Gadgetory

few companies of champion smartphone audio as aggressively as HTC most noticeably pushing the boundaries on speaker design but also creating higher-quality experiences with the internal phone guts for headphone audio the u11 has finally arrived in my office and while it looks to be a solid all-rounder flagship phone I'm most curious to hear what it can do with my favorite music and movies now the third phone from this manufacturer to omit the 3.5 millimeter headset jack in favor of a proprietary USB solution as we transition out of established audio hardware the U 11 adopts a few neat tricks which HTC hopes will impress starting off with speaker performance HTC is using two speakers but not in a traditional stereo setup stereo features left and right channels like your headphones the u11 uses the smaller earpiece for higher frequencies and the larger bottom speaker for mids and lows it's an overall more nuanced sound than what you can achieve with a single speaker but it does lack a little depth compared to traditional stereo and occasionally high frequencies will be exaggerated the headphone discussion also requires a bit of unpacking there is no dedicated headphone jack but happily HTC does include a USBC adapter with a built-in DAC and amp recognising that while there are some quality earbuds in the box some folks might want to bring their own cans to the party unfortunately this solution is somewhat disappointing considering the competition it faces at this price tear the phone is more than capable of playing 32-bit audio files but output seems to be truncated to CD quality against phones like the g6 and s8 we see noticeably more noise and less dynamic range and this is a significant step back from the HTC 10 even opposite another dongle player like the iPhone HTC's quality numbers just can't quite match Apple's lightning adapter DAC now this can be masked somewhat as the amp output lines right up with the LG G six Galaxy S 8 and one plus three T some good punch to drive consumer headphones but not quite powerful enough to really properly drive higher-end options once the impedance of your headphones climbs the u 11 sounds dull and it's seriously outclassed by the axon 7 and LG v 20 HTC solution is the u sonic system earbuds in the box which work with software on the phone to tailor fit your audio playback while making EQ and noise reduction adjustments based on the environment around you a very short scan adjusts audio frequencies to your ears and it's fully automatic unlike the hearing test Samsung puts you through the scan works surprisingly well the result might be a touch bright for my tastes but sampling a variety of musical genres I'm extremely grateful you sonic isn't just trying to impress me with a generic smileyface EQ or skull rumbling mega bass the noise reduction in environment sampling is a nice trick as well a second after you push play listening to that slight pop as the phone adjusts for your location it's a great combo passive noise reduction from blocking the ear canal and active audio shaping from the mics and software on the phone if you commute on public transit you're gonna love this but it did make me feel a bit detached walking around outside these might not be the best option for outdoor workouts and situational awareness inner aural earbuds are very personal accessories and I found this edge here to be a touch uncomfortable when worn for longer periods of time but the shape should be a good option for many folks in our audience the driver housing resting on this part of the ear right before the ear canal it's difficult to try and deliver a comparison with other manufacturer included ear buds we can't normalize for different phone hardware in the htc ear buds only work on HTC phones starting with the bolt when viewed as a total package I like the fit of the Samsung gear buds just a little bit better but I prefer the overall sound quality and noise reduction technology on the u11 so this is where I would normally say let's wrap this up but I honestly had a bit of difficulty writing the conclusion to this review with the u 11 HTC has done a terrific job of including a full phone experience in the Box a snap-on case great your buds and a headphone dongle viewed in a vacuum you 11 owners are pretty well stocked it's when we expand our personal area network to include other devices and we have some concerns at a tablet or a laptop and now I need to carry different headphones for different devices or if I only want to carry one pair of headphones I need to put the really good use sonic earbuds aside and use a lesser DAC dongle if I ever lose these earbuds they won't be as easy to replace as any pair of traditional headphones it seems that phone manufacturers will eventually walk away from photo Jack's in favor of digital interfaces for cabled audio USB C is as good a candidate as any other to get that job done but this is a poor way to create a new audio standard USB C is becoming a common port but these headphones won't work with anything else that has the same shape connector I was frustrated by this on the bowl and I still think it's a recipe for consumer irritation will it be a deal-breaker no not at all but a tiny rock in your shoe whenever you need to work around it HTC remains a force for smartphone sound though this transition has been hamstrung by Google and androids terrible support for USB audio I think it likely that removing the 3.5 millimeter jack will do more to ramp up bluetooth adoption than it will to help usher in a new audio cable standard the U 11 isn't vying for the power player audiophile crown instead HTC is moving mass-market with some surprisingly techy features the execution of advanced audio concepts is fantastically well done and delightfully easy for the owner to implement and that should be music to most folks ears right out of the box just don't lose any of these pieces as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews like these and be on the lookout for our you 11 real camera review and full phone review coming soon I hope this out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for PocketNow and Juan Carlos bag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review