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Verdict
The HTC U11 Plus is a great phone likely to be rapidly eclipsed as 2018's new models appear. Its tech is really that of a 2017 phone, which makes sense given this is primarily a design update of last year's HTC U11.
Unless you're desperate for lossless camera zooming or shallow depth of field photos, though, this doesn't really matter.
Having used the phone for a while the one bit we'd really like to change, or get rid of to be more precise, is the camera’s shutter lag.
Who's this for?
The HTC U11 Plus is for people who don’t want an iPhone and don’t want a Samsung. That’s the core of it, because we find it hard to believe many really consider the phone’s squeezable sides a convincing reason to justify a £700 buy.
Should you buy it?
The HTC U11 Plus’s timing is bad. At the time of the phone’s launch, we’d be seriously tempted to see what Samsung has coming up in February (hint: it’ll be another top-end phone).
But if you’re not obsessed with having the latest tech as it appears, there are few reasons to hesitate. As long as you don’t mind the missing headphone jack, anyway.
The HTC U11 Plus is a strong phone, but here are three similarly strong alternatives.
Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus
Samsung, king of Androids, makes the HTC U11 Plus’s clearest rival. And it arrived the best part of a year earlier.
The S8 Plus is as powerful, has a similar-but-faster camera and a more dynamic design that fits an even larger screen into the same footprint. With incoming price cuts for this established phone likely, it’s very tempting.
- Read our full Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus review
LG V30
LG’s latest top-end phone is not another in the “G” series but the V30. It shares several specs with the HTC U11 Plus, including chipset and screen size. The LG has a dual-lens rear camera, but from our testing the HTC pips the V30 for image quality.
- Read our full LG V30 review
OnePlus 5T
If you want to save hundreds, look to the OnePlus 5T instead. It has the same CPU and there’s a 128GB storage option as well.
Photos taken at night may not be quite as clear, screen resolution is much lower and the casing is metal rather than glass, but considering the price, we’d think carefully about this one.
- Read our full OnePlus 5T review
First reviewed: January 2018
