It was only last month when HTC officially announced its new U series, the HTC U Ultra and U Play, but here we are now at the devices’ launch event right here in Malaysia. As the Taiwanese company’s latest series of smartphones, the U Ultra and U Play pack respectable hardware with prices to match.
In comparison to previous HTC smartphones, the U Ultra and U Play sport a new – and quite mesmerising – glass front and back construction; gone are the conventional brushed aluminium look and all-metal body. Personally, I really dig HTC’s new design language – it’s a refreshing change.
As for hardware, the U Ultra features a 5.7-inch 1440p Super LCD 5 display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor paired with 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, a 3,000mAh battery, as well as HTC Sense based on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. The U Ultra is also equipped with 12MP rear and 16MP front-facing cameras, a fingerprint sensor, along with a unique 2.05-inch 1040 x 160 secondary display placed near the top right of the device.
A tier down is the HTC U Play, and it has a 5.2-inch 1080p Super LCD display, a MediaTek Helio P10 processor paired with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, a 2,500mAh battery, 16MP rear and 16MP front-facing shooters, as well as Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
The HTC U Ultra will be available at all official HTC retail outlets and online stores in Malaysia from early March onwards. The U Play, on the other hand, will go on sale in end March. The U Ultra will retail at RM2,999, while the more affordable U Play will go for RM1,899.
