Hey Guys,
So I am typing this NOT to argue or start a a fight so please don't respond rudely. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I value everyones and if they want to rate this phone a 45 then that's their opinion too. But I just don't understand what is going on outside of Apple & Samsung Fansites that only score those phones highly. Yes I know there's others like Pixel, Mate 9 etc.
My point is there is definitely bias in a lot of these reviews.
I think what it boils down to is HTC has made a lot of mistakes on their last few phones and lost what used to be a really solid fan base.
I am a phone junkie, I've had ALL of them. Right now I have the HTC U Ultra in Blue and the Xiaomi Mix Mix. SO this is just a casual observation from the cons they listed.
HTC has always made gorgeous displays. The U Ultra is no exception. The screen is vibrant and sharp. I am a audio/video junkie I have a top of the line OLED TV so I am picky when it comes to colors and vibrance and I see nothing wrong with their display. Could it have been an AMOLED , sure. But it's not, still looks exceptional.
- Second screen - Here we go with biased both LG (the V10 and V20) and Samsung (with every EDGE phone) has had some sort of second screen whether physical LG or Samsung (which you swipe) to get into. These panels are shortcuts and honestly serve no hardcore purpose on ANY of these phones. I like having some app shortcuts, I like the contact little window and I like the message preview and clock. Yes HTC chose not to have their always on. It's a simple tap to light it up. Not that hard folks. The always on actually annoyed me on the LG V Series because everytime it moved, I thought I had an email or message. But what it all boils down to is NONE of these second screens are particularly neccessary YET HTC is the only one being ripped apart for theirs.
- Terrible battery life. - Yes they could have crammed a bigger battery in here. My guess is they were trying to save some money, because financially they ain't doing so hot, so they used all the 3,000ma batteries they had leftover from the HTC 10's that they didn't massive amounts of. But I do agree with the above poster, while not great, the AVERAGE user will be fine with it. Yes you might have to bring you're charger to work or Starbucks but at least it charges fast. Yet again I regress....there's been lots of phones where they say the battery life is terrible and don't get ripped apart like this. People were just expecting (myself included) MORE from HTC to make up for the past and seeing a lower spec battery is disappointing but they really do need to save money. They haven't had a hit since the M8 guys. I'm a pretty average/sometime heavy user and it lasts me just fine, yes I need to charge at the end of the day but I'm usually home so it doesn't matter.
- No headphone jack - Apple is doing this, are people going to trash them like they are HTC , NOPE, because it's Apple. I do agree that only letting you use the HTC headphones or the Adapter dongle you order from them does suck, at that price, should have been included. But doesn't this tell you something about HTC and their character, phone just came out everyone complaining it's too expensive, what does HTC do....they lower the price. At least they listened, unlike some companies. But no headphone jack is the future and coming to all sooner or later so why get mad at them for it now.
- Laughably Expensive - For not including the dongle and stuff like that yes. But for a premium phone which despite what you say , it does have premium specs. Yes it could have had the Snap 835 but Samsung bought them all, the LG G6 didn't get it either and that phone is getting rave reviews. Laughably expensive is $1000 dollars for an S8 Plus or iPhone 7 Plus but people will pay it, even though Apple's inside tech is mostly from 2007, just better software. I think now it 599.00 it's a completely fair price.
- Last one and arguably the one that pisses me off the most - Unnecessarily Larger phone with attracts fingerprints like no other. That is complete BS. I'm sorry but it is. EVERY AND I MEAN EVER phone that has had glass backs now has been a disgusting, grimy fingerprint magnet. But these phones were not picked apart for it even though being so much more expensive (and HTC even throws in a microfiber cloth, which NO other company does because they don't care)....let's see I just has a black LG G6 and fingerprints were insane. I went into Best Buy and played with the black S8 and the Grey S8 Plus and as demo models I flipped them over and the layer of fingerprint grime was so repulsive. I wiped it down to see it in all it's glory , played with it for about 5 minutes and turned it over looked exactly the same when I picked it up. But are they going to smash the S8 for this. Nope. They say something like but you'll probably have a case on it anyways. That can be said about the HTC as well and thing their Sapphire Blue is just stunning.
Every Samsung Phone since the S6 line and I mean every except active series - were ALL horrible fingerprint magnets. The Note 5 and 7 were both horrible but the Note 7 was the best phone ever, despite the sudden combustion. Go read review from the Note 7 and nowhere in the cons do people mention fingerprints as much as they are doing with the HTC Ultra.
The Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus that was sold out for months, fingerprint magnet.
Sony phones all of them since they've done glass backs since the beginning.
Huawei Honor 8 - blue, black and white glass....all horribly covered in grime.
The Xioami Mi Mix which I am using right now which used to cost 1200 bucks is a all black ceramic phone and smudges LIKE NO OTHER.
Point is glass get fingerprints, especially if you get a darker color. But don't nitpick at one phone for it and EXCUSE ALL the other phones from being a con in there review.
- SIze - It's a big phone. But to be honest, it's more weight that's an issue the size. It's heavy. Size sohuld even be discussed....go on to GSMArena and use the compare tool and compare to some best selling, highly rated phablet phones - you will see that ALMOST ALL of them are pretty close in terms on size with the U Ultra but are they unreasonably large...no no no. Check it for yourselves....almost the same exact size as the S6 Edge Plus which every loved and they had to up production of.
Give HTC a chance. DId they nail it with the U Ultra.....hell no. But is it a step in the right direction for them...yes. Stop focusing on the bad and try mentioning some of the things that NO ONE mentions for some reason.
LG puts a new 18.9 aspect ratio on the G6 with HDR and Dolby Vision and YOU cant even use it or see it because there's no source material yet but it gets listed as a pro....why? Well because, it's future proof. If apps start formatting in Dolby Vision and HDR then yes it is but so far...no go. There's not even a demo video so you can see it in action. LG always puts a demo video on there. Whatever. Let's get all stoked about a feature and give it great reviews when we cant even see it or test it out.
HTC U Ultra Pros - Beautiful construction and materials, although fragile. Buy a case. , snappy and responsive (benchmarks have already been proven unreliable), beautiful screen, speakers definitely better than Samsung which has NEVER tried to improve that lousy single bottom speaker, ADOPTABLE STORAGE, I'M SUPRISED NO REVIEW PUT THIS AS A PRO.....it's enabled in the software but most phone companies disable it. But with HTC pop in your SIM card and it pops up while setting up would you like to format your SD as internal storage so your 64gb can be 128 or 256 or whatever. Thats a huge plus. Fingerprint scanner works great (Part of the G6 being a grime magnet was the made the back fingerprint scanner glossy too so it smudges and doesn't want to read your fingerprint, annoying) and at least they kept it in front instead of putting in the awkward place right next to the camera lens (ahem S8). Good luck catching that quick shot only to find your camera wont focus because your lens is all smudged up. But no fear folks, Samsung built in a sensor in the software that will pop up and tell you to wipe your dirty camera lens, but that won't be annoying.
Real HTC U Ultra Cons: Price too high at first. Second screen does suffer from a little light bleed (only noticable at night), larger bottom bezel makes the capacitve buttons hard to get sometimes, No water resistance, even though this is LG's first phone to ever offer it. One HTC software thing that annoys me, always has, unable to change grid size on the home screen, makes their icons too small. I know you can use a custom launcher but Sense offers a ton of themes and customization options, so it just strikes me as weird that the one thing you can do on every other phone, HTC omits. Just let us change the grid size or make icons bigger through Stock UI.
Those are the real cons but the ones no one mentions...just all the other stuff that all other companies are guilty of too. If HTC is ever going to make a comeback the biased reviews need to stop.They need to be given a chance to comeback and once they turn a profit again I'm sure they can afford to build a high end phone with expensive materials. Just my honest review guys. Take it with a grain of salt. But don't discount the phones ever based on these reviews, to each his own, and personally don't feel the Ultra is as horrible as it's being depicted.
