The HTC U 11 scored the coveted Snapdragon 835 chipset - something lacking on the HTC U Ultra. HTC’s new darling is among the earliest offerings with Qualcomm’s top chip, though not the first. That means we have some interesting competition to test it against.

The Xiaomi Mi 6 is another S835 phone, as is the Galaxy S8+. We also tested the S8+ with Samsung’s own Exynos 8895 chipset. We also put the Mate 9 that uses Huawei’s in-house Kirin 960 chipset as a reference. The other competitors (aside from the iPhone, obviously) came out with the older generation Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 820 or 821.

Too many chip names that mean nothing to you? Fret not, bar charts will make everything clear. AnTuTu puts the whole system to a test and here the U 11 came out the winner (well, sharing 1st place with the Mi 6, but on top nonetheless).

It edged out some best-sellers like the iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy S8+ (both versions). This puts the HTC U Ultra and LG G6 in a tough spot - both are 2017 models that offer late 2016 performance. And we won’t even mention the HTC 10 evo.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

HTC U 11 (S835)

177343

Xiaomi Mi 6 (S835)

177326

iPhone 7 Plus (A10)

174987

Galaxy S8+ (Exynos)

174070

Galaxy S8+ (S835)

168133

HTC 10 (S820)

154031

LG G6 (S821)

141895

Pixel XL (S821)

141186

HTC U Ultra (S821)

139750

Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960)

122826

We tested the HTC U 11 with 4GB of RAM, though for the next benchmark the CPU is all that matters - all eight cores of it. As you can see, moving from four cores (in the Snapdragon 820/821) to eight cores (in the 835) had a noticeable impact on multi-core performance. The new cores aren’t that much faster on their own, though.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

Galaxy S8+ (Exynos)

6338

HTC U 11 (S835)

6125

Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960)

6112

Galaxy S8+ (S835)

6106

Xperia XZ Premium (S835)

5837

iPhone 7 Plus (A10)

5664

HTC U Ultra (S821)

4201

Pixel XL (S821)

4152

LG G6 (S821)

3648

HTC 10 (S820)

3621

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

iPhone 7 Plus (A10)

3473

HTC U 11 (S835)

1993

Xperia XZ Premium (S835)

1943

Galaxy S8+ (Exynos)

1938

Galaxy S8+ (S835)

1915

Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960)

1898

LG G6 (S821)

1792

HTC 10 (S820)

1708

HTC U Ultra (S821)

1647

Pixel XL (S821)

1507

The HTC U 11 also flaunts Qualcomm’s latest GPU, the Adreno 540. The chip maker claims a 25% boost in 3D rendering performance compared to the previous generation chipset

Basemark X supports that claim, the increase compared to HTC 10 is actually a bit over a quarter. Compared to Snapdragon 821 phones like the LG G6, the difference is smaller (~20%) but still a tangible improvement.

Basemark X

Higher is better

Galaxy S8+ (Exynos)

43862

Xperia XZ Premium (S835)

38507

HTC U 11 (S835)

38399

Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960)

36519

HTC U Ultra (S821)

35875

Galaxy S8+ (S835)

34951

LG G6 (S821)

32041

Pixel XL (S821)

30861

HTC 10 (S820)

28882

Going up to the newer graphics platform, the Mali G71 GPU (S8+/Exynos and Mate 9/Kirin) seems to have a better handle on things than the Adreno. Still, Qualcomm has delivered extra oomph for flagship games.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

iPhone 7 Plus (A10)

1517

Galaxy S8+ (Exynos)

1111

HTC U 11 (S835)

836

Galaxy S8+ (S835)

817

Huawei Mate 9 (Kirin 960)

794

Xperia XZ Premium (S835)

727

LG G6 (S821)

647

Pixel XL (S821)

626

HTC U Ultra (S821)

582

We know there’s more to a phone than just chipset, but the HTC U 11 shows a clear superiority over the U Ultra when it comes to performance. Even outside of HTC’s stable the U 11 is a brawler - matching or beating many pretenders to the 2017 flagship throne.