HTC U11 review: A powerful Android phone that knows how to have fun

Good performance, bland battery

The U11 runs off Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chip, which wasn’t available in time for the U Ultra launch. The difference between the two processors isn’t all that great, but it’s nice to know the U11 has the latest-greatest chip inside.

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But even without a massive speed boost over the prior model, the U11 is still a beast of a performer. Like the S8, the phone zips through tasks and switches apps effortlessly, but it feels like we’ve reached a level where all phones perform basically the same. The U11 is plenty fast, but like the Galaxy S8, neither benchmarks nor real-world testing show it running circles around the G6 or even the Pixel.

One thing HTC hasn’t upgraded in the U11, however, is the battery. Like the U Ultra, it has a 3,000 mAh battery, but with the smaller screen, it’s much better prepared to keep the phone powered through the better part of a busy day. It’s no Galaxy S8, mind you, but it beats the LG G6 in our preferred battery test.

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In our benchmarks it got about seven hours of use, and real-world testing bore that out. On long trips, you’ll want to keep a battery pack nearby just to be safe, but the U11 should get you through to the end of most days. The U11 supports the Quick Charge 3.0 standard (which will fill a half-drained phone in about a half-hour), but doesn’t have built-in support for wireless charging.