Ron Amadeo



Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

After the launch of the flagship HTC U11 earlier this year, it's time for a cheaper entry in HTC's lineup. HTC's approach this year is to take the U11, cut the price and premium-ness by about 50 percent, and create the "HTC U11 Life." It's a cheap imitation of the U11, for just $349.

From a distance, you can barely tell the difference between the flagship U11 and the U11 Life. You get a similar design with the same ultra-shiny body coloring as the U11, the same massive bezels—which are much more acceptable at this price point—and a few "flagship" features like IP67 dust and water resistance, always-on voice commands, and HTC's squeezable sides. So, why is the price so much lower? Of course the answer is that the specs are lower, and you're getting a cheaper body.

Pick up the U11 and you'll immediately notice the cheaper body. The glass back is gone, replaced with a plastic coated to look just like the flagship U11. Without the glass back, the phone is ultra light at only 142g, but the plastic-and-light combo makes the phone feel cheap, almost like it's one of those fake display phones you'd see at a store. There are at least no squeaks or creaks here, which is good, but the phone feels hollow.

For computing horsepower, you get a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 630 and 3GB of RAM. The 5.2-inch, 1080p LCD is smaller than the 5.5-inch display fitted to the U11, resulting in a slightly smaller phone. You get 32GB of storage, 16MP rear and front cameras, a 2600mAh battery, a MicroSD slot, and a USB 2.0 Type C port.

Also like a lot of flagships, there's no headphone jack. The U11 Life doesn't even come with a headphone jack adapter in the box! It does come with a pair of pack-in USB-C headphones with active noise cancelling powered by the USB-C connection. You'd better love these headphones, or it's back to the store to buy an adapter.

Like the HTC U11 and Pixel 2, the U11 Life is equipped with HTC's "Edge Sense" feature. This is a set of pressure sensors on the left and right sides of the phone, and a squeeze can launch an action. On the U11 series, this feature is configurable. You can have it launch the Google Assistant, just like the Pixel 2, or switch it to launching Amazon Alexa (which also comes with this phone), the camera app, the flashlight, or any other app on the phone. This is one of my favorite features of the Pixel 2, so it's nice to see it on a cheaper phone. The downside here is that it seems a lot harder to activate on the U11 Life than on the Pixel 2. Even if I lower the setting to the lowest threshold, it's hard to activate reliably.

In the US, the HTC U11 Life runs Android 7.1 with HTC's Sense skin. The international version seems far superior: it's an Android One phone, which means it ships with stock Android and no bloatware, and it's shipping with a newer version of Android—8.0 Oreo! HTC told me that on the US version, an Oreo build is expected to be out by the end of the month, but I'd expect the skinned, US version to regularly lag behind the Android One version. HTC said its update plan for this device category is "generally two complete OS updates or 24 months, whichever is first," and the company wasn't yet sure whether the device would get monthly or quarterly security updates.

Starting today, you can buy the phone unlocked on HTC.com, which only has AT&T and T-Mobile support (CDMA, which is required for Verizon and Sprint, is not included). You can also buy the phone on contract through T-Mobile, starting November 3.