14 DAY TRIAL // HTC introduced the HTC U Ultra on January 12, right after CES 2017. Pre-orders for the premium smartphone launched during the first month of the year, but the company had announced that the phone wouldn’t be released in the US before mid-March.
HTC has decided to speed up things a bit and announced that pre-orders have started shipping in the US. The shipments are restricted to members of the HTC Elevate community, while general shipments are set to start on March 9.
HTC Elevate is a private, members-only community that includes top HTC fans and supporters from around the world. Customers who place an order for the HTC U Ultra on the company’s website in the US would see their phone ship on March 10.
HTC U Ultra launches in Japan on March 10
The premium HTC smartphone currently goes for $749 in the US, for all of its three color variants, Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black, and Ice White. The phone recently went on sale in India with a price tag of about $900, while the price in China reaches $740. Japanese fans will soon be able to buy the premium phone, as it’s set to launch in the country on March 10.
In the US, HTC U Ultra is offered unlocked and is compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, Alaska Communications and all GSM/LTE service providers. Verizon and Sprint customers won’t be able to use the unlocked version, and it’s unclear if they will get a special CDMA/LTE model.
HTC U Ultra comes with high-end specs that would justify its $749 price tag. It has a 5.7-inch Quad HD display and a secondary screen of 1040 x 640 pixel resolution. It runs Snapdragon 821 SoC, which is not the latest chipset, but it does a good job when coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable internal memory. Battery capacity reaches 3,000mAh and the phone runs Android 7.0 Nougat with HTC Sense UI on top.