On Tuesday, May 16, HTC revealed its latest flagship smartphone dubbed the HTC U11, which promises to be a game changer.
The phone has a lot of interesting features that help it stand out from the crowd, but the device's secret weapon may not be its Edge Sense controls or processing power. Instead, the phone's strongest feature may be its camera.
Taking The Top Spot
In terms of camera quality, the Google Pixel has held the crown since its launch last year. Not even the recently released Samsung Galaxy S8 could match the Pixel. In terms of photography, the Pixel has been king, but all kings must fall and Google's time may be drawing to a close.
Photography site DxOMark reviews all major smartphones for their photo quality and assigns each a score from 1-100. For the past several months, the Pixel has held the top spot with a score of 89. On Tuesday, that changed as DxOMark gave the U11 a score of 90.
"Not only is the U11 the highest-scoring phone we've ever tested, it's the highest-scoring in both still image quality and video quality, beating out the Google Pixel by 1 point in," said DxOmark. "Those who want to shoot and share their photos will particularly appreciate the vibrant colors and bright exposures of the HTC U11. Similarly, effective autofocus and stabilization will help both photos and videos look good right out of the phone.
"The HTC U11's very low noise and excellent detail preservation also allow for sharing and printing larger-sized images than with most other phones."
The U11's success isn't too surprising when you consider that HTC is the company that built the Pixel.
Should We Care?
At first glance, smartphone cameras might seem less important than other features such as RAM, battery life, or processing power, but in fact, cameras are one of the most important features in terms of driving sales and differentiating between brands.
According to a 2015 study conducted by Zogby Analytics, 72 percent of millennials in the United States consider their phone's camera to be "very important." When one considers the fact that millennials are the largest target demographic for smartphone manufacturers, then HTC's decision to heavily invest in a high-quality camera makes a lot of sense.
Price, Release, And Other Details
If the HTC U11's camera intrigues you then you'll be pleased to know that it is launching within the week. HTC has announced an early launch on May 18, with a full launch this June. Some of the features won't be available until this summer, but the camera should work out of the box.
With recent rumors pegging the iPhone 8's price at upwards of a thousand dollars, it should come as a relief that the U11 will only cost $649, making it cheaper than the competition from Apple or Samsung.
