HTC U Play Is U Ultra's Small Brother With Mid-Range Specs, Same AI Technology

The HTC U Ultra may be the new smartphone from HTC that’s gathering a lot of attention right now, but it isn’t the only new smartphone that HTC announced this week. The Taiwanese company also introduced the smaller mid-range HTC U Play.

The exterior of the HTC U Play uses the same glass material that’s also wrapped around the U Ultra. This is one of the most significant design changes from HTC as the company is mostly known for using an aluminum body design.

Although the materials used are the same, the overall look of the U Play is distinct from its bigger brother. On the back, the camera module is circular instead of square, and it also doesn’t come with a secondary ticker display up front.

In terms of specs, the HTC U Play comes with pretty solid innards but aren’t as premium as the U Ultra’s. The handset comes with a 5.2-inch full HD 1080p display and is powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor paired with 3GB/4GB of RAM with 32GB/64GB of internal storage. There’s also microSD card support allowing users to expand storage up to 2TB.

The shape of the camera on the HTC U Play isn’t the only thing that’s different. The device is equipped with regular 16MP camera instead of the 12MP UltraPixel that’s on the U Ultra. It also lacks laser autofocus technology and can only record videos in full HD 1080p and not 4K. However, both devices do share the same 16MP UltraPixel camera up front.

On the software side of things, the HTC U Play will run Android 7.0 Nougat with HTC Sense running on top. The great thing about this is that HTC also included the Sense Companion in the U Play. The Sense Companion is the company’s own AI digital assistant that will let users control their phone using voice commands.

Although both handsets share the same AI tech, the Sense Companion is able to take advantage of the secondary display on the U Ultra by showing notifications, as pointed out by Phone Arena. Another difference is that the U Play only comes with two microphones instead of four to listen to the user’s voice commands.

HTC didn’t give out the price or release date of the HTC U Play, but it did say that it will be out in early 2017 in “select global markets,” according to Android Authority.