HTC decidedly feels like it missed the mark with its current U Ultra flagship. Announced earlier than both the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the LG G6, the phone features neither of these handsets’ edge-to-edge display and as a result loses out in one key segment: design.
To counter that, HTC is officially reducing the price tag of its mere weeks old U Ultra flagship by 20%. The price drop is likely not going to be temporary or in a handful of markets, either.
As a result of that, the phone which had a flagship-grade $749 price-tag now costs $599, which is still a lot but perhaps a better ask for the phone which has received lukewarm reviews almost universally.
More-importantly, the U Ultra now costs as much as $50 less than the G6 as well as $120 less than the Galaxy S8. The U Ultra failed to get enough momentum ever since it launched. Reviewers found its lack of a headphone jack disappointing, its second display gimmicky and its camera sub par. More-importantly, the scratch-prone glass design of the phone (which is not water or dust-proof) matches nowhere near the quality or looks of the Galaxy S8 or the LG G6.
With the price drop in place, the phone finally has one major advantage over its competitors, though, it still doesn’t guarantee a shift in fortunes.
HTC U Ultra Specifications
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
- CPU: Quad-core (2×2.15GHz & 2×1.6GHz)
- GPU: Adreno 530
- OS: Android 7.0 Nougat with HTC Sense UI
- Supported Networks: 2G, 3G, 4G LTE; Dual-SIM
- Design:
- Dimensions: 162.4 x 79.8 x 8 mm
- Weight: 170 g
- Fingerprint Sensor
- “Liquid Surface” glass back
- Display:
- 5.5-inch Super LCD5 with QHD (1440 x 2560 ) resolution (513 ppi)
- Secondary display, 160 x 1040 pixels, 2.05 inches
- Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (64GB variant), Sapphire crystal glass (128GB variant)
- Memory:
- RAM: 4 GB
- Internal: 64/128 GB
- Card slot: yes, by up to 256 GB
- Camera:
- Primary: 12MP, f/1.8, 26mm, OIS, Laser and phase detection autofocus,, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, 4K video
- Secondary: 16MP, 1080p video
- Connectivity: Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi direct, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.2 GPS, USB Type-C v3.1, NFC, LTE
- Battery: 3,000mAh
- Price: $599
It’s phones like this from HTC that helped companies like one plus, xiaomi and ZTE established themselves as the budget tier flagships when old boys like LG, Samsung, Huawei and Sony went the way of the Apple.. Uber prices for social statements..
HTC should have remained in the middle price point and would have dominated but instead was running a race it wasn’t ment to…
Xiaomi packs quality components at an impressive price. HTC simply can’t compete with their high priced offerings. Even Xiaomi Mi Mix is an expensive phone but lack of bezels have won many hearts and people are impressed with the ceramic body.
Xiaomi has a different business model than HTC, and that is exactly my point, What Xiaomi does great is not relying on their sales of hardware, but earn revenues through their software eco system hence their phones always are and will be on the break-even price point. One+ has a different model than HTC, they create devices which are “flagship killers” and makes them appeal to the more budget yet techie crowd and with the greatest of controls over supply and demand (invites for the first 2 offerings) they have not ventured into the risky side of business of high inventory of left over unsold stock. ZTE has taken an initiative to penetrate most territories not yet ventured by pure Chinese brands and therefore gained ground by offering good phones (Nubia / Axon) on the cheapest of prices.
what do they all have in common, they all used to be minor/ non existent when HTC dominated the market and now are well ahead when it comes to sales / profit from HTC. The components and prices do not matter here, its simply the story of a company which has lost touch with its core customer base and now is in a sad downward spiral. hopefully they recover and still come to the party but with phones like these and with these prices it really doesn’t seem like happening !
HTC is long dead… only stupid people in Pakistan give it significance. World has moved over. Had htc not given money to apple for each phone like Samsung they might still be in the game. In China htc was well known around 2011 but later their own brands took over. Vivo, oppo and others have improved a lot. LeEco , Meizu , Xiaomi are now leading world over
Yeah agreed… Although htc’s build quality and software optimization is among the best one but still its not any close in the competition with the top tier phones of today.
You can get a phone with similar specs called LeEco le max 2 for 200 dollars with shipping.
Cheaper may not be of good quality…
Good quality LG ki hai???? LG is known to produce weak solders in their devices. Many bootloops are due to that. Even nexus line is not safe.
“The price drop is likely not going to be temporary or in a handful of markets, either.”
1) If you had done your research properly, you would know that the price drop is until 23 April so your statement that ‘price drop is likely not going to temporary’ seems ignorant.
2) The phone is available with this reduced price only on HTC’s USA website so my question is from where exactly did you come up with this ‘handful of markets’ ?
Regarding two other matters, firstly I have noticed that you do not provide any sources/links in your articles. Simply copying information from other websites and then writing in your articles is wrong.
Secondly, the image you used in the title’s background belongs to AndroidPIT. In their review of the U Ultra, the image clearly has ‘© AndroidPIT’ written right beneath it. If you don’t know what that means, then you shouldn’t be writing articles in the first place. The link I am talking about is the following but I guess you already know it (sarcasm) :
Yea they usually want to publish news which get more views.