The HTC U Ultra is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 SoC. That’s the same internals as the HTC-built Pixel and Pixel XL, as well as the LG G6.
It’s not quite in the same power bracket as the Snapdragon 835, which powers the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium, as well as the HTC U11, but it’s a very capable contender.
Matched up with 4GB of RAM, the phone rarely missed a beat in ad hoc testing across a range of productivity and entertainment apps. The HTC U Ultra did score marginally lower than similar devices in our standard benchmark tests, but not to a level where it appeared problematic against similar hardware.
The Snapdragon 821 is still outclassed at a benchmark level by devices using Apple’s A10 Fusion processor or Samsung’s Exynos processor, but it’s a good premium performer for a device of its age nonetheless.
Handset | Geekbench 4 CPU Single Core (higher is better) | Geekbench 4 CPU Multi Core (higher is better) |
---|
Huawei Mate 9 | 1925 | 6068 |
Apple iPhone 7 Plus | 3374 | 5649 |
Apple iPhone 7 | 3452 | 5599 |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | 1359 | 5333 |
Samsung Galaxy S7 | 1378 | 4718 |
Apple iPhone SE | 2449 | 4171 |
Google Pixel XL | 1629 | 4051 |
Motorola Moto Z | 1477 | 3853 |
HTC U Ultra | 1648 | 3848 |
Sony Xperia XZ | 1636 | 3604 |
In graphics performance, the HTC U Ultra is particularly impressive, edging out other competitor devices, excluding Apple’s current run of iPhones:
Handset | 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Result |
---|
Apple iPhone 7 Plus | 37956 |
Apple iPhone 7 | 37717 |
HTC U Ultra | 29968 |
Apple iPhone SE | 29276 |
Samsung Galaxy S7 | 28903 |
Google Pixel XL | 28458 |
Huawei Mate 9 | 28457 |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | 28402 |
Sony Xperia XZ | 26279 |
Motorola Moto Z | 25629 |
The HTC U Ultra borrows a trick from the LG V20 (and in some ways, Samsung’s S7 Edge and Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+) in that it features a second display screen.
You’ll find it at the top of the primary 5.7-inch display, to the right of the front-facing camera lens. Like most secondary screens, it’s essentially a notifications portal that pops up to display emails and other incoming messages, as well as optional notes, music playback and quick contacts access. HTC hasn’t reinvented the secondary display, but its use in the HTC U Ultra is as good as we’ve seen it anywhere.
There was a time when Android overlays provided by manufacturers were a thing of horror, taking over the whole experience and leaving you in a buggy mess. Thankfully, those days are long behind us, with HTC’s Sense overlay giving just a few tweaks here and there and not taking too much of a performance hit with it.
The HTC U Ultra doesn’t come with Google Assistant. HTC has gone its own way with its own "Sense Assistant" feature. It's largely still the same core idea of matching up your tracked activities and interests in order to provide you with tips, analytics and suggestions based on your lifestyle.
It’s one of those systems that should grow smarter the more you use it, but our early examination of the feature suggests that while it’s no smarter than other competing solutions, there’s certainly the prospect of it enhancing your phone usage. That’s as long as you’re happy with HTC having that kind of data in the first place.
The HTC U Ultra’s fingerprint sensor, which also acts as its home button, is a little thin, but we had few problems getting it to register our touches. The same can’t be said for the capacitive back and app list buttons. All too often we’d try to hit them only to find they didn’t register and we’d have to try again. Maybe it’s the positioning size against the U Ultra’s frame or maybe it’s finding the sweet spot to get them to register every time. Either way, it’s annoying.
Back to top