HTC U11 Plus review: A better phone than its predecessor, but Snapdragon 835 processor may be outdated sooner

An HTC U11 smartphone, the predecessor of the U11 Plus.Reuters/Tyrone Siu

The HTC U11 is one of the best devices in the past year, and it helped put HTC on the map once again as one of the leading smartphone manufacturers worldwide. The company recently released the HTC U11 Plus, a revamp of the previous model. The phone is great, but it seems the timing of its release is its greatest disadvantage.

For instance, the HTC U11 still uses a Snapdragon 835 chip. This is a powerful processor, indeed. But the problem is that the brand-new Snapdragon 845 will be in upcoming phones soon, most of which are expected be released later this year. So for those who plan to upgrade their phones this year, there seems little sense in upgrading to a Snapdragon 835 if an 845 model is to be made available soon.

This is the biggest con with the HTC U11 Plus, for the most part. It also lacks a headphone port but seeing that Apple's iPhone pioneered that design choice, most people are probably used to using wireless headsets by now.

However, let it not be said that the HTC U11 Plus is not without its advantages. The design is sleek and trendy, as the company decided to use a bezel-less design for the display. However, the screen still uses liquid crystal display (LCD) technology.

Most flagship phones nowadays use active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) technology, so this means the colors in the U11 Plus will not be as "punchy" as in the Samsung Galaxy S9 or the iPhone X.

As for battery life, the HTC U11 Plus is no pushover. The phone can go through a marathon of the "Star Wars" original trilogy with no problem and lots of power left over. What's more, it has fast charging technology which refills 50 percent of the 3,930 mAh battery in 30 minutes.

The HTC U11 Plus is available now, and costs around €799 (or £699).