is not good mostly overexposed.

            AnonD-59558, 28 Nov 2017Is it me or the low light pictures are far better than the ... moresoftware. i've the htc u11 and i can see differences on low light photos with pixel photo app vs htc u11 app. pixel is also faster taking photos. if they upgraded their software for the htc u11+ is pretty normal that with same lens it will give better photos..thats a good thing. it tells you that they try to improve the devices not only on hardware (specs) but also on software.

              • D
              • AnonD-481725
              • StN
              • 28 Nov 2017

              JR 18, 28 Nov 2017Me to cause Lg v30 score 87h and Note 8 90h but in real lif... moreYou are talking about this video.
              https://youtu.be/4A4m0hJz5ng
              Well yes this is the case, xz premium got 72h endurance rating and iPhone 8 plus 81h however the iPhone 8 plus died long before all of them.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • XmZ
                • 28 Nov 2017

                When you're reviewing a OnePlus 5T, you're bragging about that bad screen. Now when reviewing HTC, you deliberately focus on the downside. In fact most people use mobile phones, most of the time is indoors. Super LCD is one of the screens that is not easy to make people's eyes feel tired.

                Finally is the battery life test, my U11 battery is more durable than my elder brother's s8+, so the reference meaning to the daily use is not big.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • nui
                  • 28 Nov 2017

                  Kaloyan, 28 Nov 2017Hey there. If you got 8 hours of SOT, so did we. Our web... moreThanks for replying to the comment as many people have the same questions about your battery test of this phone not only here but also on reddit for example.

                  However it's still suspicios that the result is so bad, don't you think so? Do you usually try to see what drained more the battery during the tests? Maybe there was an app in the background such as the infamous Android OS acting wild.

                  As you said it's not normal that other phones with same CPU and smaller battery had much better results...

                    • J
                    • JR 18
                    • r@s
                    • 28 Nov 2017

                    AnonD-718872, 28 Nov 2017I'm seriously starting to.doubt gsmarena's numbers when it ... moreMe to cause Lg v30 score 87h and Note 8 90h but in real life usage the v30 easily beat it.
                    Also the IPhone 8+ score 85h, a really good score but in YouTube videos when they compare the battery life with other phones the 8+ always (quickly) died first.
                    Strange.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • Q{4
                      • 28 Nov 2017

                      Remember back in 2010 HTC phones were the bomb. Now they're like second class.

                        Anonymous, 28 Nov 2017Well, GSM Arena does test every single phone the same way, ... moreso, how they test it? factory default? or they remove all apps from background? because if they don't the test means zero in battery life department to me. the only conclusion you can take from it, is that with 0 change on the device and with the usage that gsmarena thinks it's the "average" user will get. try to compare battery life on same devices, one with 0 apps other with, facebook, snapchat, tripadvisor, etc.). so what will be your conclusion? that one device have better battery than other? or just one is full of crap and the other is not? hey, maybe htc u11+ would still have worst battery life comparing with others without any apps in background, i don't know that, because none test does that.

                          • L
                          • LLL
                          • u7V
                          • 28 Nov 2017

                          AnonD-59558, 28 Nov 2017Is it me or the low light pictures are far better than the ... morePossibly, U11 Plus has newer better firmware for the image-stacking algorithm.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • StU
                            • 28 Nov 2017

                            AnonD-59558, 28 Nov 2017Is it me or the low light pictures are far better than the ... moreSoftware tweaks I guess

                              • D
                              • AnonD-59558
                              • FHg
                              • 28 Nov 2017

                              Is it me or the low light pictures are far better than the U11. How is that possible ? The camera specs seem identical.

                                • T
                                • Thanos
                                • 6pi
                                • 28 Nov 2017

                                It's very hard to believe that this review is accurate. Even if we try to believe it, I can only attribute these results to software. By comparing with the regular HTC U11 which has a screen of the same resolution and a battery 30% smaller in size, it can't have a 10% worse battery performance and almost half the brightness, it just cannot.

                                  The camera seems to perform better than google pixel 2 from the comparison tool. Pixel's photo seemed washed off whereas HTC's photos had good amount of detail and color to it.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 3R4
                                    • 28 Nov 2017

                                    Something definitely was wrong with battery on this test unit. Might be non-final commercial unit.

                                      AnonD-718914, 28 Nov 2017Dear gsmarena team, the HTC U11+ review is great as usal. B... moreHey there.

                                      If you got 8 hours of SOT, so did we. Our web browser test is the analogue of a screen-on-time (SOT) test and the HTC U11+ did 8 and half hours. We also have Gsync, email, social account in the background, let's not forget the default news app and weather refresh - this applies not only to the HTC U11+ - but to all phones we test. The only thing that's turned off is mobile network. But it won't eat that much battery anyway as the phone does fine on standby and it's taken in consideration for the final endurance rating.

                                      While our battery test score isn't suitable for everybody, we have this neat tool here - https://www.gsmarena.com/battery-test.php3 - where you can set you own SOT time - just use the web and video sliders - both are SOT tests after all. Choose your own call time and you'll see how each phone does. If you max the SOT sliders, you'll find out that all recent phones will surpass the 24h mark, so they will all last a full day of battery life with 8 hours of SOT time.

                                      We do these battery tests not to see which phone will last a day, but to find out which is more battery efficient and to see which maker put more effort into OPTIMIZATIONS. And above all - to find which phone can actually pull through more than a day of work.

                                      So, for when our pattern is irrelevant to you, just use our tool and make it yours.

                                      P.S. As far as the worse SOT time on the HTC U11+ is concerned, as we have already written, it might be due to power-hungry display and lack of optimizations - we've seen this plenty of times, so it's possible. That's the reason for the bad score of an otherwise powerful S835+4000 mAh combo.

                                      P.P.S. And one thing I want to clear about our disadvantages list - it doesn't spoil our finding, it just mentions stuff that's obviously missing when you look at the specs. The score summary is always at the last page. That's the reason why we did't mention the dim screen or mediocre battery score. This is not things you know by just looking the specs.

                                      Best,
                                      Kaloyan

                                        everyone i see on youtube praises the battery life on this device. Aka" High tech traveler, TechZilla, etc state other wise from you guys. I am rarely in disagreement with you guys, i think this deserve a retest. Maybe after an update if you need a pretext.

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