As promised, HTC is officially back in the dual-camera smartphone race. But of course, it’s not exactly what we were expecting. The HTC U11 EYEs has officially been unveiled, delivering a mid-range smartphone with the looks of the HTC U11+ and two 5MP cameras on the front.
Before we get into all the details, we’d like to point out that the device itself looks stunning. HTC is using the same Liquid Surface design as it did with the U11 and U11+. Since this new phone also has a 6-inch 18:9 display, the only real way that you can tell the U11 EYEs apart from its more powerful sibling is by the slightly thicker ring around the rear camera and the dual-front facing cameras which are barely noticeable below the front glass. Simply put, HTC didn’t cut any corners when designing this new phone.
Like HTC’s 2017 flagship smartphones, the U11 EYEs also features Edge Sense which allows you to launch apps or pull up the Google Assistant by squeezing the edges of the phone. It also comes with HTC’s USonic noise-canceling earphones, but it doesn’t have HTC BoomSound speakers which means there’s a single mono speaker on the bottom of the phone. HTC’s also stripped out the 4th microphone form the phone which means 3D audio recording is gone as well, but you can still record HighRes audio with the three remaining microphones.
HTC U11 EYEs cameras
While the HTC U11 EYE’s is a mid-range phone, the camera setup on the device is likely the best we’ve seen from HTC is a long time. The main sensor on the back appear to be identical to that of the U11 and U11+, but the two front-facing cameras should allow for much better selfies than the 8MP sensors HTC has been using on its high-end devices.
The 5MP resolution of the sensors means you’ll be getting smaller images, but it looks like the sensors themselves are larger. HTC is also using the two front-facing cameras to enable face unlock functionality while also adding in AR stickers for your selfies.
HTC U11 EYEs pricing and availability
HTC has not given an exact launch date for the HTC U11 EYEs, but the phone will be available for pre-order in Taiwan between today and January 31 for 14,900 NT$ (roughly $504 USD). From what we can gather, the HTC U11 EYEs will be making its debut n Taiwan, China and a few other Asian markets. Europe could get the phone later in Q1, but there’s very little chance that the device will be making its way to the Americas any time soon.
HTC U11 EYEs specifications
- 6-inch FH+ (2160 x 1080) display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 652
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB storage
- Edge Sense
- microSD card support, up to 2TB
- 3930mAh battery
- 12MP main camera, ƒ/1.7 lens, OIS
- Dual 5MP front-facing cameras with ƒ/2.2 lenses
- IP67 dust and water resistance
- USonic noise-canceling earphones
- Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Bluetooth 4.2
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4, 5 GHz)
- NFC
