HTC U Ultra with 5.7-inch QHD display, secondary display, Snapdragon 821 officially unveiled

Along with HTC U Play, HTC has also announced its latest flagship smartphone called the HTC U Ultra. The U Ultra is company's premium device in the newly announced U series of smartphones. The key feature of HTC U Ultra is its secondary display which is similar to what LG has been doing with its V series including LG V10 and LG V20.

According to HTC, the U Ultra will come in four colors — Brilliant Black, Ice White, Sapphire Blue and Comestic Pink. The smartphone will be available starting March 2017. HTC has also started the pre-order process of the U Ultra from htc.com. HTC has priced the smartphone in the U.S. at $750 - which is approx Rs. 51,015 and in Taiwan at NT $23,900 - which translates to approx US$ 754 or Rs. 51275.

HTC has also launched a limited edition Sapphire Glass variant of the HTC U Ultra smartphone, which comes with 128GB internal storage. HTC has priced this variant of the U Ultra at NT $28,900, which roughly translates to US $912 or Rs. 62000.

Similar to HTC U Play, the HTC U Ultra also comes with metal frame with front and back of the device made up of glass. HTC says that it has developed a unique process called "optical spectrum hybrid deposition" to give the glass multi-layered color. On the front of the device there's a home button beneath the main display which doubles as fingerprint scanner.

Also Read: HTC U Play with 5.2-inch FHD display, 16MP cameras, AI Sense Companion officially announced

One of the key feature of the HTC U Ultra is company's newly announced AI-based Sense Companion. Basically, it's an voice controlled AI assistant similar to Google Assistant and Siri. The Sense Companion learns from your habits using 4 always-on active microphones. It helps users in performing various tasks like unlocking phone with voice commands, manage battery to reflect your daily pattern, recommend restaurants, warn about weather and road conditions, make suggestions about your agenda and more.

Another key feature of the U Ultra is its secondary touch-screen display above the main display, similar to the LG V10 and the V20. This additional display is 2.0-inch wide and comes with Super LCD 5 display with 160 x 1040 pixel resolution and 520ppi pixel density.

The Sense Companion on the U Ultra will show notifications up on the secondary screen, so that it does not block your view of the main screen. This will also help the device save some battery when showing notifications in standby, as it won't need to light the whole display.

Following the leads of Apple, HTC U Ultra also lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack, though HTC promises high-quality personalised sound experience with USonic adaptive sound technology and 3D Audio. This tech has built-in microphones in the earbuds that figures out the optimal sound conditions for your ear by listening for sonic pulses and noise around you.

HTC U Ultra Specifications

• 5.7-inch Quad HD Super LCD 5 display with Gorilla Glass 5 (64GB variant) / Sapphire Glass (128GB variant) protection
• 2.0-inch Super LCD 5 secondary display with 160 x 1040 pixel resolution and 520ppi pixel density
• 2.15GHz 64-bit quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor with Adreno 530 GPU
• 4GB RAM
• Android 7.0 Nougat with HTC Sense UI on top
• 12MP UltraPixel 2 rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, 1.55µm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, BSI sensor, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS, 4K video recording with 3D Audio and slow-motion recording in 720p at 120fps
• 16MP front-facing camera with BSI sensor, f/2.0 aperture, UltraPixel mode, Full HD recording
• 64GB / 128GB internal storage with expandable memory up to 2TB using microSD card
• 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0
• 4G VoLTE (dual-SIM support), Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port
• Measures: 162.41 x 79.79 x 3.6-7.99mm | Weighs: 170 grams
• Sound features: HTC USonic, HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi edition, 3D Audio recording with 4 microphones
• Additional features: Motion Launch, Quiet ring on pick-up, Pocket mode, Flip to mute, Display color personalization