Today at IFA 2018, HTC took the wraps off its latest smartphone known as the U12 Life. It’s a less-powerful and cheaper version of its big brother, the U12 Plus, and even includes some features the more expensive version lacks.
Onboard, you’ll find a glass design with the U12 Life which heavily resembles the original Pixel, what with the two-tone backplate and middle-mounted fingerprint reader. On the front sits a 6-inch LCD 2160×1080 display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, you’ll find a Snapdragon 636 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage with microSD expansion.
In terms of cameras, HTC includes a dual sensor system on the back comprised of a 16MP main shooter and a secondary 5MP lens. Meanwhile, there’s a 13MP sensor up front. All three come with f/2.0 apertures, HDR compatibility, and LED flashes. The ones on the back are also capable of shooting up to 4K video at 30 frames per second.
For software, HTC is sticking with its usual Sense UI modifications on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. HTC hasn’t said when the U12 Life will get Android Pie which is pretty unfortunate, but what more could you expect from an Android phone company other than Google?
In addition, the U12 Life comes with a 3,600mAh battery, a USB-C port, a headphone jack (something the U12 Plus doesn’t have), and 128GB of storage in Taiwan.
According to HTC, the U12 Life will come in Moonlight Blue and Twilight Purple and cost £299 when it launches in Europe later next month. Other territories will follow. The company said it isn’t bringing the phone to the US.
