Lines Swell at Apple Stores Around the World as Customers Prepare for iPhone X Launch

As the launch of the iPhone X approaches, customers who are hoping to get one of the new devices on November 3 are lining up at Apple Stores around the world. Lines at many major stores started forming earlier this week, and some people have already been waiting for days to purchase an iPhone X.

Apple Store on West 14th Street in Manhattan with a line on Wednesday night via Instagram user checo7xdp
Apple has said that Apple retail stores will have the iPhone X available for walk-in customers, but the company has encouraged people to line up early as the device is in short supply. If pre-orders are any indication, available supply at stores could go quickly.

Apple’s Covent Garden store in London via Instagram user dviznov
While we still have just under 24 hours to go before launch in the United States, customers in Australia will be getting their devices not too long from now, followed by those in Asia and Europe, so lines are longer in those countries.

Apple’s Orchard Road store in Singapore via Yahoo Singapore
As it gets later in the day, lines, especially in the United States, will continue to grow. Once the first stores open in Australia, we’ll get hint at how much stock might be available, but it’s looking like supplies are going to be tight.

Apple Store in Sydney, Australia via Instagram user hanskristensen1980
If you’re planning to wait in line to get an iPhone X, make sure to check out our guide for some tips on what to bring and how to choose a store.

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Blizzard shows off broadcast-friendly ‘Overwatch’ features

Last week Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan explained some of the tweaks Blizzard planned to make this game easier to follow for viewers, and now a new video actually shows them off. As Blizzard prepares to launch its professional Overwatch League next year (and presents Overwatch World Cup matches over the next couple of days), it’s going all-in to make the game TV-friendly, even for people who aren’t yet die-hard eSports fans.

During the Overwatch World Cup playoffs on Friday and Saturday, viewers will see new team uniforms for each country, complete with home and away colors that include heads-up displays and special abilities that are customized to match. It should make it easier for viewers to identify (and identify with — when’s the merch coming?) each team, better than they would with the standard game’s use of blue for allies and red for enemies.

We also got a peek at the previously-mentioned overhead map and third person smart camera, which we can already see will help people stay oriented on the most intense action and where it’s happening. It’s also key for the analysts to keep an eye on who is where at all times, and break down the action post-game with a new stats layout that puts every player’s metrics on one screen. A new easily-accessible instant replay (complete with bullet-time style freezes and camera movement) can take viewers flying through the scene without making things too confusing.

Is eSports really ready for the big time? We’ll find out soon, but these changes will definitely help give a regular viewer who hasn’t heard of Twitch a reason to stick with the broadcast long enough to tell D. Va from Doomfist.

Source: Play Overwatch (YouTube)

US could charge six Russian officials over DNC email hacking

Is Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails a “hoax,” as Donald Trump maintains? The US Department of Justice reportedly doesn’t think so. It has identified six Russian government officials involved in hacking the DNC and using the information against candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. Prosecutors have enough evidence to bring charges against those individuals by next year, according to a report from the WSJ.

The information supports claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin is behind a coordinated effort to influence US elections, as US intelligence has claimed since last year. Talks about a criminal case are in the early stages. The inquiry is being conducted by Robert Mueller, in cooperation with federal prosecutors and agents in Washington, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Philadelphia, according to the report. The team has identified both military and intelligence hackers.

Russians hacked DNC emails and the account of 2016 Democrat campaign chairman John Podesta, according to insiders. Thousands of those emails were made public by Wikileaks at the time, something that likely impacted voting in the 2016 presidential election. No charges were ever brought against Clinton or any Democrats over the contents of the emails.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.

Trump has called the claims of Russian DNC hacking “a big Dem scam and excuse for losing the election.” US intelligence officials, however, have maintained that Russians were indeed behind the hacking. “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election,” it assessed in January.

Mueller’s team has already obtained a guilty plea from Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos in relation to his Russian dealings, and has filed numerous, serious charges against Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate, Richard Gates.

Facebook recently admitted that a Russian disinformation campaign reached 126 million users during the presidential election with ads that attempted to influence US users by exploiting social and political divisions, among other tactics. Sources say the Russian DNC hacking is not unlike the Yahoo attack, which allowed Russian hackers to steal the information from at least 500 million accounts, among the largest in US history.

It would difficult for the Department of justice to arrest any Russian officials. However, charges would make it nearly impossible for those folks to travel. More importantly, if charges are brought sometime next year, they will no doubt shine a floodlight on a case about which, so far, there has been little information.

Source: WSJ

MIT students trick an AI into classifying this turtle as a gun

We’re relying increasingly on AI to be able to detect things, from exotic states of matter to recognizing specific faces, but how easy is it to fool these mechanisms? That’s what researchers wanted to find out. A group of students took on the task of figuring out how exactly to reliably and consistently trick a neural network into consistently misidentifying an object.

They used what’s called an “adversarial image,” which is a picture that’s designed to trick this kind of intelligent computer program. It uses specific patterns to fool the AI. It’s not about what the image looks like; it’s about the pattern that’s in, or overlayed on, the image. It can be added as an almost invisible layer over an existing image. But these adversarial images don’t always work properly; properties like zoom, cropping, angle and other transformations can often corrupt or weaken the adversarial image, and result in a positive detection. The students were interested in figuring out how to create an adversarial image that would fool an AI every time.

The MIT-based team was able to generate an algorithm that would reliably fool an AI using adversarial images and could be applied to both two-dimensional images and 3D printing. These images will trick an AI, regardless of the angle of the object. The team fooled Google’s Inception v3 AI into thinking a 3D-printed turtle was a rifle. You can read the full paper on their results at arXiv.org.

It’s important because this issue isn’t limited to Google — it’s a problem in all neural networks. By figuring out how people can fool these systems (and demonstrating that it can be relatively easily and reliably done), researchers can devise new ways to make AI recognition systems more accurate.

Via: The Verge

Source: labsix, arXiv.org

Samsung’s 43-inch Frame TV is now available for $1,300

The 43-inch version of Samsung’s 4K TV that can disguise itself as an art piece is now available on Samsung.com and various retailers in the US. It’s the latest entry in the Korean conglomerate’s “The Frame” series, following the 55- and 65-inch versions’ debut back in June. This one will set you back $1,300 — definitely not cheap, but relatively more affordable than the biggest variant that will cost you $2,799.

Like its bigger siblings, the smallest Frame displays artwork when it’s not playing any show or movie. In addition to the 100 pieces of preloaded artwork, you can buy more from Samsung’s Art Store, which has over 400 pieces of artwork on offer curated by organizations, galleries and museums. The TV comes with a single transparent cable so it can look like a painting when you want it to look like a painting. Want to ensure it blends with your decor? You can buy bezels with different designs for $180 each. Because, hey, if you’re buying an expensive TV that would look good displayed in your home, you might as well go all out.

Since it could be hard to convince people to purchase a pricey experimental TV, Samsung is showcasing the 43-inch Frame at Starpower’s Southlake, Texas showroom on November 7th, 6 to 8 PM. That event’s exclusive to a select group of people, but don’t worry: We also took videos and photos of the Frame at IFA 2017 in Berlin, which you can check out right now.

Apple might share iPhone X face data with developers

Despite Apple claiming it securely stores your encrypted face info on the iPhone X, Reuters is reporting that the company permits developers to access “certain facial data” with user permission. This includes a visual representation of your face, and over 50 facial expressions.

Face ID was always going to be the iPhone X’s most talked about feature. With it, the days of fingerprint authentication could be numbered, replaced by face biometrics. But, there’s something about your mugshot being stored with Apple that’s (understandably) got people shook up. Senator Al Franken already pressed the firm on the security concerns the tech raises — prompting a response. Now, it’s the turn of privacy advocates. In the report, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology warn that the info could fall into the hands of marketers.

We know Apple’s Face ID tech works by using a mixture of camera sensors and neural networks to grab a mathematical model of your face. And, like Touch ID before it, Apple is granting developers access to its Face ID API, enabling them to use the unlock mechanism on all your fave apps — including secure banking and payment apps. But, the latest revelations suggest Apple is allowing devs to make off with more data than it is letting on. The same data reportedly cannot unlock the phone, because that functionality is limited to the overarching mathematical model. Reuters adds that Apple’s developer agreement forbids app makers from sharing the info with marketers. And, that those who break the rules risk getting kicked from the App Store.

But, privacy groups fear the company won’t be able to adequately police how devs use the info, which could lead to it finding its way to marketers. That, in turn, would result in more targeted ads, but these would use the tech to track your facial reactions (like a smile, or a raise of an eyebrow). Naturally, that kind of tracking data would be a goldmine for advertisers. But, it’s also important to note that Apple’s app review policy makes it extremely difficult for bad actors to get away with violations. Yet, with more than 2 million apps in the App Store, privacy experts warn that some may slip through the cracks. We reached out to Apple for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Source: Reuters

Privacy Experts Raise Concerns Over iOS Developer Access to Certain Pieces of Facial Data

The iPhone X’s facial recognition abilities continue to be found at the center of privacy concerns, with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology today raising questions over how “effectively” Apple can enforce certain privacy rules surrounding face scanning (via Reuters). Specifically, the privacy defending groups are worried about how certain pieces of facial data can be taken off the iPhone X by developers who seek to create entertainment features with the new smartphone’s facial software.

Facial data that is used to unlock the iPhone X — or data related to “Face ID” — is securely stored on the device itself and not in iCloud. However, Apple will let developers take certain pieces of this facial data off the user’s iPhone “as long as they seek customer permission and not sell the data to third parties,” according to terms seen in a contract by Reuters. This means that developers who want to use the iPhone X’s front-facing camera can get a “rough map” of the user’s face, as well as a “stream of more than 50 kinds of facial expressions.”

The data that developers can gather — which can then be stored on the developer’s own servers — is said to help monitor how often users blink, smile, or even raise an eyebrow. Although this data can’t unlock the iPhone X, according to documents about Face ID sent to security researchers, the “relative ease” with which developers can gain access to parts of a user’s facial data and add it to their own servers has led to the new concerns raised by the ACLU and CDT today.

That remote storage raises questions about how effectively Apple can enforce its privacy rules, according to privacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology. Apple maintains that its enforcement tools – which include pre-publication reviews, audits of apps and the threat of kicking developers off its lucrative App Store – are effective.

[…]But the relative ease with which developers can whisk away face data to remote servers leaves Apple sending conflicting messages: Face data is highly private when used for authentication, but it is sharable – with the user’s permission – when used to build app features.

According to Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU, the privacy issues surrounding facial recognition in the context of unlocking a smartphone “have been overblown.” Stanley explained, “The real privacy issues have to do with access by third-party developers.” The experts concerned about Face ID in this context are also not worried about “government snooping,” but more about marketers and advertisers tracking how a user’s expression reacts to their ads.

Apple has strict policies against developers using face data for advertising and marketing, but those concerned groups cited worry about the company’s “inability to control what app developers do with face data once it leaves the iPhone X.” Stanley said that “the hard part” for Apple will come from having to find and catch the apps that might be violating these policies, meaning that the big household names probably won’t be of concern to Apple, “but there’s still a lot of room for bottom feeders.”

Now that the iPhone X is in the hands of reviewers, many have said that Face ID works quite well in many different conditions. Some outlets have taken to try and fool Face ID with large pieces of clothing, sunglasses, and “twin tests,” the last of which have come back with mixed results. In its ongoing efforts to reassure customers of Face ID’s security and privacy, Apple released an in-depth security white paper in September to highlight and explain some of these features of Face ID.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTag: Face IDBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Apple Expected to Report Strong Summer Earnings of $50B+ as Focus Shifts to iPhone X Launch Quarter

Apple is set to report its earnings results for the fourth quarter of its 2017 fiscal year at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time today.

The fiscal quarter reflects Apple’s sales between July 2 and September 30 of 2017.

Apple provided the following guidance for its fourth quarter back on August 1:

• revenue between $49 billion and $52 billion
• gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent
• operating expenses between $6.7 billion and $6.8 billion
• other income/expense of $500 million
• tax rate of 25.5 percent

Apple’s guidance suggests the company will report at least its second best fourth quarter earnings results in its history.

Wall Street analysts forecast that Apple will report $50.7 billion revenue and earnings per share of $1.87, according to 29 estimates averaged by Thomson Reuters.

A quarter-by-quarter look at Apple’s revenue since the 2009 fiscal year:Fourth Quarter Revenue
• 2013: $37.5B
• 2014: $42.1B
• 2015: $51.5B
• 2016: $46.9B
• 2017: $49B+

MacRumors.com compiled fourth quarter estimates from several financial institutions and analysts tracking Apple and the company’s stock. The figures are listed below, ranked from highest to lowest in quarterly revenue.

Apple’s fourth quarter earnings results will provide the first official indication of how well the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 are selling. The devices became available to pre-order on September 15, just over two weeks before the quarter ended, and launched in stores one week later on September 22.

Multiple reports have suggested that demand for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus has been tepid, but that could be a side effect of pent up demand for the iPhone X. Apple staggered the release of its high-end smartphone, for which pre-orders began October 27, nearly six weeks after the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

The most interesting takeaway will be Apple’s guidance for the quarter we’re in right now, which encompasses the launch of the iPhone X and the busy holiday shopping season. Over the past year, analysts have repeatedly predicted the highly-anticipated device will drive a significant “supercycle” of upgrades.

A high guidance range would suggest that Apple expects the iPhone X to sell very well, while a lower one would suggest that either demand is lower than thought or that Apple continues to face issues with ramping up supply of the device.

In addition to iPhone sales, investors will be looking for continued growth of Apple’s services category, which includes the likes of the App Store, iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, and licensing fees. Apple’s services revenue grew 22 percent to an all-time record of $7.3 billion last quarter.

Apple’s services category has become the size of a Fortune 100 company, according to chief executive Tim Cook.

Cook and Apple’s financial chief Luca Maestri will discuss the company’s earnings results on a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. MacRumors.com will transcribe the call as it unfolds for those unable to listen.

Tags: earnings, AAPL
Discuss this article in our forums

1Password 7 Launching With Support for iPhone X, Face ID, Drag and Drop on iPad, Quick Copy, and More

AgileBits today is releasing 1Password 7 for iOS with several new features, just one day before the iPhone X launches around the world.

1Password has been redesigned with the iPhone X’s new screen size and dimensions in mind. The app now supports Face ID for unlocking with the iPhone X’s facial recognition system, in addition to the existing options of using Touch ID on older iPhone models or manually typing in a master password.

An all-new feature called Quick Copy makes it quicker to copy and paste usernames, passwords, and one-time passwords into apps that don’t support the 1Password extension. Simply open 1Password, copy the username for an app, switch to that app, paste your username, and then switch back to 1Password.

Without needing to do anything else, 1Password will put the password on the clipboard, meaning you can switch immediately back to the other app and paste it. If you’re logging into a site or service that supports one-time passwords, you can repeat the same app switching process to quickly get the one-time password.

1Password 7 also has a redesigned Favorites tab with drag and drop support on iPads running iOS 11 or later, support for Handoff across iOS devices, keyboard shortcuts for external keyboards, and a slightly refreshed app icon.

1Password is a popular password manager for securing usernames, passwords, credit cards, addresses, notes, bank accounts, driver’s licenses, passports, and more behind one master password, with end-to-end encryption. A built-in password generator lets you create strong, unique passwords and memorizable pass-phrases.

1Password 7 will be available today as a free update on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. An individual subscription costs $2.99 per month, which includes hosted service across Mac, iOS, Android, Windows, and 1Password.com.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: 1Password, Face IDBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

HTC U11 Life review

Research Center:
HTC U11 Life

The HTC U11 has it all: A gorgeous design, a great camera, smooth performance, and good battery life. But like most other Android flagship smartphones, it’s expensive at $650. To reach a wider audience, HTC’s bringing similar features and the U11’s design to the new U11 Life, all for just $350. In our review, we like what we see with the HTC U11 Life, and what you get for the low price tag makes it absolutely worth it.

A similar gleam of sapphire

The HTC U11 Life is a smaller, lighter U11 twin — put the two together and it’s hard to note many differences other than size. The U11 Life sports a 5.2-inch screen, as opposed to the the 5.5-inch U11. It makes the phone feel far more compact, though, making it easy to access the other side of the screen in one-handed use.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Weight is also an easy tell, as the U11 Life is 27g lighter than the U11. That’s largely due to the choice of build materials. The more expensive U11 is wrapped in glass, and it features the “liquid-glass” material that helps it give off a reflective shine. The Life feels more plasticky, but HTC mimics the shiny sapphire gleam with acrylic, a type of polymer.

The sapphire blue U11 Life is a little more muted in color; it’s not as shiny, and it doesn’t change colors in different lighting. It’s still unique, attractive, and you only have to worry about shattering the display’s glass if you drop it. The rear is fairly minimal, as you’ll only find a circular camera at the top, a flash next to it, and the HTC logo below.

On the right edge of the phone is a textured power button below the volume rocker. These buttons are a little too low for our liking, as we found we often have to shift the U11 Life up a little to tap the power button. One handy workaround, though, is to double tap the lock screen to wake or turn off the screen.

The HTC U11 Life’s sapphire gleam is still unique, and it looks attractive.

The low buttons also make it harder to use Edge Sense. This is a feature first introduced in the HTC U11, which lets you squeeze the bottom part of the phone to trigger an action, from opening Google Assistant to flicking on the flashlight — whatever you fancy. Google liked this feature enough to license it from HTC for use in its new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones to activate Assistant. It’s now in the $350 U11 Life, and it works as advertised, though you have to make sure you don’t hit the power button. We should note, I have large hands, so this may not be a problem for other people.

Like most phones in its price range, the U11 Life doesn’t have skimpy edges around the screen, or what’s known as a “bezel-less” design. You’re out of luck if you want an HTC phone with this look in the U.S., because the just-announced U11 Plus, which has ultra-thin bezels, and a 6-inch 18:9 screen, isn’t coming to the U.S.

At least it’s not empty space — the fingerprint sensor, which doubles as a home button, sits on the bottom chin, and it’s flanked by two capacitive Android navigation buttons that light up when in use (or when the screen is on). The front-facing camera rests at the top, to the right of the earpiece.

HTC opts for a USB Type-C charging port like most flagship Android phones, but it’s situated oddly on the bottom right edge. The company told us the fingerprint sensor prevented placing it in the usual center spot, but we didn’t have any issues with the odd location. USB-C is both faster charging and more versatile than MicroUSB, which made it nice to see in this price range. Most budget Motorola phones, like the Moto G5S Plus, still use MicroUSB.

There’s no headphone jack, but that’s hardly a surprise considering HTC hasn’t used included one on most of its phones this year. Instead, you’ll get the company’s USB-C USonic headphones in the box. They’re decent — maybe a little too bass-heavy — but they adapt to the shape of your ear (after a quick setup process) and they offer Active Noise Cancellation. The noise cancellation is marginal, and there’s a strong hissing noise that’s distracting. Still, it’s nice USB-C earbuds are included in the box.

The only speaker, on the bottom edge at the center, can get fairly loud, but don’t expect much. It seems to artificially boost bass a little, but the highs sound pretty good.

Thankfully, HTC uses Bluetooth 5, which is a newer version of the technology that offers faster data transfer and improved range. It’s a welcome feature, especially considering the flagship Huawei Mate 10 Pro removes the headphone jack but only uses the dated Bluetooth 4.1.

The U11 Life is IP67-rated, making it one of the most affordable water-resistant phones on the market. It’s tough to find a good phone with water-resistance, and the only comparable product in this price range is the Moto X4.

An average display, but surprisingly good performance

The 5.2-inch LCD screen offers a standard 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, and it’s nothing to write home about. It doesn’t get as bright as we’d like and it’s not as colorful as an OLED panel, but it’s still barely visible in direct sunlight. Still, everything looks sharp and we didn’t have any major qualms with it.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Performance, on the other hand, surprised us. The HTC U11 Life is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 630 processor, with 3GB of RAM. Not many phones have this new chipset, but we saw it recently in Motorola’s Moto X4. We think the U11 Life performs better than the Moto X4, but the benchmark results are comparable.

• AnTuTu: 71,397
• Geekbench 4 CPU: 855 single-core, 4,078 multi-core
• 3DMark Sling Shot: 817

These scores are marginally better, if not the same, as what the Moto X4 received. For example, the Moto X4 scored 70,217 on AnTuTu, and 840 on 3DMark. The U11 Life did beat out the X4 on single-core in Geekbench 4, but it’s down in multi-core. Benchmarks aren’t the be-all end-all of performance, but we’ve generally noticed everything on the U11 Life is a little smoother, with fewer snags, than the X4. It’s a good middle-ground between what you’ll find on slightly cheaper phones like the Moto G5S Plus and the Moto G5 Plus, and flagship-priced phones with the Snapdragon 835, like the Google Pixel 2 XL.

Performance, on the other hand, surprised us.

Scrolling through apps like Twitter was speedy, and the phone opens apps swiftly — though still a tad slower than a flagship phone with the Snapdragon 835, like the U11. We did run into a occasional stutter, but overall we’re satisfied with performance on this phone. Games like Transformers: Forged to Fight and Loner ran well without any glaring problems.

The HTC U11 Life comes with 32GB of storage, but there’s a MicroSD card slot that lets you increase it up to 2TB if you need more space.

Android 7.1.1 and three assistants

The U.S. model of the HTC U11 Life runs Android 7.1.1, overlaid with HTC’s Sense user interface. This means you’ll find quite a few HTC apps — some bloatware — and Blinkfeed, which shows you news articles you may like and even ads (you can turn ads and even Blinkfeed off). It’s not great that the U11 Life isn’t shipping with the most recent version of Android, Android 8.0 Oreo, which has been out since August. But before you protest, HTC said the Oreo update will arrive by the end of November, perhaps even for the HTC U11. That’s impressive, as there still aren’t a lot of phones that have received 8.0 Oreo.

HTC’s user interface feels a little cluttered and clunky, but it’s all easily manageable and there’s a lot of theming you can do to personalize the phone’s look. Most of the software looks like pure Android, and it’s easy to follow and use.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

There are three artificial assistants on board, which can make things confusing, but it also provides you with more options. There’s Google Assistant, which you can activate via Edge Sense, by pressing and holding the home button, or by saying “OK Google.”

Then there’s Amazon’s Alexa, but unlike the HTC U11, you can’t use a voice trigger to activate it. This is because the Snapdragon 835 in the U11 allows for two wake words, but the Snapdragon 630 does not. So you can either map Alexa to Edge Sense, or just open the app and start talking. There are no visual cues with Alexa, so you’ll strictly have to rely on its voice when using it. We prefer using Google Assistant particularly for this reason, but Alexa support is a welcome backup if you have Echo devices in your home.

The global model of the U11 Life will not run Sense UI, rather Android One instead.

The third assistant is one we’ve seen in prior HTC phones — Sense Companion. It’s not a voice assistant, but it will float on your home screen when it wants to offer up some relevant information based on the time of day and where you are, such as weather alerts, nearby food recommendations if you’re in a new city, and more. It gets better the more you use your phone, but we haven’t had much use for it in the week we’ve used the U11 Life.

Overall, the software is customizable to your liking, and while there’s some clunky UI elements and bloatware, it’s still better than other devices that tack on heavy Android “skins” or “themes” that bog down the system.

You should know the global model of the U11 Life will not run Sense UI, but Android One. It’s a pure Android version of the operating system, with just pre-installed Google apps, Edge Sense, and a promise to receive fast version and security updates as soon as Google releases them.

Say cheese! But stay very still

The U11 Life’s camera is markedly better than any other phone in its price range and below, but it’s still the weakest part of the phone.

It utilizes a 16-megapixel rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture, and the photographs it takes can be good, but most of the time they’re ruined due to the lack of optical image stabilization. You need to be very still to prevent any blurriness, as most of our photos ended up with a slight blur. Details aren’t that sharp, and there’s a lot of grain unless you’re taking a photo in broad daylight. Low-light isn’t great either, as images offer poor detail and they look a little blotchy.

What’s worse is the slight shutter lag, which is the amount of time from when you tap the shutter icon, to when the camera captures a photo. It’s virtually non-existent on higher-end phones like the iPhone X or Pixel 2, but there’s a noticeable delay on the U11 Life.

Still, color accuracy is pretty good, and were genuinely surprised at some photos taken with HDR. It’s unfortunate you have to put so much time and energy on staying absolutely still to try and get a good photo in focus.

Shutter lag and a lack of optical image stabilization hobble just about every budget phone. We’ve had the same issues with the comparably-priced Moto X4, for example, though the shutter lag was much worse.

Despite the unusual 16-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, there’s not much interesting here. Slight movements, again, can produce blurry photos, and selfies can be quite grainy in anything other than direct sunlight.

Average battery life

The HTC U11 Life has a 2,600mAh battery capacity, and it may not last you a full day with heavy use. After taking it off the charger at 8 a.m., we used it to browse the web, play some music and games, download dozens of apps, watch a YouTube video or two, run benchmarking apps, and take photos. The end result was 17 percent charge by 5:30 p.m.

HTC U11 Life Compared To

Moto X4 Android One

Sony Xperia XZ1

LG X Venture

Moto X4

Alcatel Idol 5S

Lenovo Moto G5 Plus

ZTE Axon 7 mini

Meizu Pro 6

Huawei Honor 8

Nextbit Robin

Huawei Honor 7

Huawei P8

Motorola Droid Turbo

Sony Xperia Z3

LG G2

That’s not bad, considering the workload we pushed on the U11 Life. You’ll be able to use the phone for just about full day, though with heavy use you may want to bring a portable battery pack or charging cable. If you’re a light user, this phone will easily get you through a day.

There’s nothing remarkable about the U11 Life’s charging speed. We saw it go from 15 percent to 50 percent within 35 minutes.

Price, availability, and warranty

The HTC U11 Life is available unlocked from HTC’s website for $350. The only carrier that’s selling the phone is T-Mobile, and it will be available on November 3 at a lower price. We’ll have to wait to see T-Mobile’s deal.

HTC offers a standard limited warranty that protects your device of manufacturing defects for one year since the date of purchase.

Our Take

HTC’s U11 Life will catch your eyes with its sapphire gleam, and your wallet will thank you. It offers great performance and water resistance, though the battery is average and the camera is hindered by shutter lag.

Is there a better alternative?

It’s a tough call in this price range. The Moto X4 is $50 more and shares many of the same specifications and features as the U11 Life, but we’re not fans of the camera at all.

The Moto G5S Plus has a mediocre camera, but only slightly diminished performance, and it’ll set you back $280. It has a metal build, but it’s not water-resistant and it doesn’t look good.

For better performance and camera, you’ll have to look to the $480 OnePlus 5. It has the Snapdragon 835 processor, and a good dual camera that lets you use fun features like Portrait Mode. You may want to wait, as there are rumblings of a OnePlus 5T in the works.

How long will it last?

HTC has been improving its speed in providing software updates for its phones. Case in point: The HTC U11, which arrived this summer, is going to get Android 8.0 Oreo later this month. That’s far better than most manufacturers. Still, we expect this phone to last no more than two years. Since it’s low on the totem pole, we can’t even guarantee a version update after the second year.

It’s IP67 rated, so it can handle a dip in the pool. There’s no glass on the back, so you only need to make sure you protect that screen.

Should you buy it?

Yes. At this price range, the HTC U11 Life is the best phone you can buy. We think it’s better than its closest competitor, the Moto X4, and it certainly beats the Moto G line.

Editor’s Recommendations

• Everything you need to know about the HTC U11 Life and HTC U11 Plus
• HTC U11 review
• Squeeze for actions in your apps with HTC’s Edge Sense update
• HTC’s Green is Good sale slashes prices on the HTC U11, HTC U Ultra, and more
• How to use Amazon’s Alexa app on your smartphone