{"id":343438,"date":"2017-06-13T03:17:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T19:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1502537"},"modified":"2017-06-13T03:17:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T19:17:09","slug":"the-htc-u11-is-a-good-phone-with-a-dumb-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/the-htc-u11-is-a-good-phone-with-a-dumb-gimmick\/","title":{"rendered":"The HTC U11 is a good phone with a dumb gimmick"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Squeezable sides<\/a> are a very bad reason to buy a phone. Especially now, when the U11\u2019s Edge Sense doesn\u2019t do a whole hell of a lot. Who knows, perhaps one day it will do much more than simply launching favorite apps. But even then, squeezable sides will be a very bad reason to buy a phone.<\/p>\n

HTC has done itself a disservice banking on a goofy gimmick with its new flagship. The Edge Sense\u2019s \u201cnew age of phone interactions\u201d really buries the lede, as we say in the business.The U11 is a good and capable phone. A fact that embedded sensors in the phone\u2019s frame have very little to do with.<\/p>\n

Here is a\u00a0list of things to like about it: lovely and unique design, the latest Snapdragon processor (835), a water-resistant body, a good camera and solid sound for a smartphone. It\u2019s understandable that a company struggling the way HTC has of late might scramble to stand out from the crowd, but Edge Sense isn\u2019t what\u2019s going to do it.<\/p>\n

Water under the bridge<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By the time I met with HTC to discuss the U11 ahead of launch, the company had switch tacks slightly. Most of the ad material around the new phone still centers around Edge Sense<\/a>, but when time comes for the company to actually talk about the phone itself, it smartly highlights the design. Granted, as my parents have unhelpfully told me time and again, looks aren\u2019t everything. But they\u2019re a driving force in many people\u2019s phone buying designs.<\/p>\n

And the U11 is a legit looker. I got compliments from jaded coworkers, which are better than just regular compliments, because they\u2019re coming from angry people whose job it is to look at phones all day. HTC calls the design \u201cLiquid Surface,\u201d because, no joke, it looks like it was dipped in liquid. The company introduced the design on the U Ultra back in January<\/a> \u2014 a handset the U11 more or less effectively renders redundant less than half a year after its release.<\/p>\n

HTC achieved the standout look by covering both sides in glass \u2014 which comes with its own drawbacks. First are the fingerprints, which are sure to awaken any slumbering bit of OCD in your soul. They\u2019re there and they\u2019re not going away. Sorry. Second, and more importantly, it\u2019s just not as strong as metal. Even Gorilla Glass (5 on the front and 3 on the back, owing to the scratch vs. shatter tradeoffs of each) isn\u2019t insurance against a fall. For the clumsiest among us, the new look probably isn\u2019t worth the potential tradeoff.<\/p>\n

Even so, Liquid is going to be a sort of unified design language for the company moving forward. It\u2019s curvy, it\u2019s shiny and it\u2019s a smart move, getting away from the busyness older phones like the One, while still retaining the familiar HTC shape. It\u2019s like what Samsung and Apple do with their phones \u2014 creating a unified look that makes a brand instantly recognizable, regardless of model number. It\u2019s a smart move and it\u2019s a good look for HTC: minimalist, yet still recognizable.<\/p>\n

Outsourced assistants<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If I told you that Sense Companion is still kicking, you might rightfully respond, \u201cgreat! Also, what is Sense Companion?\u201d To which I would helpfully answer, \u201cit\u2019s basically HTC\u2019s version of Bixby<\/a>.\u201d Which is to say, it\u2019s an attempt at an in-house assistant that doesn\u2019t actually assist that much.<\/p>\n

Really, it\u2019s more akin to an information hub that uses some contextual clues to serve content. Perhaps HTC never had grand plans for the assistant. Or maybe it\u2019s just accepted the fact that few of its users are going to opt-in for Sense Companion over better made\/more well-known alternatives. The company\u2019s VP of product design told me recently, \u201cWe\u2019ve never envisioned Companion as a wake word-type assistant,\u201d which seems to imply that HTC knew its limitations from the outset. Whatever the case, its offering now exists more to augment what is an embarrassment of smart assistant riches.<\/p>\n

In fact, HTC built the on-board mic system with other smart assistants in mind \u2014 namely Google Assistant and Alexa. There are four mics on-board here both for better audio recording and so it can reserve a mic apiece to always-on listening for those two assistants. Privacy concerns about that functionality aside (though there are plenty), points to HTC for knowing the limitations of its own assistant (take note, Samsung) and for giving users the option of two of the most popular assistants baked into the device (though Alexa functionality is still forthcoming).<\/p>\n

If this means we won\u2019t be getting a Sense Companion version of the Echo\/Home\/HomePod any time soon, well, that\u2019s just a sacrifice we\u2019ll have to make.<\/p>\n

Sounding board<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As ever, HTC gets points for seemingly being the only phone maker that cares about on-board audio. The U11 sounds a lot better than most of the phones out there, though part of the company\u2019s drive toward Liquid minimalism means the front-facing speaker grilles are gone. Instead, music playback is reserved for the phone speaker and a small port on the bottom. It\u2019s a step back in favor of aesthetics, but it\u2019s still leagues ahead of the competition \u2014 though anything longer than a quick YouTube video is better left to a Bluetooth speaker.<\/p>\n

On a related note, the company dropped the headphone jack on the Ultra earlier this year, and that\u2019s still the case here. As a rep matter-of-factly told me earlier, \u201cThe headphone jack is going away. Let\u2019s just get on with it.\u201d Not the best justification for removing a once universal truth, but still probably accurate. You can\u2019t stop the tides of change, you can only hope to upgrade all of your headphones.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left adds up to a solid , if unexceptional flagship. At 5.5 inches, the display is on the larger side for HTC, with a bright and colorful quad HD resolution. The camera\u2019s also quite good, in fact, it edged out the Google Pixel\u2019s terrific 89 DXOMark score by a point. And HTC\u2019s done a lot to bolster the experience like super fast autofocus and a combo electronic\/optical stabilization system. And since it\u2019s 2017, the front-facing camera also gets a healthy bump, boosting HDR speed and reducing image noise.<\/p>\n

Feeling the squeeze<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t really blame HTC for leading with a gimmick. Like LG, the company\u2019s been having a rough go of things lately, and it\u2019s spent much of the last couple of years fumbling in the dark. A glut of cheap handsets have eaten into the company\u2019s market share on the low-end, and things don\u2019t seem much better on the flagship side where a handful of big players like Apple and Samsung have a tight lock on things.<\/p>\n

Odds aren\u2019t great that the U11 will do much to reverse those fortunes. You can build a solid handset, but when your standout feature doesn\u2019t stand out, best of luck to you. It becomes all the more complicated when you lock yourself into US carrier exclusivity with the country\u2019s fourth largest carrier (a lesson Essential is about to learn the hard way<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The U11 isn\u2019t doomed to failure. There\u2019s a lot to like here, from the unique design language, to the embrace of multiple smart assistants, to a quality camera experience. What it doesn\u2019t add up to, however, is a stand-out device that presents a solid reason to buy this flagship over any other.<\/p>\n

HTC\u2019s struggling smartphone wing has dug itself a hole too deep to escape with just a good phone. It\u00a0needs a big win to reverse its fortunes in the smartphone arena, and more than likely the U11 isn\u2019t it \u2014 squeezable sides or no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Squeezable sides are a very bad reason to buy a phone. Especially now, when the U11’s Edge Sense doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot. Who knows, perhaps one day it will do much more than simply launching favorite apps. But even then, squeezable sides will be a very bad reason to buy a phone.
\nHTC has done itself a disservice banking on a goofy gimmick with its new flagship. The Edge… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-343438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}