It's no secret that HTC has been struggling over the by few years. While they worked with Google to create the excellent Pixel and Pixel Twoscore, these phones didn't comport any HTC branding, and HTC's ain offerings were uninspiring in comparing. But the company has yet to give upwardly, and this twelvemonth they've put their best attempt towards the HTC U11.

As I'yard certain you will have read nearly by now, the "big" new feature included with the U11 is its 'squeezable' sides that allow you lot to launch apps and perform functions without touching the display. The phone also includes all the latest hardware: a Snapdragon 835 SoC, a 5.5-inch 1440p display, and a 12-megapixel f/one.7 photographic camera supposedly rated the best on the market.

Software has besides been a stiff focus for HTC. They've cleaned up more junk in their Sense UI, and integrated Amazon's Alexa in phones sold in the United States. My review unit is Australian, so Google Banana is the become-to here instead, though information technology is interesting to see HTC partner with a third-party for the assistant feel on North American units.

I'm going to open this review past first talking nearly the U11's squeezable sides, which HTC has branded as "Border Sense". To exist clear, the edges aren't physically squeezable, in fact the metallic here is just as solid as whatsoever other flagship telephone. However, HTC has integrated strength sensors into the sides, assuasive the U11 to detect a 'clasp' like to how Apple tree'south Force Touch trackpad and touchscreen technology works.

Edge Sense has the ability to detect different levels of pressure, and so during setup, HTC gets you to squeeze the handset at your desired level of force to set the trigger level for Border Sense's functions. The setup process is like shooting fish in a barrel, and I'one thousand glad HTC gets you to do information technology when you get-go setup the device, as otherwise Edge Sense may have become lost among a sea of other features.

Anyway, the basic premise to Edge Sense is that it works similar an additional, programmable push on the edge of your handset.

In other words, when you squeeze the U11, a sure activeness is performed that you tin change in the settings. By default, Edge Sense is setup to launch the camera and accept a photo, but you can change this to launch an app, take a screenshot, launch vocalisation banana and more.

At present this may sound a bit like a gimmick, only in that location are some aspects to Edge Sense that are genuinely useful. Border Sense works when the screen is off, which makes it quick and easy to perform actions similar launching the camera directly out of your pocket. Edge Sense is practically incommunicable to accidentally activate in your pocket, too, so dissimilar another gesture-launch features, you won't accept pocket photos or launch apps unless you want to.

Border Sense is also extremely piece of cake to activate while naturally holding the phone. You lot don't need to shuffle your fingers to admission a physical button, you simply demand to squeeze the handset, and then it's effectively the fastest way to perform an action without placing an icon on the brandish itself. If you set up upwards Edge Sense to practise something useful, you'll find yourself using it a off-white bit.

That'due south not to say Edge Sense is perfect or as good every bit information technology could be. There is an avant-garde mode – which lets you perform two actions after either a squeeze, or a squeeze and hold – only that's the limit. Information technology'd exist awesome (or perhaps overly complicated) if HTC fully leveraged the pressure level sensor to perform different actions with dissimilar levels of force, expanding the number of actions that could exist performed across 2. Or even meliorate: implement more pressure sensors in a future iteration of Edge Sense, assuasive you to launch different actions depending on where along the border of the handset you squeeze.

The general design to the HTC U11 is… okay. HTC hasn't shied away from using premium materials, and so the U11 is left with multi-colored drinking glass on the rear, standard glass on the front, and metal around the sides.

If you become the 'solar reddish' model, the rear console will shimmer and morph colors between blood-red and orange depending on the angle you hold the device, in what is a pretty cool outcome. Unfortunately I was sent a black model to review, which is definitely more boring design-wise.

The U11 is a really comfortable device to agree thanks to the glass panels curving nicely into the metallic edges. I was also surprised to see that compared to other glass-back smartphones, the U11 doesn't attract well-nigh as many fingerprints, and thanks to the strong oleophobic coating, fingerprints are exceptionally easy to clean off. On the other hand, drinking glass smartphones tend to be rather slippery, and the U11 certainly falls into that category.

One of the issues I continually have with HTC smartphones is their massive bezels. Even before handsets like the Milky way S8 and LG G6 hit the marketplace, HTC didn't carp reducing the footprint of their phones, making them overly big and cumbersome for the brandish size. The U11 continues this trend with enormous bezels in a higher place and below the display, making the handset roughly the same size equally another big-bezel phone: the Pixel Twoscore. The side bezels are large equally well, and so I recall HTC's design team might need to become on a nutrition for their future handsets.

The HTC U11 doesn't have a headphone jack. This is nevertheless a bad move in my opinion, but at to the lowest degree HTC includes a USB-C to iii.5mm audio dongle in the box. Note the telephone doesn't seem to support a number of third-political party dongles I tried.

The HTC U11 does come up with pretty much everything else you'd expect. At that place's USB-C, a fingerprint reader flanked by capacitive navigation buttons, a notification LED, and a microSD card slot. The U11 is also IP67 water resistant, certified for submersion in up to 1m of fresh water for 30 minutes, however HTC's manual specifically warns y'all against using the phone or whatever buttons while submerged.