Gadgetory

the HTC u 11 life Android one is ostensibly a mid-range u 11 but it's also a lot like a mid-range pixel to which HTC also made under the auspices of the Android 1 program the u 11 life runs near stock Android Oreo offering a very similar software experience to the pixel 2 but with mid-range specs and a 350 dollar price tag the u 11 lifes lineage is visible in the familiar liquid surface design but it makes the switch to an acrylic and polycarbonate chassis instead of glass and aluminum it maintains those big old bezels but unfortunately does away with stereo boom sound speakers but it does come with a fully fledged version of HTC edge sense something even the pixel 2 doesn't have edge sense lets you use long and short squeezes of the frame to launch the camera and take photos or switch between cameras you can also use it to launch Google assistant and map various actions within individual apps some might think it's gimmicky but I find it to be quite intuitive and actually use it a lot of course if you're not into it it can easily be disabled another nice HTC add on to the stock Oreo experiences HTC use sonic audio tuning vo 11 life comes with a pair of active noise-cancelling used sonic earbuds connected via USB type-c they're very comfortable to wear and offer rich bass and excellent audio quality but they're real secret is in their ability to map the contours of your ear canal to create an audio profile that's unique to you because the u11 life Android one runs Oreo it also supports various high-end audio codecs like optics HD and L doc so if you're into wireless headphones you can enjoy a higher quality streaming it also supports Bluetooth 5 for higher throughput and longer range connections with compatible devices the downside of all this Audio goodness is that there's no 3.5 ml headphone jack and there's no included adapter either even if you already have a 3.5 ml two USB type-c adapter lying around it likely won't work with the u 11 life that's because HTC uses a special digital protocol the dumb adapters don't support so if you want your wired headphones to play nice with you eleven life you'll have to pick up an HTC made digital adapter with a built-in DAC another thing worth noting is that the impressive viewsonic earbuds won't work with other smartphones that don't support that protocol I mentioned while they worked fine with the huawei mate 10 Pro they didn't with the LG v 30 the Galaxy Note 8 or the pixel 2 it's likely not a deal-breaker but something to be aware of the you 11 life has two big surprises in store and the 5.2 inch full HD super LCD panel is one of them it's really quite good with rich colors good dynamic range in viewing angles and decent if not exceptional outdoor visibility with over 500 nits of brightness the second surprise was the camera which was much better than I was expecting HTC has been making some good cameras for a while now and the 16 megapixel F 2.0 cameras on the front and back of the U 11 life are really very good the main camera has phase detection autofocus but unfortunately no optical image stabilization but steady hands though you can get very good low-light shots with little noise and good color reproduction just take a look at this side-by-side with a pixel two to see how well the you eleven life performs at this price point the cameras performance is a very big bonus sure it has its weaknesses most notably a slow camera app and shutter lag but with a little patience you can get really good shots out of it it shoots video in 4k at 30 frames per second with high res audio recording and 720p slow-motion at 120 frames per second as HDR boost on both cameras and you've got a very capable pro mode with support for raw I found the U 11 life tended to slightly under expose shots but that's easily fixed with the exposure compensation slider in the camera app or by using the manual controls colors were accurate without over saturation and the 11 life captures a good amount of detail in daylight well both things do degrade in really dark environments and sooner or later noise is unavoidable but I was generally really impressed by the you 11 lifes camera and think it along with the software experience and display are the real standouts of this phone you 11 life also has an ip67 water resistance rating NFC if you're into Android pay comes in versions with 3gb of RAM and 32gb of storage or four gig of ram and 64 gig of storage both of which have microSD expansion they're considering the minimal price difference between the two I absolutely recommend the version with more RAM and storage it also packs all the benefits of Android Orio alongside guaranteed updates for two years and security patches but but there's always a downside and some of the you 11 life's floors are going to be make or break for some besides the contentious headphone jack situation the you 11 life is powered by the Snapdragon 630 a thoroughly mid-range chipset that while it handles the Android borio experience admirably isn't going to be good enough for some folks especially if you consider yourself a power user or mobile gamer I found the 630 to be quite sufficient for everyday tasks but it's something to keep in mind especially considering the same amount of money can get you a better spec sheet elsewhere the 2600 milliamp hour battery is also not going to be big enough for everyone I have raised between four and a half to five and a half hours of screen on time of day which is fine for most but we'll leave demanding users wanting more the 5 volt 2 am charging brick will top the 11 life off in a little over an hour and a half with a half charge in 30 to 40 minutes you're living life also feels very plasticky and scratches much more easily than a glass packed phone it's more resistant to impact and less likely to crack the glass but I'd still recommend using a case just to protect that surface from scratches it'll attract as readily as it does fingerprints likewise the single bottom firing speaker is there if you really need it but there's no HTC boomsound to be found here and as nice as a 16 megapixel selfie camera is I personally would have preferred a more sedate front facing sensor in exchange for OAS on the main camera as with all mid-range phones it's a game of give and take if you want to know if you should spend 350 euro on the u11 life with Android one I can't definitively say that you should there's just too much solar competition in the same price range that you'd need to check out first some of which has dual cameras bigger batteries and more audio options for example but one thing I can say is that if you do buy the you 11 life Android one you're very unlikely to be disappointed yes it's a little slower and less powerful than some other phones out there and maybe it's battery could be bigger and it's price tag a little bit lower but the software experience is excellent and has some great additional features like edge sense and new sonic audio and it packs a great screen really good camera and has guaranteed updates for years unfortunately for our US viewers it's not making it to the US market though but you will get a version with HTC Sense the HTC u 11 life Android 1 is not the perfect phone for everyone No but if the issues you've seen here haven't put you off the HCC you eleven life with Android one is going to be a really great phone for many as always thank you so much for watching be sure to subscribe like the video hit us up on social media and visit Android Authority comm for more on HTC u11 life because we are your source for all things Android