Home
Mobiles
Mobiles News
HTC U Ultra, U Play With Sense Companion Launched: Release Date and Specifications

HTC U Ultra, U Play With Sense Companion Launched: Release Date and Specifications

By Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 12 January 2017 16:06 IST

Highlights

HTC U Ultra sports a dual display, like the LG V20
Both smartphones sport a 'liquid surface' design
Both smartphones sport an UltraPixel mode for front camera

HTC U Ultra and U Play - the first smartphones in the Taiwanese company's brand-new U series - have been launched. Both the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play smartphones come with the company's new Sense Companion, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based system that learns the user's daily patterns to provide usage recommendations and friendly advice.

The HTC U Ultra and the HTC U Play prices have not been provided yet, but company says the devices will likely be launched in India in March. The new HTC smartphones will be available in Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Blue, Cosmetic Pink, and Ice White.

HTC U Ultra, U Play First Impressions

HTC U Ultra, U Play's Sense Companion AI

The HTC Sense Companion of U Ultra and U Play smartphones is said to learn from the user, and provide recommendations, such as suggesting you dress warm and leave for work earlier on a snowy day; reminding you to charge if it figures you need more power to last until you get home, and even recommending the perfect restaurant when you're away for the weekend.

Other HTC U Ultra, U Play Features

Apart from the Sense Companion, other common features of HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play smartphones include HTC USonic, which analyses the shape of the user's inner ears with a "sonar-like pulse" to adapt to you; 16-megapixel front camera with UltraPixel mode, as well as a "liquid surface" curved glass construction. Both HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play smartphones will be available in single-SIM and dual-SIM (Nano-SIM) variants, depending on the region. The duo also run Android 7.0 Nougat, with the HTC's Sense UI customisation on top.

The HTC U Ultra (seen above) features a Dual Display, similar to what the LG V20 has. HTC U Ultra's primary 5.7-inch Super LCD display bears a QHD (1440x2560 pixels) resolution, while the secondary 2-inch display bears a 1040x160 pixels resolution (seen below). The new HTC smartphone will be made available in two inbuilt storage variants - 64GB and 128GB, with the former sporting Gorilla Glass 5 protection and the latter sporting sapphire glass protection.

HTC U Ultra is powered by a 2.15GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC with 4GB of RAM. It bears a 12-UltraPixel rear camera with 1.55-micron pixels, a BSI sensor, laser + phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilisation, an f/2.8 aperture, and dual-tone LED flash. At the front, HTC U Ultra sports a 16-megapixel camera with an UltraPixel mode, and a BSI sensor.

Other HTC U Ultra specifications include either 64GB or 128GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB); 4G LTE with VoLTE, GPS/ A-GPS, Bluetooth v4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, DLNA, Miracast, HTC Connect, and USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity options. The HTC U Ultra smartphone sports an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, and gyroscope, weighs in at 170 grams, and measures 162.41x79.79x7.9mm. HTC U Ultra bears a fingerprint sensor on the Home Button, HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi edition stereo speakers, Hi-Res Audio support, as well as 3D Audio recording support with 4 microphones. It is powered by a 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0. It's rated to deliver up to 26 hours of talk-time and up to 13 days of standby time.

Coming to the HTC U Play (seen above), the smartphone will be made available in 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage and 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage variants. It sports a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) Super LCD display with Gorilla Glass. The new HTC U Play smartphone is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC. HTC U Play's 16-megapixel rear camera comes with a BSI sensor, optical image stabilisation, PDAF, an f/2.0 aperture, and dual-tone LED flash. The front camera sports a 16-megapixel sensor with an UltraPixel mode, a BSI sensor, an f/2.0 aperture with a 28mm focal length.

Just like the HTC U Ultra, the U Play's inbuilt storage is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). HTC U Play connectivity options include 4G LTE with VoLTE, GPS/ A-GPS, Bluetooth v4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, DLNA, Miracast, HTC Connect, and USB 2.0 Type-C. The new HTC smartphone sports an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, and gyroscope, weighs in at 145 grams, and measures 145.99x72.9x7.99mm. It bears a fingerprint sensor on the Home Button. HTC U Play is powered by a 2500mAh battery with fast charging support (5V/2A) that's rated to deliver up to 15.21 hours of talk-time and up to 427.54 hours of standby time.

HTC U Play

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Stunning looks
Good set of cameras
Sharp and vivid display
Manageable size

Bad
Ships with Android Marshmallow
Budget-level SoC
Expensive

Read detailed HTC U Play review

Display 5.20-inch

Processor MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755)

Front Camera 16-megapixel

Rear Camera 16-megapixel

RAM 4GB

Storage 64GB

Battery Capacity 2500mAh

OS Android 6.0

Resolution 1080x1920 pixels

More HTC mobiles HTC mobiles price in India

HTC U Ultra

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS
Variants

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Unique, eye-catching look
Good performance
Excellent camera

Bad
Bulky and slippery
Average battery life
Missing Sense Companion feature
Very expensive

Read detailed HTC U Ultra review

Display 5.70-inch

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 821

Front Camera 16-Ultrapixel

Rear Camera 12-Ultrapixel

RAM 4GB

Storage 64GB

Battery Capacity 3000mAh

OS Android 7.0

Resolution 1440x2560 pixels

More HTC mobiles HTC mobiles price in India

Choose a variant

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.