HTC U11 Life

VERDICT

The U11 Life provides a cheaper alternative to HTC’s flagship U11, but £349 is too expensive for what you get

- Christopher Minasians

HTC HAS BEEN extremely busy in the past year, and not just because a chunk of its team was bought by Google for a cool $1.1 billion. It’s also launched a flurry of smartphones based –frequently loosely –around its flagship U11 (Shopper 355), including the larger U11+, the dual-front-camera-equipped U11 Eyes and this, the stripped-down, slightly more budget-friendly U11 Life.

At a glance, the HTC U11 Life isn’t a radical departure from the regular U11. Its display is slightly smaller, at 5.2 in to the U11’s 5.5 in, but they share the same general design. On the back, for instance, the U11 Life is coated in the same beautifully coloured ‘liquid glass’, which glares different shades of blue or black depending on the angle that light catches it.

CHANGE OF CLOTHES

The material used is slightly different: it’s made from acrylic instead of proper glass, not that acrylic is any less prone to picking up plenty of fingerprints. The design does have its benefits, though: its rounded edges make the phone comfortable to hold and easy to tuck away in jeans pockets. Better still, it’s IP67 dust- and water-resistant, so will survive a dunking in up to 1m of fresh water for as long as 30 minutes.

Elsewhere, as with the original U11, the volume rocker and ribbed power button are sensibly placed on the right edge, with the solitary USB Type-C port on the bottom edge. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, although to make up for this you do get a pair of HTC U Sonic USB Type-C earphones included in the box.