Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC finally unveiled its new flagship phones under the 2017 HTC "U" series through a live stream event on Youtube. The HTC U Ultra and U Play smartphones sport impressive specs and new "liquid surface" casing design, alongside its own brand of AI assistant, called "Sense Companion."
During the whole live stream event, HTC unveiled a slew of devices that represents its new concept phones and new AI assistant this year. Among its new smartphones, the company has set its spotlight on its two new flagship phones under the "U" series.
The said event launched the new HTC U Ultra and U Play devices, which revamped its look and casing design compared to its previous models. For both smartphones, HTC engineered a casing with glass shiny and mirrored finish, Digital Trends reported.
HTC called the glass casing a "liquid surface" type of design, which technically brands as the Optical Spectrum Hybrid Deposition. Despite the fragile and glassy look, HTC U smartphones are built to withstand a normal fall from about 1.6 meters, or the common height of taking selfies.
In addition, the HTC U smartphones features a flat Gorilla Glass screen of varying sizes. The U Ultra has a larger display dimension that measures 5.7-inch Quad HD (2,650 × 1,440 pixel) Super LCD screen, which sports a smaller 2-inch screen above it that comparable to LG's V10 and V20 phones.
The smaller U Play packs a 5.2-inch Full HD (1,920 × 1,080 pixel) Super LCD screen, but contains no extra screen.
Another highlight on the U smartphones is its new AI assistant, the HTC Sense Companion, which is a close kin of Siri and Google's Assistant. Darren Sng, VP and head of global product marketing at HTC, stressed how HTC's mobile companion is coming at a new perspective of AI.
"We can understand more than Google can," Sng said. "We can provide meaningful AI even without [Google's Assistant because we] can understand the patterns between apps and the usage. You enable us to understand you," he furthered.
The HTC Sense Companion allows voice recognition mechanism, which is backed by some impressive hardware. This AI assistant can also allow users to navigate their phone, accept or reject phone calls, snooze or dismiss alarms, and other minor workflows.
In its internal chassis, the HTC U Play smartphone is powered by MediaTek's Helio P10 processor, a 3GB or 4GB of RAM, depending on the built-in storage which is 32GB and 64GB, iPost has learned. On the other hand, the HTC U Ultra is fueled by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 chipset. It comes with 4 GB of RAM and a built-in storage of either 64GB or 128GB.
The HTC U Play will be available in selected global markets only, while pre-order for HTC U Ultra already started on Jan. 12. No official price tags on the smartphones are released.