HTC U11 Life specs: 5.2-inch display, 2600mAh battery, and Snapdragon 630

Here’s what HTC can pack into a phone for under $400.

HTC is continuing the U11 brand with the new lower-end U11 Life, but it sure isn’t re-using any of the flagship’s components. With a launch price of $349, the HTC U11 Life is constrained quite a bit in its specs, meaning we’re looking at a few corners shaved here and there — but there are a few other additions that are nice to see in an inexpensive device.

Here’s the full spec sheet for the HTC U11 Life.

HTC U11+ specs: 6-inch LCD, Snapdragon 835 and 3930mAh battery

Snapdragon 835, Oreo, and an enormous battery.

HTC’s new big-screened handset, the U11+, builds upon one of the lesser-known flagships of 2017 and adds a big battery, Android Oreo and a new 18:9 aspect ratio. We’ve got a full hands-on report live now, but if you’d prefer to peruse the spec sheet, that’s exactly what you’ll find down below. Enjoy!

HTC U11 Life review: High style at a low price, with compromises

HTC’s bringing a budget phone back to the U.S., and it’s hoping the U11 name will help it out this time around.

The quick take

The U11 Life is better-looking than most phones at $350, and has nice features like waterproofing, a good screen, and active noice-cancelling headphones in the box. The build quality drops off significantly from the “original” U11, as you’d expect being less than half the price. The daily performance leaves something to be desired, as other phones with the same specs have better speed and fluidity. This will be a great device for many, but it definitely isn’t the U11 experience scaled down proportionately — it’s far more of a give-and-take choice.

The Good

• Beautiful design for this price level
• Built well, even if out of cheaper materials
• Good screen at 1080p resolution
• USonic USB-C earbuds with noise cancellation
• IP67 water-resistance

The Bad

• Performance not befitting the specs
• Camera slow and weak in low light
• No headphone jack or USB-C adapter
• Weak speaker

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Looks for less

HTC U11 Life Things you’ll love

For HTC, the U11 was a relative hit. It’s not challenging Samsung for sales figures, but I think it’s doing better than expected. To hopefully parlay some of that good brand awareness in 2017, it’s launching a $350 phone with the same name and type of design to hit an altogether new market. The U11 Life does a pretty great job of bringing the looks and quality of the U11 down to less than half the price.

HTC U11 Life specs

A slice of that U11 style for about half the price.

Setting the U11 Life next to a “proper” U11, it’s tough to tell them apart. The flowing, colorful back, sleek lines and shiny sides meet up with an inky black front with relatively large bezels. It looks far more expensive than it is — and far better than your average “did anyone even think about this design?” look in this price bracket.

But then you pick it up, and realize HTC has done a full recreation of the U11 in plastic. Not cheap plastic, or creaky plastic — well-executed molded plastic. The back is “acrylic,” technically, as HTC will tell you, and that helps it mimic the glass back of the U11 while being substantially cheaper and easier to work with. The phone feels like plastic, it isn’t fooling anyone, but for $350 it’s tough to expect much else. Despite that it feels nice and sturdy, but we can certainly expect that soft plastic to scuff and ding over the course of a couple years in ways that metal and glass wouldn’t.

Instead of higher-end materials, HTC spent the money on components and features. For this budget device, a Snadragon 630 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (with microSD) and a 1080p display definitely aren’t a given. And the 5.2-inch SuperLCD panel is solid at that, even if it isn’t as bright as the ones found on phones a couple hundred dollars more.

Then you get some extra hardware features also not often found on a cheap device. There’s a good fingerprint sensor on the front, HTC’s “Edge Sense” squeeze function, IP67 water-resistance, a pair of capable 16MP cameras, NFC, Bluetooth 5.0 and a pair of HTC’s USonic active noise-cancelling earbuds in the box. All of these features, aside from the camera components, are shared with the full-priced U11 in an attempt to great some consistency in the lineup. This will make the sales pitch in T-Mobile stores a whole lot easier.

You can actually take some fine photos, with the typical low-light shortcomings.

The U11 Life’s cameras are actually quite good, right on par with what you’d expect at this lower price. You get a 16MP BSI sensor with f/2.0 lens on both the front and back, with the rear camera getting a few extra features like auto focus, HDR, manual mode and 4K video. The rear camera produces surprisingly good photos in daylight, with a good amount of detail and colors that pop. Its HDR mode can get some light and color out of areas where most cheap phones struggle.

But the rear camera has all of its own struggles. Primarily in low light, where it really fights to get a clear shot. Not only is there a good bit of noise, that’s still paired up with slower shutter speeds to give you some blur unless you’re dead-steady with your hands. Typically you’ll get something with the ISO cranked up in order to get a usable photo, but low light shots are obviously the clear shortcoming of the lower-end camera components.

Performance struggles

HTC U11 Life Things you’ll hate

The U11 Life, when it arrives in Europe, will be one of the new crop of slightly higher-end Android One phones. But here in the U.S., it’s just a standard HTC phone with the same Sense software — whether you’re buying from T-Mobile or unlocked. I make the distinction because these lower-end devices often benefit heavily from the light and performant Android One software experience, and this is the U11 Life’s one major shortcoming.

We all expect a $350 phone to have slower performance than the $700+ flagships they look up to — but the U11 Life comes up even short of those lowered expectations. I say that because despite its Snapdragon 630 processor and 3GB of RAM, the phone just doesn’t come close to the performance of the Moto X4 (which I just reviewed) with the same exact specs pushing the same screen size and resolution. Apps are notably slower to load, you get an additional hesitation now and a gain, and sometimes scrolling lags. The camera in particular is slow to open and function.

As I found in my review of the HTC U11, Sense itself is a fine take on Android — and I still feel that way about the interface design on the U11 Life. The only real issue here is the inconsistent and slow performance that just doesn’t line up with the specs.

I wonder if performance has been ratcheted down for battery life reasons, because the U11 Life has done surprisingly well in this respect even though it has just a 2600mAh battery. I was able to push through a full day as I normally do on any other phone and come out with at least 15% at bedtime, which I definitely wouldn’t have expected after the Moto X4 did roughly the same with a 15% larger battery. And one other interesting thing to note on the subject: HTC doesn’t include Quick Charge on the U11 Life, just standard 5V/2A charging.

It’s disappointing to see weaker performance than phones with the exact same specs.

The one big caveat to all of this is the current state of the software. The U11 Life is shipping with Android 7.1.1, but HTC is committing to sending out the Android 8.0 update within 30 days of the launch. Considering the tight release time frame, it makes us wonder if there will be much more optimization for speed and fluidity in that upcoming release. We’d never say to buy a phone based on what performance could be with a future update, but we sure hope Oreo improves the U11 Life’s performance up to the levels where we know these specs can offer.

And then there’s the other wrinkle that the global version of the U11 Life is actually shipping with Android One software. This version will have a cleaner (and presumably consistently faster) take on Android 8.0 not far removed from the Google Pixel 2, with few customizations from HTC. But that model isn’t coming to North America, and this model also isn’t going global — so you can’t cross-shop between the two, you get what you get.

The rest of the handful of issues with the U11 Life are audio-related. It has a single speaker, and it’s pretty weak at that — a far cry from the U11’s rich and loud dual speakers. It also skips out on the headphone jack, which I think is even more of a bad decision on an inexpensive phone where people are even less likely to pony up for expensive Bluetooth headphones. HTC doesn’t include a USB-C to 3.5 mm headphone adapter, either — but for what it’s worth my Essential Phone and Google Pixel 2 adapters worked, and HTC sells ’em for $11.99. But the one bit of respite is HTC including its USonic active noise-cancelling headphones in the box, which are a step up from the headphones with most phones at this price (if you get them at all).

Little slice of flagship

HTC U11 Life Should you buy it?

HTC executed pretty well on its goal of brining the U11 design down to a much lower price point, and also kept many of the hardware features that you don’t typically see down here. It’s an attractive phone with a nice spec sheet, good screen and an average pair of cameras to round it out.

You get a feel of flagship features, but have to take a couple compromises at this price point.

But it’s really easy to question the lackluster and inconsistent performance on a phone that certainly has the spec sheet to do much better, and you wonder if it will continue to be this bad after the Android 8.0 update arrives. If there’s one thing we’ve seen in the past couple of years, it’s that cheap phones don’t have to be slow or stuttery — they can be fast and smooth.

Buying from T-Mobile at what I assume will be a discounted sub-$349 price, the U11 Life stands strong against the rest of the cheap competition that’s filled with compromises and so often misses on many of the core specs and features the U11 Life still has. It’s an easy buy for someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot but still wants a little slice of the flagship experience and is willing to give up on overall performance to get it.

But even at this lower price, and especially at the unlocked price of $349, you wonder why someone would pick up the U11 Life rather than something like a Moto G5 Plus and get better performance. Or hey, even step up just an extra $50 to get the fantastic Moto X4 that is on a higher level in terms of hardware materials, performance and cameras.

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HTC U11 Life coming to the U.S. via T-Mobile, globally as Android One model

A return to the the lower price segment by HTC.

After pretty thoroughly leaking ahead of time, HTC has made the new mid-range U11 Life official. The U11 Life takes on much of the styling and features of the U11 flagship launched earlier this year, but scales back materials and specs to meet a $349 price point.

It has a 5.2-inch 1080p SuperLCD screen, and is powered by a Snapdragon 630 processor, 2600mAh battery, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. Despite the drop in specs, the U11 Life keeps IP67 water-resistance, Edge Sense squeezing, a fingerprint sensor and has HTC’s USonic active noise-cancelling earbuds in the box. And yes, that means there’s no headphone jack here.

See at HTC

The body of the U11 Life may look nearly identical to the U11 from a distance, and that’s definitely a good thing, but the frame is plastic rather than metal and the back is an acrylic material instead of curved glass. The cameras are of course of lower quality as well, with 16MP BSI sensors and f/2.0 lenses on back and front, both lacking OIS. Thankfully not many more corners are cut, as this $349 phone still has NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and many of the other “nice to have” features so often dropped in lower-end phones.

HTC U11 Life specs

Many people would prefer to have the Android One version, but it just isn’t available here.

Now here’s the interesting part: there are two distinct models of the U11 Life, one for North America and another globally. Internationally, the U11 Life is identical hardware-wise but is one of the new crop of mid-range Android One devices, meaning the U11 Life has a Google-sanctioned version of Android 8.0 with few HTC changes aside from the addition of Edge Sense. Certain markets will also see a bump up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, though it seems like the 3/32GB model will be what most people see.

The North American model is running Android 7.1.1 with HTC’s Sense customizations, and in the U.S. the only carrier you can buy it through is T-Mobile — though thankfully HTC.com is also selling it unlocked (and lacking Verizon and Sprint support, sorry). HTC says it will update the U11 Life to Android 8.0 within 30 days, but don’t expect the interface to change much — this will still be Sense, not Android One.

The U11 Life goes on sale right away from HTC.com in the U.S. for $349, Canada for $449, and on November 3 from T-Mobile. Various nternational markets will also announce availability independently, but pricing is set at £349 in the UK and €349 in Europe.

HTC U11 Life review: High style at a low price, with compromises

See at HTC

Press release:

HTC U11 life: Premium Innovations Without Putting a Squeeze On Your Wallet

Squeezable Edge Sense, Amazing Cameras, Weather-Resistant Design, and USonic Noise Cancelling Earbuds In-Box Deliver Unparalleled Smartphone Value

SEATTLE – Nov. 2, 2017 – Building on the award-winning design and innovation of the flagship HTC U11, HTC today announced the newest member of the “U” family of smartphones, the HTC U11 life. Like its predecessor, the HTC U11 life is designed to reflect “U” – your drive, passion, creativity, and individuality – yet uniquely delivers flagship-quality features and experiences at just a fraction of a flagship’s price.

The HTC U11 life gives you the best innovations from the HTC U11 and more:

• Edge Sense, the next dimension in touch interaction that lets you squeeze HTC U11 life to perform
  your most common useful actions, including Google Assistant.
• Amazing cameras, with Phase Detection Autofocus and HDR Boost on the 16MP main camera for
  faster, clearer photos, and UltraPixel light sensitivity on the 16MP front camera for awesome selfies even in low light. Google Photos is also the default gallery, providing free and unlimited storage of high quality photos and videos.
• Durable, weather-resistant liquid surface design, incorporating an acrylic glass back that stunningly transforms light with every movement you make – even in rain, snow, or dust with IP67 water and dust resistance1.
• HTC USonic earbuds in-box, the most personal listening experience on a smartphone that adapts to your ears, in addition to built-in Active Noise Cancellation.
• Get the latest from Google with Android One – enjoy the newest Android OS update, Android Oreo, right out of the box, bringing you a best-in-class software experience designed by Google.

The HTC U11 life in Sapphire Blue is available in the US and Canada beginning today for just $349 ($449 CAD) at htc.com. It will also be available in T-Mobile stores nationwide and at t-mobile.com beginning Nov. 3.

HTC U11+ hands-on preview: More screen, more battery, translucent body

HTC has a new phone with a giant battery, an 18:9 screen and Android Oreo. But you won’t be able to buy it in the U.S.

2017 has been the year of the 18:9 smartphone. Increasingly, Android phones with “traditional” widescreen displays have started to look seriously old-hat. One notable victim of 16:9 ennui this past year was the HTC U11 — a high-end device that did almost everything really well, but which, from the front, looked remarkably dated next to the latest creations from Samsung. The technology and feature set was all there, but the GS8-like excitement was lacking.

So in a somewhat surprising move, HTC kicks off November with a new flagship phone launch. It’s the Taiwanese company’s biggest smartphone screen to date, in that trendy 18:9 aspect ratio, paired with its biggest battery to date, encased in hardware that finally feels as polished and modern as the One M7 and M8 did back in the glory days.

And yet, being an HTC phone with no current U.S. launch plans and a scaled-back UK presence involving zero British carriers, it’s unclear whether the U11+ will be able to move the needle much, if at all.

Physically, the HTC U11+ is a slimmer, elongated, slightly flattened U11. It’s noticeably taller, a bit less curvy, and slightly easier to hold onto than its forerunner, despite the move to lankier 6-inch, 18:9 chassis.

Around the front, it’s pretty much all screen — a SuperLCD 5 panel that looked phenomenal in the hour or so I got to play with the device. It’s sufficiently bright, punchy and sharp, with a Quad HD+ resolution and colors that appear just as vibrant as the U11’s. And with significantly trimmed bezels compared to that phone, the front face is more forward-looking. It has the look of a standard 2017 flagship, which is good, if not particularly outstanding.

The new svelte bezels also necessitate the relocation of the fingerprint scanner around the back of the phone, where we’ve seen it used time and time again to great effect.

As for the side walls, newly chamfered borders make the U11+ far easier to hold onto than the older model. The feel is more HTC 10 than U11 — at least around the sides.

The back panel, however, is very much in line with HTC’s current design language. The generally well-received “liquid surface” finish returns in a couple of colors. Firstly, there’s an incredibly shiny, almost mirrored black finish. It’s somewhere between the black U11 and Sony’s ridiculously reflective XZ Premium.

The translucent U11+ is a truly unique and undeniably cool piece of hardware.

But the version that really caught our eye was the translucent model, which retains some of the subtle reflectiveness of other U-series phones, while also providing a window into the phone’s internal hardware. The most noticeable feature is the NFC antenna, located right by the HTC logo, and which actually becomes an unconventional design feature. Look more closely, especially around the top of the device, and bits of PCB come into focus around the camera module and mainboard.

It’s nerdy, sure, but it’s one of those rare glimmers of brilliance that reminds us that HTC is still HTC. I had the same feeling about the fiery red U11 when I first saw that back in early May. And while this is far less ostentatious, it’s unique, aesthetically pleasing, and just damn cool. The internals of the phone themselves become points of visual differentiation.

HTC is playing its cards close to its chest in terms of European launch plans for the translucent color variant. I’d imagine Taiwan (and possibly other parts of Asia) would get it at launch, but the safer black model is likely to be more readily available in the West.

The spec sheet is almost a mirror image of the U11’s, with a few small but significant exceptions. The screen size and resolution, naturally, jump to 6 inches at 2880×1440. There’s a way bigger battery, with a capacity of 3930mAh basically guaranteeing all-day use, and even a second day if you’re careful. And the U11+ also boasts Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, augmented by HTC’s Sense software, which has grown one or two new tricks in this latest phone.

Storage and RAM comes in 4GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB configurations, and this time — finally — the UK will be getting the higher-specced model.

More: HTC U11+ specs

The core of the device remains unchanged from the standard U11 released earlier in 2017.

Key U11 features like Edge Sense — the feature where you can squeeze the phone’s bezels to activate Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, take a photo or perform other actions — also returns, with a minor software overhaul we’ll get to later. Same with BoomSound Hi-Fi — HTC’s on-device audio solution — and HTC USonic, the USB-C-based wired audio package. I’ll still bemoan the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, but at least with a larger battery onboard you’re less likely to need to use wired audio and your charger at the same time.

The U11’s excellent “UltraPixel 3” camera makes a return too — that’s a good thing, as it’s easily one of the best Android cameras on the market right now, coming close to the quality we’ve seen from the Google Pixel 2 XL. (Thanks in part to the always-on “HDR Boost,” HTC’s answer to Google’s HDR+.). Meanwhile, the front camera has been downscaled to an 8-megapixel resolution, but with a larger physical sensor, which should improve low-light performance.

We’ll dive deeper into the U11+’s camera in our full review, but first impressions are that little has changed.

The U11+ will be the first phone to run HTC Sense and Android 8.0 Oreo, and HTC’s UI has undergone some small tweaks to bring it in line with the new version of the OS. Some of these are small cosmetic tweaks, like the move to “squircle” (squared circle) icons for many apps in the launcher, or the lighter notification shade and Settings app.

Oreo marks an evolution in Sense’s design, not an overhaul.

There are other, more functional, changes too, most notably the new rotary menu that pops up when you squeeze the phone at the home screen. Two wheels of app and setting shortcuts pop up, and these can be anchored to either side of the display for easier one-handability.

This whole setup is reminiscent of Samsung’s Edge Panels, which is to say it seems like a feature that’ll be occasionally useful, but far from a revolutionary addition.

In a meeting ahead of today’s announcement, HTC noted that the software we were shown wasn’t yet finalized, and we weren’t able to show any of the phone’s software besides the home screen and navigation wheel. In any case, if you’re familiar with the U11’s software, you’ll pretty much know what to expect here. The core Sense apps are still overdue a visual overhaul, and it’s somewhat jarring to see apps that have barely changed since 2014 alongside newer UI elements from Oreo.

The U11+ is competitively priced in the UK, but there’s no word on carriers.

The HTC U11+ feels like a substantial step up from the U11, but many of the changes are admittedly fairly superficial. From the front, it now looks like a phone that belongs on store shelves in 2017. Yet ironically, it’s stuck with a geographically limited release and a lack of carrier support. So even in the select countries it’s coming to, like the UK, you’ll need to buy it from HTC directly. The phone gets a lot right, but HTC’s business challenges are still sizeable obstacles for this handset.

So yeah — the HTC U11+ won’t be coming to the United States anytime soon, but in Europe it’ll sell for £699, which gets you the 6GB/128GB variant. That’s good value for money in the context of some other flagship phones pushing near four figures. Sales begin November 20, and those HTC fans that remain are sure to find plenty to like about the the latest phone from this once-dominant brand. But it’s not clear how this phone will be able to get HTC out of its current financial rut.

Xiaomi Redmi Y1 with 16MP front camera unveiled in India for ₹8,999

The Redmi Y1 offers an outstanding selfie camera, and the rest of the hardware isn’t all that bad either.

For Xiaomi, the Redmi series is the moneymaker. The manufacturer has focused its attention on the budget segment over the last twelve months, rolling out one hit after another in the Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4A, and the Redmi 4. The Redmi Note 4 turned out to be the best-selling phone in the country this year, followed by the Redmi 4 and the Redmi 4A.

With its latest handset, Xiaomi is looking to keep that momentum going. The Redmi Y1 offers the same great value for money as its siblings, but the defining characteristic of the phone is a 16MP front camera with LED flash. The camera is touted to be one of the best in this segment, and Xiaomi is confident enough in the phone’s abilities that it is branching out the device into its own sub-brand in the Redmi series.

As for the naming convention, Xiaomi says the “Y” in Redmi Y denotes youth, with the phone aimed at a younger audience. The Redmi Y1 is identical to the Redmi Note 5A in a lot of areas, including the design. The phone certainly looks much more upmarket when seen next to the Redmi 4A and the Redmi 4, and is closer to the Redmi Note 4 in terms of the design aesthetic.

The device has a 5.5-inch 720p display, and is powered by the Snapdragon 435 chipset. Specs include 3GB or 4GB of RAM, 32GB/64GB storage, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (you’re limited to 2.4GHz), IR blaster, and a 3080mAh battery. There’s also a dedicated slot for a microSD card along with two SIM card slots, so if you’re using two SIM cards and an SD card, you no longer have to choose.

• Xiaomi Redmi Y1 specs
• Xiaomi Redmi Y1 preview

The 16MP front camera on the Redmi Y1 comes with a “LED Selfie” light, which according to Xiaomi mimics natural lighting conditions in low-light scenarios to deliver great selfies.

The Redmi Y1 also has a lot going for it on the software front. The phone is the first to run the global version of MIUI 9 out of the box, and Xiaomi has rolled out a ton of new features.

The Redmi Y1 will be going up for sale starting November 8 for ₹8,999 for the 32GB variant, and ₹10,999 for the model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage. Both devices will be exclusively sold online on Amazon, and Xiaomi will also offer them at Reliance Digital stores across the country.

What do you guys think of the device?

Xiaomi Redmi Y1 specs: 16MP front camera with LED flash and Snapdragon 435

The Redmi Y1 brings a great selfie camera to the budget segment.

The Xiaomi Redmi Y1 is now official in India, and like the rest of Xiaomi’s offerings, you get great value for your money. The highlight of the phone is a 16MP front camera, which has an LED flash module that lets you take decent selfies in low-light scenarios.

The rest of the specs are in line with other Redmi devices in this segment: you get 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage, along with a decent-sized 3080mAh battery. Xiaomi is also rolling out the global version of MIUI 9 with the device, and there are a lot of new features to look forward to on the software front as well. Here’s a detailed look at the specs on offer with the Redmi Y1:

The Redmi Y1 will be going up for sale in the country for ₹8,999, and ₹10,999 for the 4GB variant with 64GB storage. Interested in knowing more about the device? Read our preview:

Xiaomi Redmi Y1 preview: Another bestseller in the making

Xiaomi Redmi Y1 preview: Another bestseller in the making

Xiaomi is once again delivering incredible value with the Redmi Y1.

Xiaomi has launched six phones in India this year: the Redmi Note 4, the Redmi 4A, Redmi 4, Mi Max 2, the Android One-based Mi A1, and the bezel-less Mi Mix 2. Five out of those six devices are aimed at the sub-₹20,000 segment, and now the company is adding to its ranks with a new sub-brand in the Redmi series.

The Redmi Y1 is positioned between the Redmi 4 and the Redmi Note 4. While the design and specs on offer look similar to what we’ve seen from the manufacturer in recent times, the main differentiator with the phone is a 16MP front camera, which has a “Selfie LED” front-facing flash module.

The Redmi Y1 builds on the design of the Redmi Note 4. You still get the chrome accents at the back, but this time around, the line at the top cuts through the camera sensor and LED module. The gently curving sides and rounded edges make it easier to hold and use the phone one-handed, and the build quality is top-notch.

Up front, you get a 5.5-inch 720p display with sizeable bezels at the top and bottom. Xiaomi has switched to USB-C with the likes of the Mi Max 2, but the Redmi Y1 still relies on a microUSB port for charging. You do, however, get the IR blaster, a mainstay on most Xiaomi phones.

The Redmi Y1 comes with dual SIM card slots along with a dedicated slot for a microSD card. There’s also a 3.5mm jack located next to the IR blaster.

Other specs include a Snapdragon 435, 3GB of RAM, 32GB storage, and a 3080mAh battery. The battery is conservative when you consider the fact that the Redmi 4 features a 4100mAh unit, but it should be more than enough to last a day on a full charge.

The Redmi Y1 marries decent hardware with a class-leading front camera.

The phone is the first in the country to run the global version of MIUI 9 out of the box, bringing with it a slew of under-the-hood changes that make the user interface feel significantly smoother. There’s also a Google Now-style dashboard that takes up the leftmost home screen, giving you easy access to frequently used apps, contacts, notes, and more.

I’ve been using the phone for just over two days now, and the front camera is certainly better than previous Redmi devices. The LED flash makes a lot of difference when taking selfies in low-light conditions. The flash automatically kicks in when it detects low levels of ambient light, and you can also toggle the LED manually.

The rear camera, meanwhile, is average. It takes a lot of time to dial in on a subject, particularly if you’re using HDR. It also takes a few seconds to save images to the gallery. With the Redmi Y1, it’s clear that the focus is on the front camera.

OPPO and Vivo have built up their brands by offering great selfie cameras, and Xiaomi is targeting that audience with the Redmi Y1. The only difference is that while OPPO and Vivo cater to the mid-range segment, Xiaomi is offering a similar experience for half the price.

It’s easy to see why Xiaomi is setting its sights on the sub-₹10,000 segment. A bulk of phone sales in India are budget devices, and by offering a variety of phones with differentiated features, Xiaomi is looking to reach a broad audience. If you want a phone with two-day battery life, the Redmi 4 is the obvious choice. For those on a tight budget, the Redmi 4A is the ideal device. The Redmi Y1 is now available for those looking for a great front camera.

One out of every four devices sold in India this year had a selfie-centric camera, so there’s a huge potential for a phone like the Redmi Y1. Furthermore, Xiaomi is getting serious about the offline sector, with 20% of the brand’s sales from the last quarter coming from retail stores.

And after relying on word-of-mouth advertising for much of its existence, Xiaomi is now aggressively marketing its devices in India. That includes bringing in Bollywood A-listers, setting up a retail distribution network, and launching Mi Home stores across the country. All of these add considerably to the overhead, so it’ll be interesting to see if Xiaomi can continue offering its devices at such affordable prices in the future.

For now, though, the Redmi Y1 is a great addition to the Redmi lineup. The phone will be available in the country for ₹8,999. There’s also a variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage that will be sold for ₹10,999.

The HTC U11 Life crams flagship features into a cheaper body

HTC’s U11 was proof that the company still has some fight left in it, and now it’s building new phones to pick up where the U11 left off earlier this year. The sweet new U11+ sadly isn’t coming to the US, but its smaller sibling, the $349 U11 Life, is set to land here this Friday. Now, HTC’s more modest devices have had a hard time finding their footing in America, but the surprisingly capable U11 Life just might help with that.

When it comes to looks, the U11 Life is exactly what you’d expect: a shrunken version of the original. That’s no small feat considering how much work HTC sank into getting these mirror-like, IP67 water resistant bodies just right. As a result, we’re left with a reasonably priced smartphone that feels more expensive than it is. Some of the changes HTC made in shrinking the phone may actually improve the U11 design, too. Instead of glass, the U11 Life’s back is covered in acrylic — hopefully that means it won’t crack as easily as the original U11 did.

Beyond that, there’s a perfectly serviceable 5.2-inch full HD LCD screen, and it’s flanked by the same big bezels that we saw on the U11. (If you were hoping HTC would cut back on the empty space around its screens, you’ll need to check out the new U11+.) Colors on the display are bright and viewing angles are good as well; it’s generally a good panel for the price.

Same goes for the phone’s performance — it uses a Snapdragon 630 chipset and 3GB of RAM to keep things running smoothly. Sure, you can throw the Life for a loop by playing some games with graphical settings cranked all the way, but so far it’s been adept at answering Slack messages, triaging emails and playing Digimon Links. I haven’t spent much time playing with either of the U11 Life’s 16-megapixel cameras, though, so stay tuned for more on those.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

All of the U11’s gimmicks are here as well. In addition to Google’s Assistant and the occasionally helpful Sense Companion, the U11 Life is one of the few phones that uses Alexa as a virtual concierge of sorts. You can launch it with a quick squeeze, too, since the U11 Life also has HTC’s Edge Sense. Once enabled, the phone’s pressure-sensitive sides can be used to launch apps and even perform specific actions inside of them. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s much, much more flexible than Google’s implementation in its new Pixels — there, you can only use it to fire up Google Assistant.

Oh, and the U11 Life comes with HTC’s uSonic earbuds, which adjust how audio sounds based on the shape of your ear and also draws power for its noise cancellation straight from the phone. It certainly helps that the Life also supports 24-bit high-res audio, a relative rarity for a device in this price range.

Chris Velazco/Engadget

Building a $349 mid-range phone as nice as this is a big point of pride for the company, whose spokespeople admit to me that devices like the One A9 were too expensive for what they were. Not every decision the company made sits right with me, though. While there’s a spot for a microSD card, it would’ve been nice to have more than 32GB of built-in storage. And here’s the really strange bit: Here in the States, we’ll get a version of the U11 Life running HTC’s familiar Sense interface on top of Android Nougat. Everywhere else, the U11 Life will run a clean version of Oreo as specified by Google’s Android One program. In other words, we’re sort of getting shafted on software.

HTC representatives say the decision was ultimately all about timing; the company couldn’t bake the Android One build into the US version of the U11 Life without delaying its launch, and I get the impression that HTC really wanted to get this thing out the door. There’s no official word on whether the phone will ever be available in the US with stock Android, but hey, one can hope.

We’re a little more curious about HTC’s next big thing — the U11+ doesn’t count — but the Life is an intriguing option for smartphone shoppers on a budget. It’s not quite a flagship, but it’s much closer than we had expected for the price.

Source: HTC

HTC’s U11+ is a more elegant reimagining of its predecessor

With the U11, HTC showed it hasn’t completely lost its mojo. A pair of great cameras, a playful and premium glass design and pressure-sensitive sides that enable new features proved the company still has what it takes to hang with the big boys. Understandably, HTC is keen to keep riding this wave and leveraging the U11 pedigree to put its phones into more people’s hands. That’s manifested itself in two new devices: The mid-range U11 Life and a sequel of sorts, the U11+. As with any “plus” handset, you’ve no doubt deduced what the main upgrade is already. Yep, it’s got a larger display, but as a whole, the increase in handset size is practically imperceptible. If anything, the U11+ is just more refined, and that, by design, makes room for a bigger screen. Perhaps, then, it’s what the U11 could’ve, or should’ve been.

Let’s get the most obvious change out of the way. The 5.5-inch, Quad HD display of the U11 has been usurped by a 6-inch Super LCD 6 number with a Quad HD+ resolution (2,880 x 1,440). That’s an 18:9 aspect ratio, if you were wondering, and HDR10 support will arrive via a software update before the end of the year. Only, listing out the specifications doesn’t tell the whole tale. With the bigger screen comes a notably slicker design.

The U11+ measures up at 158.5 x 74.9 x 8.5mm, or roughly 6.2 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches. That makes it slightly taller and thicker than the U11, and actually a bit narrower. It’s also a hair heavier at 188g (around 6.6 ounces) compared with the U11’s weight of 169g (just under 6 ounces). None of these differences mean much, though, as they feel nigh identical in-hand. So how has HTC achieved this and still managed to squeeze an extra 0.5 inches of display into the thing? By jumping on the bandwagon of most manufacturers — from Samsung to Apple to LG and more — and eliminating as much bezel as humanly possible.

To do this, HTC had to move the fingerprint sensor from the front of the U11 to the back of the U11+, freeing up that area to accommodate more display, and then shaving millimeters of bezel wherever viable. The result is a seriously slick-looking machine that stands proudly beside the flagship devices already rocking this trend. And that’s the main takeaway right there. Forget the bigger screen: The U11+ is primarily just a neater, prettier U11.

If there’s one trade-off, it’s that the U11+ only comes in the one color. A safe, deep black; no dynamic, light-catching blue or red options like the U11. The color’s officially called “Ceramic Black,” but this has nothing to do with actual ceramic. The black model still looks luxurious thanks to its “3D liquid glass” back — though this material has proven to be quite fragile (the rear of our U11 review unit cracked after receiving the most minor of knocks). Well, it looks great until you put your hands on it anyway, after which it’s more like a glass table that’s been attacked by a toddler’s greasy mitts that’ve just rifled through a bag of sticky sweets.

Truth be told there is a translucent, almost retro model that shows off the device’s NFC coil and a few other internal components. But contrary to rumor, this is a prototype that HTC may or may not decide to put into production at some point next year.

Aside from a fresh design, there are a handful of other improvements the U11+ brings, including a bigger batter capacity (3,930mAh, up from 3,000mAh on the U11). Some of this extra juice will be eliminated by the larger display, of course, so don’t go thinking you’ll get a ton of extra use out of the thing before it demands a recharge. With the U11+ being taller, the acoustics of the frame are different. HTC says this has led to a 30 percent increase in the max volume of the device’s BoomSound speakers, and the company chucked in a slightly better subwoofer for good measure, too.

Whereas the U11 boasted an IP67 dust- and water-resistant rating, the U11+ surpasses that with an IP68 certification. In simple terms, it’s slightly more resilient to water damage. The U11+ also ships with Android 8.0 Oreo (with a layer of HTC Sense paint on top and Bluetooth 5.0 support), which hasn’t reached the U11 yet. Being, in theory, a bigger handset, HTC has added some software features to improve the one-handed experience. You can swipe down anywhere on the home screen to bring down the notification drawer, for example, or give the pressure-sensitive sides a quick squeeze to bring up a special app launcher. This wheel is customizable and has tons of slots available for easy-to-reach app shortcuts, but neither of these features really eradicate the need to use both hands in the majority of scenarios.

It’s also worth noting that the “Edge Sense” sides of the U11 and U11+ have become much more useful since the former was launched. Squeezing them in different ways doesn’t just launch the front-facing camera or summon an assistant. It’s more a remappable button these days that offers bespoke functionality in a number of apps. You can use the gesture to zoom in on Google Maps, say, or turn the pages in the Kindle app, with more actions being added all the time.

Under the hood, the U11+ is almost carbon copy of the well-equipped U11. We’re talking a beefy octa-core Snapdragon 835 processor paired with 6GB of RAM and 128 gigs of expandable storage. This is the configuration the majority of Europe will receive, anyway, with a down-sized 4/64GB version coming to other markets. The U11’s excellent 12-megapixel primary camera has made the transition faithfully, and HTC says it’s actually a little better on the U11+ thanks to some fresh software optimization. The front-facing camera, on the other hand, has taken a hit.

Where the U11’s 16MP selfie-cam sits, the U11+ has an 8MP shooter, but still with a wide field of view. You gotta think something had to give in trimming the fat from the top bezel. Otherwise, you still have your choice between HTC’s Sense Companion, the Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, and a pair of USonic noise-cancelling USB-C earbuds included in the box.

If all this sounds pretty tempting, hold your horses. There are no plans as yet to bring the U11+ to the US, and in most markets the device will only be sold online by HTC, meaning you have to pay for the thing outright. And it’s not exactly cheap. Pre-orders of the new handset will start on November 20th, and in the UK it’ll cost £699 (nearly $927). That’s £100 more than the U11, and puts the U11+ in the same territory as the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 8. Still, there are more than a few even pricier handsets out there, making the U11+ a seriously competitive option if you’re into the slick new look and other upgrades.