HTC U23 Pro Review: Little More Than Nostalgia

Worth When Reviewed

Unavailable within the US

These of a sure classic will hear the title ‘HTC’ and assume again wistfully to the early days of the smartphone revolution, when the Taiwanese producer appeared like the one one able to taking the combat to Apple.

The corporate is a a lot diminished power nowadays, having flogged a lot of its smartphone enterprise to Google and shifted its focus to VR with the Vive headsets. HTC nonetheless maintains a minor curiosity within the smartphone enterprise, nonetheless, and the HTC U23 Professional makes for a stunning and attention-grabbing new mid-range contender.

Design & Construct

• Flat, angled plastic rim and plush plastic rear
• Considerably hefty at 205g and eight.9mm thick
• IP67 rated

HTC was famend for its envelope-pushing smartphone design work, however the HTC U23 Professional is gunning for cost-effective dependability. Its flat plastic rim, plastic again, and flat show don’t precisely resurrect reminiscences of the HTC One M7.

There are thrives to be discovered right here, however they’re extraordinarily understated. That flat rim, for instance, is ever so barely angled, thus giving the impression that the rear of the telephone is barely smaller than the entrance.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

That plastic rear additionally has a soft-touch end that feels fairly plush, and appears quietly luxurious, particularly within the uncommon Espresso Black tone that my assessment mannequin is available in, which tints in the direction of darkish brown within the mild. You may also seize the telephone in a extra orthodox Snow White if you want.

The U23 Professional’s show is coated in Gorilla Glass Victus, which is sweet and difficult for a mid-range telephone. You additionally get nearly flagship-level mud and water certification, courtesy of an IP67 ranking.

As understated as this design is, it might’t disguise the truth that the HTC U23 Professional is a quite giant, heavy telephone. It’s 8.9mm thick, and it weighs 205g, which doesn’t make it uncomfortable to cart round by any means, nor does it disappear into your pocket.

You do get a pair of loud (if considerably tinny) stereo audio system, and that further thickness permits the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack on the highest edge. Authentication is dealt with by a fingerprint sensor housed inside the energy button on the suitable edge, which is dependable, if not particularly speedy.

Display screen

• 6.7in FHD+ 120Hz OLED
• Color accuracy manner off the mark
• Auto-brightness flaky

HTC has given the U23 Professional a 6.7in OLED show with an Full HD+ decision and a 120Hz refresh price. That feels like a aggressive spec record, and it’s notably good to see 120Hz enabled by default quite than having to scramble round within the settings menu.

Nevertheless, this is likely one of the most disagreeable shows I’ve used shortly. It primarily comes right down to the display screen’s overly vibrant colors.

Every of the three color mode choices (Pure, Boosted, and Adaptive) is extraordinarily punchy and oversaturated, making the whole lot from net content material to video footage look gaudy. Possibly the nostalgia of the HTC model fed into this, however I used to be put in thoughts of the early days of Android smartphones, again when Samsung’s preliminary OLED panels went slightly loopy with the colors.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Certain sufficient, working the HTC U23 Professional by means of an ordinary check utilizing a colorimeter confirmed that none of those modes may very well be deemed color correct, not less than in case you’re speaking in regards to the common sRGB color area that the majority content material is calibrated for.

It will get to an affordable brightness of 488 nits with auto brightness switched off. Switching auto brightness on led to some freaky behaviour, with the display screen going from too vibrant to too darkish in blended circumstances.

Along with an obvious lack of HDR10 and Dolby Imaginative and prescient help, the HTC U23 Professional show looks like a lower-grade OLED element than we’re accustomed to coping with within the £500 class.

Specs & Efficiency

• Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor
• 12GB of RAM
• 256GB storage, microSD slot

The HTC U23 Professional runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, which is a mid-range chip that we haven’t seen in too many handsets earlier than. Maybe essentially the most high-profile current instance has been the Xiaomi 13 Lite, with which the HTC U23 Professional is a direct competitor. It’s additionally within the Motorola Razr 40.

As with that fellow Xiaomi mid-ranger – and aided by a powerful 12GB of RAM – the HTC U23 Professional runs decently, enabling you to flit between apps and skim by means of menus at a silky 120Hz. As talked about within the earlier part, unlocking the telephone utilizing the fingerprint sensor isn’t the speediest course of.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Gaming efficiency is stable, with physics-heavy console racer Wreckfest working comfortably (if not completely) on medium-to-high settings.

In CPU benchmarking phrases, the HTC U23 Professional tops the Xiaomi 13 Lite, ties with the Nothing Cellphone (1), and falls nicely in need of the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion and the Poco F5. In relation to our normal GPU benchmarks, the HTC ties with the Xiaomi 13 Lite and the Nothing Cellphone (1), however is obliterated by the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion, the Poco F5, and even the Pixel 6a.

HTC U23 Professional benchmarks

Briefly, then, the HTC U23 Professional performs adequately inside its class, however players can get a lot quicker for comparable and even fairly a bit much less cash.

One last standout spec is the supply of 256GB of inside storage as customary, plus the potential for extra by means of a microSD slot. Bravo for going the additional mile right here, HTC.

Cameras

• 108Mp important digicam with OIS
• 8Mp ultra-wide, 5Mp macro, 2Mp depth
• Struggles with lighting extremes

The HTC U23 Professional’s digicam system is each inch the mid-range performer. Which may sound superb, on condition that it is a mid-priced telephone, however with the Pixel 7a (and now discounted Pixel 6a) accessible for manner much less, it’s not more likely to impress anybody.

It’s a wonderfully stable set-up, led by a 108Mp important sensor with OIS (optical picture stabilisation) and EIS (digital) stabilisation, in addition to a large f/1.7 aperture. This leads to reasonably sharp, pleasingly natural-looking pictures in first rate lighting. HTC doesn’t punch colors up an excessive amount of, which many mid-range producers are likely to do.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Its limitations began to be uncovered when taking pictures on a sunny day, the place the whole lot regarded washed out and murky because the U23 Professional didn’t compensate. In different pictures the place the brightness didn’t encroach on the scene an excessive amount of, I noticed hints of overexposure within the background.

At different instances, when making an attempt to take a close-up of a beer glass in entrance of a much less sunny harbour scene, the U23 Professional obtained the tone proper, however took three makes an attempt to lock on to the foreground topic.

There are points on the reverse finish of the brightness scale, too. Low mild pictures with the devoted Evening mode energetic yielded a lot of grainy artefacts, largely evident in darkish skies. OIS would possibly nicely be in play right here, however the sensor clearly isn’t large, and HTC’s picture processing doesn’t appear to be up there with the higher mid-range producers.

The secondary cameras aren’t something to jot down house about both, with an 8Mp ultra-wide the one different sensor of word. The 5Mp macro and 2Mp depth sensor aren’t actually price greater than a cursory point out, with the macro specifically too hit or miss – with far more misses than hits. As is typical, they’re actually there to bump up the variety of cameras in an try to impress.

There’s a 32Mp selfie digicam round entrance, however regardless of its comparatively pixel-packed nature, it’s not a powerful performer. All of my selfie pictures had been extraordinarily smooth with overexposed backgrounds, whereas portrait mode yielded a lot of bizarre artefacts across the fringe of the topic.

Battery Life & Charging

• 4600mAh battery yields mediocre battery life
• Gradual 30W wired charging
• 15W wi-fi charging help

Given the HTC U23 Professional’s thick, heavy physique and heavy use of plastic, it’s a little bit of a shock to study that it solely has a 4600mAh battery. I might have anticipated an ordinary 5000mAh cell.

Certain sufficient, I discovered the telephone’s stamina considerably underwhelming. In a day of pretty average utilization (14 hours off cost, simply over 3 hours of display screen on time), I noticed the telephone dropping to 38%. It’s common to have a great half-a-tank left to play with in such a situation.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

This disappointing consequence was borne out in the usual PCMark Work 3.0 battery check, the place the HTC U23 Professional scored an underwhelming 9 hours and three minites. That’s 5 hours lower than the Poco F5, whereas even the Pixel 7a – a telephone that’s not precisely famend for its stellar battery life – managed nearly two hours extra.

It scores slightly higher than the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion and solely rather less than the Xiaomi 13 Lite, however each of these telephones have even smaller batteries.

HTC doesn’t embrace a charger within the field, however the U23 Professional helps as much as 30W wired charging. I used a 66W charger from one other model, which yielded the telltale “Charging quickly” message, however may solely get the telephone to 24% in half-hour. A full cost took over two hours.

All of which sounds fairly detrimental, however there’s one appreciable saving grace to the HTC U23 Professional’s charging set-up. It helps 15W wi-fi charging. That’s now not as particular a mid-range characteristic because it was, with the likes of the Pixel 7a and the Nothing Cellphone (1) packing it in, however it’s nonetheless not the norm.

Software program

• Inventory-like Android 13 expertise
• Handful of stand-alone Vive apps
• No massive replace ensures

The HTC U23 Professional comes with a pleasingly stockish tackle Android 13. That is Android largely as Google meant, with menus, layouts, and app icons that will be acquainted to any Pixel or Motorola customers on the market.

HTC provides just a few elaborations, with the clock widget specifically nodding to its extra illustrious previous, however it’s nothing too elaborate.

Certainly, you possibly can argue that HTC may perform a little extra embellishing. There’s none of Motorola’s tasteful mild enhancements or gesture-based shortcuts, for instance. You additionally don’t get any of Android 13’s glorious Materials You color customisation choices, for no matter purpose.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

By way of bloatware, you get a handful of HTC’s personal Vive-themed apps, nodding to the model’s new standing as, firstly, a VR firm. With no Vive headset handy, I used to be unable to check these out. Both manner, these are stand-alone apps, and may be utterly ignored and even uninstalled.

HTC doesn’t seem like making any daring claims about ongoing software program or safety updates right here. Given the corporate’s step again from smartphone market prominence in recent times, that is in all probability comprehensible, however it’s price retaining in thoughts in case you’re intending on retaining your subsequent telephone round for a number of years.

Worth & Availability

At £499, the HTC U23 Professional prices £50 greater than the Pixel 7a, the Poco F5, and the Xiaomi 13 Lite. It’s technically the identical value as the trendy Motorola Edge 30 Fusion, however given the age of that telephone now you can get it for nicely beneath RRP.

You should purchase the HTC U23 Professional direct from HTC’s on-line store in addition to Amazon.

It’s not accessible within the US however you may try our chart of the most effective mid-range telephones.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Verdict

Whereas the HTC U23 Professional isn’t a foul telephone, it’s powerful to make a case for it on the asking value. Not with so many superb rivals providing a lot extra for comparable or much less cash.

It isn’t notably quick, it doesn’t have an excellent display screen, it doesn’t have a powerful digicam setup, it doesn’t cost in a short time, and its stamina is underwhelming. Every of its important mid-range rivals does not less than considered one of this stuff nicely, and sometimes extra.

You do get a pleasingly clear OS and wi-fi charging right here, in addition to IP67 certification, none of that are a given at this value. However when you may get the Pixel 7a, which ticks nearly all the aforementioned packing containers for £50 much less, it’s tough to see what the HTC U23 Professional brings to the desk past nostalgia.

Specs

• Android 13
• 6.7in, FHD+, OLED, 120Hz, flat show
• Facet-mounted fingerprint sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1
• 12GB RAM
• 256GB storage
• 108Mp, f/1.7 important digicam
• 8Mp ultra-wide digicam
• 5Mp macro digicam
• 2Mp depth
• As much as 4K @ 30fps rear video
• 32Mp front-facing digicam
• Stereo audio system
• Twin-SIM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6
• Bluetooth 5.2
• 4600mAh battery
• 30W wired charging
• 15W wi-fi charging
• 166.6 x 77.1 X 8.9mm
• 205g
• Launch colors: Espresso Black, Snow White