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CHRIS VELAZCO: HTC
has been facing

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trouble in the mobile
business for years now.

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And I think we're
getting to the point

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where it's better known
for its VR headsets

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than it is for its smartphones.

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The new HTC U12-plus was
supposed to change that.

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It is a powerful
handset smartphone

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that, on paper at
least, has everything

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it needs to compete with
the biggest and the best

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in the industry.

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Before we go any further,
though, just know this--

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the U12-plus gets a lot right,
but we can't really recommend

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it over any of the other
flagship smartphones

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you can buy out there right now.

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Let's start with the
good stuff first.

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We've been testing the
translucent blue U12-plus.

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And, man, this phone is
really, really pretty.

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HTC has just finished it.

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It's striking, in an
atomic purple Gameboy

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color kind of way.

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And even though
companies, like Xiaomi,

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are doing translucent
phones now,

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too, U12-plus' metal and
glass design feels gutsy,

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in a subdued sort of way.

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Just be aware that this
is a handful of a phone.

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And it probably won't
work at all for people

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with really small hands.

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While it doesn't stretch across
the entirety of the phone's

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face, the U12-plus'
6-inch 18 by 9 super

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LCD 6 screen is also
a pleasure to look at.

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Emulate screens
still have the edge

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when it comes to vibrant
colors and really deep blacks.

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But HTC's choice of screen
here honestly left us

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with little to complain about.

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We just wish it were
a little bit more

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readable under bright sunlight.

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The U12-plus sounds
pretty good, too.

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There's a set of stereo
boom sound speakers wedged

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inside the device,
and they're much nicer

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than the usual hideous
sounding drivers you usually

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find inside smartphones.

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We don't know that you should
listen to an entire album

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on this thing.

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But you could, and
not feel like you've

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completely wasted your time.

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There is, unfortunately,
no headphone jack here.

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But HTC almost makes
up for it with it's

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included uSonic earbuds.

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The buds themselves
form a nice tight seal

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when inserted into the ears.

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And the phone whips up a
specialized audio profile

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to tune music specifically
for your ears' nuances.

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Even better, the buds draw power
through that USB-C connection

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to power their active
noise cancellation, which

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definitely helped a
few recent flights

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feel more bearable than usual.

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And with a Snapdragon 845
chipset plus 6 gigabytes of RAM

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inside, the U12-plus
is undeniably fast.

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We've been multitasking
on this thing.

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We've been playing PUBG Mobile.

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Hardly anything we've
thrown at this device

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has been able to give it pause.

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The lone exception seems to
be HTC's own sense interface,

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which sits on top
of Android 8.0 Oreo

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and has come to feel
a little overwrought,

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compared to some of
the lighter approaches

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we've seen HTC's
competitors take.

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While a little
software optimization

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would have gone a long way,
there's still little question

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that the U12-plus has
more than enough power

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for just about
anyone's daily routine.

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While Google and
Samsung often get props

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for making the best
smartphone cameras,

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we would caution you
to not sleep on HTC.

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The photos this thing can churn
out can be fantastic sometimes.

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We're working with
a dual camera that

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melds a 12 megapixel
primary sensor with a 16

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megapixel telephoto sensor.

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And you can use them in tandem
to fill portrait backgrounds

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with bokeh, or zoom
up to two times

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with no loss in image quality.

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These features work well enough.

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But they're almost a distraction
from how good that standard

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12 megapixel camera is.

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Our test shots came through
with loads of detail

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and very accurate
color saturation,

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although you will notice
the auto HDR mode makes

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the roll in front
of the camera look

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more lively than in reality.

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Using the camera in low light
was also super impressive,

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if only for the minimum noise
that showed up on our shots.

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Throw in the ability to shoot
4K video at 60 frames per second

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with 3D audio recorded by
the phones four microphones,

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and we're left with
what feels like one

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of the most versatile smartphone
shooting options around.

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So, yeah, as we've
said, U12-plus

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does well on many fronts.

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It also falls short
in some notable ways.

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And we think one of
them is a deal breaker.

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As good as the U12-plus'
rear dual camera is,

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its front-facing dual camera
leaves a lot to be desired.

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The two 8 megapixel sensors
wedged in above the screen

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give you proper
portrait selfies.

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But it's almost too
aggressive at smoothing out

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the foreground.

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The end results
are softer photos

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than we'd like,
to the point where

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the camera also
seems to be smoothing

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out the faces in the frame.

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We've seen better results from
photos, like the Pixel 2, that

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do all that background
blurring in software, without

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the benefit of a second camera.

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Meanwhile, HTC's
Sense Assistant lives

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alongside both Google Assistant
and Alexa on the U12-plus.

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And it's meant to thoughtfully
offer reminders and suggestions

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throughout the day.

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You know, stuff like you should
bring an umbrella, when there's

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rain in the forecast, or
restaurant recommendations,

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as you wander between
neighborhoods.

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We've been testing U12-plus
for more than a week now,

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and we have received precisely
zero helpful notifications.

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Thanks, I guess, HTC.

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Battery life also is
pretty unremarkable.

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We were hoping to
see HTC squeeze

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a big battery into this
kind of unwieldy body.

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But nope!

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There's just enough
juice in here

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to last about one
full day of use,

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although that figure tends to
drop with more consistent use.

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And then there's
Edge Sense, too.

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It's neat in theory,
but it's ultimately

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one of the most
divisive, inconsistent

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things about the U12-plus.

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You see, the phone size
are pressure sensitive,

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so they basically turn the
phone's body into a button.

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Give the phone a squeeze,
and it'll perform an action.

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Hold that squeeze, and it
performs a different action.

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It might sound a little
strange, but being

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able to squeeze the
phone's launch Alexa

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or Google Assistant or even
camera is really handy.

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No wonder Google ran
with the same idea

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in its most recent pixel phones.

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You can also create
your own F-shortcuts

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by recording your
taps on the screen,

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or double-tap the
sides of the phone

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to launch a one-handed
mode, so you can reach

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icons from across the screen.

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Here's our big problem,
though, the phone

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itself doesn't have real
volume or power buttons, just

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little nubs that the phone's
pressure sensing system

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can differentiate.

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The problem is the
amount of pressure needed

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to actually press
one of these buttons

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can feel wildly inconsistent.

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Sometimes a normal
tap does the trick.

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Other times we've had to
press really, really hard

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to get any kind of reaction.

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To be fair, the
so-called power button

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didn't have nearly as many
issues as the volume keys,

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which we struggled
with almost daily.

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We could maybe live
with lackluster selfies

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and an AI assistant that
doesn't really assist very much.

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But, man, when you can't
count on a phone's buttons

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to do what they're supposed
to do on a daily basis,

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there is something
really wrong here

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Just to be safe, we asked
HTC for another unit to test.

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And it worked only a little
bit better than our originals.

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All told, we've
collectively tried

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out four different U12-pluses.

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And the fact that the buttons
still perform differently,

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despite having the same
supposedly retail-ready

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software is, frankly,
quite concerning.

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For what it's worth, HTC
is aware of the issue.

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And the company says it's going
to try and improve performance

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with a post-launch update.

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More fine-tuning may fix
the issue eventually,

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but as it stands these
pressure sensitive buttons

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kind of ruined an otherwise
great smartphone experience.

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And that's honestly a
shame, because this phone

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gets so much right otherwise.

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Hopefully that gets cleared up
soon, because, in the meantime,

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we simply can't recommend a
phone that misses the mark

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on basic functionality.

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