Update:Amazon's Alexa AI assistant is now available on the HTC U11 and we've put it through its paces and updated this review with our findings.
If you're an HTC fan – good news. HTC has brought you a phone that, in many ways, is as good as you could hope for.
It's got a hugely impressive spec list, unique design, innovation in the form of squeezable sides and a great camera, and since launch it's got that little bit better, thanks to the addition of Amazon Alexa.
The latest processor buzzes along rapidly inside a phone that's neither too big nor overly compact, and the interface is as slick as anything HTC has ever made.
In fact, if you're a fan of HTC above all other phone manufacturers, you can probably skip this whole review and just buy the thing (although we suggest you read the bit about the ‘squeezable’ Edge Sense element, as that takes a bit of getting used to) and just wait feverishly at the front door, waiting for your HTC U11 to arrive.
However, for everyone else, things are a bit more complicated. Yes, HTC has pretty much nailed the spec list, but it's doing so for a rather high price – and one which pits it against some strong alternative options.
It's launching into a world where Samsung and LG have come up with beautiful screen designs, and Sony has wheeled out the big guns to bring a 4K screen and superb slow motion video to the Xperia XZ Premium.
HTC, in comparison, hasn't really done a huge amount different to previous years, but it’s largely got things right. So could this still be the phone for you?
HTC U11 price
In the UK, the HTC U11 is coming for a cost of £649 SIM free, which is among the higher prices on the market. It's a bit cheaper on contract - under £30 a month with some decent upfront payments - but that still makes it more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy S8.
In the US, it's $649 unlocked from HTC, or it's a Sprint exclusive for $29 per month (with no upfront payment).
In Australia, it's AU$999 for the unlocked phone, and from around AU$59 per month if you want it on contract.
That's pretty expensive, even though it offers some of the top spec around - so you'll need to be sure you're into what HTC is offering before you pay those higher prices.
Design
Two-tone shimmer impresses
Well-built chassis
Back sucks in fingerprints hugely
The design of the HTC U11 is something that takes a little getting used to – but it's worth taking the time to do so. Holding it in the hand for the first time is a little underwhelming, as the polished Gorilla Glass is so light that it feels a little plasticky in the hand.
The bulbous nature isn't as exciting or feel as premium as the metal build on last year's HTC 10, but don't let that bother you. After a few days you'll get used to the way it feels – and the HTC U11's chassis is well built and solid.
Aesthetically, the U11 appeals in a way we've not seen with many phones. The Liquid Surface design manages to offer two colors at once, with the 'Amazing Silver' and ‘Brilliant Black’ models we tested looking more blue/purple and black/green respectively, depending on the way you hold them.
There's also Solar Red, Ice White and Sapphire Blue - and the red is easily our favorite, as you can see below.
How the Solar Red HTC U11 changes from gold to red
The shimmer is really impressive... but only if you never touch this phone, as the U11 is one of the most fingerprint-friendly phones we've ever held. Ever. Ever.
The only saving grace is the fact that your prints wipe off easily, but the overall effect is diminished somewhat. There is a clear plastic cover in the box, which doesn't ruin the look of the phone while keeping it cleaner, but even that’s prone to the odd smudge.
It's also annoying to put any phone, designed to be held in the palm, in a case... and it's a particular issue with a phone you're going to have to squeeze to use.
In terms of the rest of the design, the U11 doesn't reinvent anything, with HTC instead putting together a phone with all the right bits in the correct places.
The fingerprint scanner on the front, in the (non-clickable) home key, is easy to hit and works almost flawlessly. Perhaps we're willing to give it more credit after Samsung played 'hide the scanner' on the back of its Galaxy S8, but this feels just right.
The rounded glass on the HTC U11 is probably one of the most striking things about the handset day to day, and it's something HTC put a lot of effort into for good reason.
Yes, this is still the same ‘black rectangle’ design that so many other devices offer, but it’s got a foundation of quality and striking colors.
The volume rocker and power buttons on the right-hand side fit nicely under a thumb or forefinger, depending on your dominant hand, and otherwise things are very clean around the edge of the U11.
That's partly because the phone is waterproof to IP67 rating meaning you can throw it into water, but in real life you can just dunk it in shallow water, bring it in the shower or wash it clean without having to spend an extraordinarily large amount of money and shame getting it fixed.
One of the issues we have with this phone is there's no headphone jack on this phone, as HTC decided to follow Apple and Motorola's lead and drop the port in favor of a single slot.
The USB-C port on the bottom of the phone will serve as the power and sound portal for most, which means it'll irk if you need to get some juice in while listening to your top tunes.
Overall, we're big fans of the way that HTC has redefined its design strategy. There are only so many ways you can make a phone look iconic these days, and HTC has built well on its design heritage in the smartphone space to deliver something you'd be proud to put down on the table.
Screen
High resolution
Slightly dim
Auto brightness not perfect
The screen on the HTC U11 is something that’s tricky to review. Until recently the 5.5-inch display would have easily ticked all the boxes, as it does very little wrong.
It's large, bright and clear, with the QHD (1440 x 2560) resolution offering as much clarity as anyone could want while still, seemingly, preserving enough battery life.
However, with the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the LG G6 now on the market, there's something archaic about how the screen on the HTC U11 looks. The bezels appear massive, the screen boxy and it just feels... old.
However, if you're not bothered about those other phones, then you won't want for any better features on the HTC U11's screen – but don't put it side by side with the Samsung Galaxy S8 if you don’t want to be nagged by doubts about your phone choice.
While the screen is clear and bright in most situations, it can be reflective, and it's not as bright as we've seen on other handsets. There were times when trying to watch Netflix outside proved a challenge in terms of of angling the handset the right way, and only in the shade did it really start to show off the power of what the HTC U11 can do.
It's also not the brightest screen on the market, which shows that the new wave of shoving HDR compatibility into handsets is perhaps something HTC should have looked into.
The auto-brightness is still something HTC needs to work on, as it doesn't dynamically alter well enough at all – blinding in the night and not bright enough when heading outside. It should be able to work across all areas of the brightness spectrum, but we found ourselves heading into the notification bar to to tweak the levels too many times for our liking.
You won't miss too much from the screen on the HTC U11 – it's one of the better options on the market thanks to using the ever-evolving Super LCD technology – but it's not as impressive as other flagships on the market.
Update: We've added comparisons to the top phones the LG G6 is competing with, including the Samsung Galaxy S8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium and HTC U11, so you can get a clearer picture of how they differ and which is most worth your money.
With the LG G6, the modular design of the LG G5 is gone in favor of a more traditional phone, one that takes multiple elements from the top handsets around, blended together to make a more prosaic (but still intriguing) handset.
The G6 is a much more conservative design than its predecessor, taking the form of a sealed unit that drops the removable battery, replacing it with a larger-capacity power pack and waterproof shell.
Surprisingly, this phone isn't using the latest chipset from Qualcomm, so you won't be getting the full grunt of the Snapdragon 835. However, LG maintains this was a decision to benefit the consumer – using a chip it had expertise with rather than an unknown entity it couldn't test fully.
Instead, it's going with a Snapdragon 821 option, which LG told us was a better option given it had more experience working with the chip and could thus extract more performance rather than using an untested engine.
The screen is, really, the only place where innovation is still present on the G6, with the longer 18:9 display giving more screen real estate to play with, and introducing some clever little changes to the user interface to exploit the extra pixels.
Beyond that, there's not a lot that marks out the LG G6 from the rest of the competition – and that's a pretty good thing.
Having used the LG G6 for a couple of weeks, it's easy to see that this is a 'grown-up' handset from the South Korean brand. It just feels nicer in the hand, more solid and refined, and we really haven't missed anything from the LG G5 at all.
Early prices were as high as $650/£649/AU$1000, but they're already starting to drop, and while it's still an expensive handset LG seems to have baked all the components together well, so at least you'll be getting a decent phone for the money.
It’s interesting that some reviews have called the LG G6 a 'return to form' - apart from perhaps the LG G2, the brand hasn’t had a stellar flagship device for years. Rather, it feels more like a ‘finally understanding what users actually want in a phone’.
LG G6 price and release date
Out now
Costs around $550/£580/AU$1000 SIM free
OK - here's the curious thing about this phone. It's got a lower-spec in some areas, has prioritised things like design over an improved camera... and yet still costs far more money than we'd expect.
The LG G6 has an eye-watering £649 SIM free RRP in the UK, which is astronomical given we're used to seeing phones from this brand come in at almost half that cost after a few months of being on sale.
In fact, that might happen again, as many retailers have already dropped the price to a still-steep £580.
In terms of contract pricing, we're looking at around £38 per month minimum if you don't want to spend too much on the phone upfront, which again is rather high.
In the US, contract pricing is set at around $28 per month, which is in the region of Apple's iPhone 7 and the Google Pixel... both of which aren't considered cheap phones.
If you want to go for it SIM free in the North America, you're looking around $550 (down from a launch price of roughly $650), where it's AU$1,000 for those over in Australia.
For a limited time, you can trade in your old phone at Verizon to get the G6 for 50% off, which is a pretty tempting deal.
The LG G6 release date has already been and gone for most territories, with the UK one of the last to get its hands on the device - we're hoping that as it becomes more widespread, the cost of ownership continues to come down.
Design
An understated and sophisticated metal and glass build
Impressively small bezels
Water and dust resistance
The LG G6 is covered in a mix of glass and metal, with two sheets of Gorilla Glass (although weirdly it's Gorilla Glass 5 on the rear, but only the much older Gorilla Glass 3 on the front) framed with a rim of aluminum.
What's most impressive is how little bezel there is on this phone – we've now seen the same kind of design from Samsung on the Galaxy S8, but the narrow bezels have been shrunken top and bottom to create an impressive effect when you turn the phone on.
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Anyone aware of the LG G5's design will be surprised by just how… normal this phone looks. Gone is the dull plastic back of the LG G3, the odd leather of theG4 or the come-apart design of last year’s phone – the LG G6 is smooth and classy all the way around.
That will disappoint those who like the way LG has taken things in a different direction in the past, but honestly, the G6 design is a smart move. It’s the most classically understated and sophisticated phone we’ve ever seen from LG, and it’s the perfect platform for letting the internals shine through.
And it's got the features that matter, like IP68 certification for water and dust resistance - a common flagship feature that was missing from the LG G5.
The rear of the phone is smooth, with no protruding camera bump – we’ll get onto the snapper in a moment, but LG told us it chose slimmer sensors rather than more advanced camera tech to make the design of the phone sleeker.
It's a gamble, but last year's camera was fine, and LG can probably just get away without another change.
There are two sensors on the rear of the phone, above the round fingerprint sensor, which also doubles as a power button.
The LG G6 is currently available in platinum, black and white, although it was strongly hinted to us that more colors will be popping up soon.
The platinum is the most alluring of the colors, with a metallic sheen under the glass that catches the light nicely. However, the white option, with two cameras and round fingerprint sensor below, makes the G6 look a bit like a surprised ghost.
At the bottom of the phone is the single speaker next to the USB-C connector – and LG has kept the headphone jack at the top, declining to bow to the industry trend of dropping the connector as it keeps more 'traditional' (read: everyone) music fans happy.
Some LG phone lovers will be distraught, however, to find that the battery is now sealed into the handset – LG has finally given up on the removable power pack in order to put in a more powerful and slimmer juice unit.
It’s been increased to 3,300mAh within the slimmer 7.9mm frame – and it’s the right move. The need for removable power packs is almost dead thanks to the proliferation of portable battery chargers, but its V-series phones (such as theLG V20 launched last year) keeps the option for now.
MicroSD support still exists, with the up-to-2TB expansion option thrust into the SIM tray, and complementing the 32GB of onboard storage; however, it's really annoying that you can't adopt the storage from the memory card and use it as internal memory like other phones allow you to do.
The design of the LG G6 is certainly more refined - it does feel a bit light and over time the glass back feels more like plastic. That creates slightly sweaty digits, and there have been times when the fingerprint sensor has needed a wipe to function correctly.
However, that sensor is in the right place - rarely was there a misplaced finger when trying to unlock the handset, and the ring on the outside was easy to hit.
