Android One has arrived in Europe, and HTC is one of the first manufacturers to ship an affordable, Google-branded phone. The Android One badge made its debut in India and parts of Asia, as Google emphasized quality software on super-cheap hardware. But with its latest round of "One" handsets, the prices are higher, the products more premium, and the hand on the software rudder a little firmer.
The Android One U11 Life — unlike the T-Mobile U.S. version we reviewed separately, running HTC Sense — runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box, and comes with the promise of timely updates to future versions. It takes the fundamentals of HTC's flagship Samsung Galaxy Note 4 parts and downscales it into a smaller size, while trimming the specs back to the essentials.
There's a Snapdragon 630 processor — Qualcomm's latest mid-ranger, and the successor to the very capable 625/626 — along with 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32 or 64GB of storage, plus microSD. I've been using the 3/32GB model for the past couple of weeks, however the UK will be getting the more capacious 4/64GB model when it goes on sale.
From the outside, the U11 Life is a reasonable approximation of the full-grown U11 — at least visually. The reflective, curved back panel is as eye-catching as ever, but in the hand, the "acrylic glass" feels somewhat cheaper than the real thing. Same deal with the plastic borders around the sides of the device.
Many phones around this price point incorporate metal or glass designs, but I'm still fine with the U11's not-quite-glass exterior. The feel isn't a million miles away from the standard U11, with the main difference being the weight.
The U11 Life also boasts water and dust resistance, like the U11, with an IP67 rating.
Around the front, a 5.2-inch 1080p LCD panel gives the U11 Life a display that's bright and punchy, but not too oversaturated. Viewing angles are impressive, and I encountered no issues using the display out in bright daylight.
A 5.2-inch screen is a step down from the much larger displays we're seeing at the high end, but these dimensions, particularly with a 16:9 aspect ratio and off-screen keys, remains something of a sweet spot for easy one-handed use.
Like its namesake, the U11 Life sports ample quantities of bezel in all directions around its display, most noticeably around the chin, which accommodates the phone's speedy fingerprint scanner. It's not quite as instantaneous as what you'll find in a high-end phone, but the (very slight) delay in unlocking isn't really bothersome.
As an Android One device, the software of the U11 Life is mainly a Google-centric experience. It's pretty much stock Android 8.0 Oreo, with a couple of HTC touches where it makes sense. The most obvious of these is the camera app, which is literally just the U11's camera app with a different icon, along with includes HTC's excellent HDR Boost — an always-on post-processing feature similar to the Pixel's HDR+.
In daylight, or moderate indoor light, HDR Boost allows the U11 Life to produce some striking images with rich colors and impressive dynamic range, but in darker conditions, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 spare parts soon runs into the physical limits of its hardware. The f/2.0 lens and 16-megapixel camera, without OIS, means that night photography quickly becomes grainy and/or blurry, unless you're able to stabilize the camera and shoot a longer exposure in Pro mode.
Ironically, the front-facing camera, also a 16-megapixel unit behind an f/2.0 lens, seemed to hold up a little better in darker conditions — possibly just because of the kinds of photos I was taking.