[HTC U11  Guides, News, & Discussion] joakim_one:
Picked up a dual-SIM, 6 GB RAM HTC U11 two and a half weeks ago for a little more than $700, thought I'd write up my impressions so far. I have not procured a SIM card for it yet, so I've just been using it as a mobile computer, which isn't unusual as I mostly don't take phone calls or texts anyway. I use my mobile devices for computing, ie writing software and running it on them, and for reading and watching videos, as I haven't owned a Wintel device in years. That's actually what settled me on this device: its octa-core CPU, 6 GBs of RAM, and 128 GBs of storage. While I currently use an 8.4" Android tablet with a bluetooth keyboard for software development (writing this post on it now), I plan to switch to the U11 with a laptop shell like the Sentio or Mirabook, as it's more convenient than unfolding a tablet stand and keyboard anywhere I move and smartphones come with more powerful hardware than any non-Windows tablet these days.

I planned on getting the LG G6, as it's a pretty good deal at a bit more than $500 now, but I was worried about the CPU being a bit dated and slower. I had been using a Samsung GS5 for the last year, and all my mobile devices were getting out of date, as they were all released around 2014, even though I bought the GS5 new for $250 in late 2016. I went to a store to see the black G6 in person and it is gorgeous, but the older quad-core chip had me doubting. To settle it, I built a C++ codebase in the Termux app on some devices a family member had picked up last year: a tablet with the quad-core Snapdragon 820, very similar to the 821 in the G6, and the Samsung GS8, an octa-core Exynos that's considered to be equivalent to the 835 in the U11. The software compiled in parallel more than twice as fast in the S8, 2.5 minutes versus 6, so that settled me on the U11. No local shops carry HTC nowadays AFAIK, so I ordered the Sapphire Blue from an online vendor and had it within 3 days.

The U11 is also a gorgeous device, the photos do not do it justice, just like the G6. I agree with everyone that the S8 is the most visually stunning of last year's crop, but I hate how the curved edges obscure text on the sides, as I read a lot. Once you account for usability, the G6 is probably the best-looking, because as great as the blingy back on the U11 looks, it's too flashy for me. In photos, it just looked gaudy, which is why I never thought the U11 looked that great when released, but it does make a better impression in person. I never minded the older 16:9 display ratio, though it is weird how the bottom bezel is significantly larger. The U11+ is now available here, wasn't when I got the U11, but it costs $200 more so I wouldn't have got it anyway. I also love capacitive buttons, missed them from my HTC One X+ from five years ago, and hate the physical home button I had to keep pushing on my GS5.

So what has it been like moving from 2014-vintage devices to 2017? These things are slippery! Every surface of the U11 is ultra-slippery, I guess nobody uses these mobiles without cases anymore, like I always have. Even the metal sides are slippery, so that it slowly slips out of my hand when reading. My GS5 has ridged sides to account for this, works great. I tried the clear case included with the U11 for a couple days, worked well though made it bulkier. The other big change is just how fast these phones are now: web pages on the same network, through the wifi hotspot from my GS5 or tablet, load significantly faster. That same C++ codebase I benchmarked above builds in 1.75 minutes, significantly faster than even the GS8.

The software looks great and is very snappy, always liked HTC's touch more than the other skins I've used. I tried out the Taskbar app on the Nougat build that came with the U11, and multi-window mode worked fine, important as I'd like to use that mode with that laptop shell. However, once I updated to Oreo, it stopped working, as google strangely makes you explicitly enable it with adb now. I'm fine with doing that, as I'm a developer and can always figure it out, but I don't like how they made that much more difficult for normal users to access.

While I had tried the built-in split-screen mode on others' Nougat devices briefly and extensively use Samsung's older split-screen mode, this was the first time I'm spending much time with the built-in one and it works great. Love how videos keep playing while I'm picking the second app, only drawback is that the split-screen width isn't configurable like Samsung's. Weird how they always change Android's battery stats reporting with every update, though I like that Screen-On-Time (SOT) is prominently reported up top now.

Speaking of which, I get great battery life, between 8-11 hours of SOT, usually around 10. Big change from my GS5, which started off with 2-4 hours and went down or my Samsung tablet that has dropped to 4 hours from 6 initially. The massive display is always the biggest drain on the U11, around half or more, and the power usage probably varies based on the automatic brightness and whether I'm outside more. This is while reading or watching videos, as I'm not developing any software on it yet (need to pick up one of those laptop shells when they're shipping). The battery drains 1% every 3-4 hours with the phone idling, though it may get slightly worse as I have the cellular radio turned off in Airplane mode now.

The dual speakers sound great and very loud, will be watching much more video on this than on my GS5 as a result, with its single, quieter back-firing speaker. I don't use headphones much, but the included USB-C set sounded very good. The phone only gets hot when charging, takes a couple hours to top up. The camera is fantastic so far, love the shots its taking. Low light isn't as good, but still better than I've ever had before. It's a bit heavy and big at 169 grams, particularly compared to the 145 g GS5, but I've finally gotten used to the bigger mobiles now.

The display is wonderful, always loved the Super LCD2 on my old One X+, this Super LDC5 compares well to even the best OLEDs. I wish they'd left a little bezel on the sides, as I've had back button presses not register more than a dozen times already, because I had a finger slightly touching the display on the side while holding the phone. Move that finger off the display, and the back button works again. I worry about dropping this phone, as my GS5 is pretty banged up with most of the metal paint on the edges flaked off, so I may slap on the included case sometimes.

All in all, a great device, and really seems to fulfill the promise of your mobile becoming your computer too. Looking forward to hooking up to a laptop shell and really putting the U11 through its paces that way. :victory: