Review of the smartphone HTC U19e: worth buying or not

On June 12, 2019, after a long break, the Taiwanese company HTC opens the start of sales of a new mid-range smartphone from the E series - HTC U19e, which has both advantages and disadvantages. For this phone, the Taiwanese asked for a price of 475 dollars, an average of 30,500 rubles, which is high for this class of cellular devices. Will such a phone be able to compete in the market or should you choose inexpensive, but the same devices in terms of performance? Let's figure it out.

General information about the HTC U19e smartphone

First, we will identify competitors at a price of up to 30 thousand rubles. Among them are such novelties as: Honor 10 (20-25 thousand rubles), Xiaomi Mi9 (available at a discount for 28-30 thousand rubles), Samsung Galaxy A70 (24,000-31,000 rubles), Huawei P30 lite (19 000-22,000 rubles), OnePlus 6 (30,000-35,000 rubles).These smartphones were released either this year (Samsung Galaxy A70) or in the past, so the comparison with them is especially relevant.

Every time the first impression on buyers is made by the design of the phone. The Taiwanese company took this into account and made a novelty in several colors: dark lilac and light green. Both options are good, but the first one will seem more attractive to someone due to the translucent back cover, through which some components of the smartphone are visible. (Only Xiaomi Mi9 has a similar feature, only its insides are engraved on a 0.3 mm aluminum plate with a special CNC machine).

Frame

The body of the U19e is made using glass and aluminum alloy, making the device lightweight and durable. The width is 76 mm, the length is 156.5 mm, the thickness is 8 mm. The device weighs only 180 grams.

Screen

The screen is one of the most important components of every phone. Here, manufacturers have put Amoled display. Diagonal - 6 inches. The screen resolution is 1080x2160 pixels. There is support for FHD + resolution, videos are loaded in 1080p. The aspect ratio is the most popular in 2018-2019, stretched to a height of 18:9. The pixel density is 402 ppi. There are no notches and bangs so popular recently on the screen, so you don’t have to watch videos under the “visor”. However, manufacturers have made rather big bezels at the top and bottom today.

To protect the surface from scratches and cracks, the manufacturers used a protective glass Gorilla Glass, but it is better not to drop the device. Thanks to the glass, the phone will not reflect in the sun.

Specifications

CPU

As a hardware platform or processor, the novelty is a smart Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, which is created using a 10-nanometer process technology. It provides good performance in games. The number of processor cores reaches 8. The CPU runs at up to 2200 megahertz. The speed of the gadget depends on this parameter, together with the number of cores and architecture. The processor has an Adreno 616 graphics chip, which is one of the best in this price segment.

Memory

The device has an extended memory of 6 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of permanent memory (this configuration is the only one, you can’t find less). Supports microSD cards up to 2TB.

Networks, SIM cards

The phone supports GSM (operates at frequencies 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 1900MHz) - a standard type of digital mobile phone. communications for most countries, UMTS (frequencies: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz) - a type of digital communication for 3G networks with a higher speed of receiving / transmitting information, LTE (supports the largest number of frequencies: LTE 800MHz / 850MHz / 900MHz/1800MHz/1900MHz/ 2100MHz/2600MHz, LTE-TDD B28, B38, B39, B40, B41) has become the high-speed communication standard in many countries.

Note! LTE functions normally only if all frequencies in the network match.
Additionally supported are TD-HSDPA, TD-SCDMA, UMTS 384 kbps, LTE Cat15 226 Mbps and 798 Mbps, GPRS, EV-DO Rev.A 1.8 Mbps and 3.1 Mbps, EDGE, HSPA+: HSDPA 42 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps.
There is support for the following navigation systems: Dual GPS, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou (Chinese GPS, an analogue of our GLONASS).

Wi-Fi operating modes: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11n 5GHz, 802.11ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Dual band, Wi-fi Hotspot.

There is a dual sim (supports two SIM cards). The size of the SIM card is Nano-SIM.

Software, gauges, sensors

At the time of the release of the smartphone for sale (June 12, 2019), the latest version of the Google firmware Android 9 Pie was installed as software. The interface differs from the stock 9th android in some Chinese chips, for example, the icons of some applications have been changed.

The device has built-in modules: NFC, fifth-generation Bluetooth, Touch ID, accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, gyroscope, compass, iris scanner.

Battery, supported charging types, connectors.

The smartphone of this series has a standard 3930 mAh lithium-ion battery, which ensures good autonomy of the device and can be used for playing games or watching movies. Active games require more performance, so the charge of any phone will be consumed much faster. In order not to wait for several hours until the phone is charged, manufacturers have added support for Quick Charge 4.0. Naturally, the smartphone has the popular USB Type-C connector. Through USB HTC U19e can be charged, transfer data, the On-The-Go (OTG) function is also available, which allows you to connect USB devices without using a computer.

Camera Overview

Recently, sales of any brand new phone depend not only on its performance, but also on how the novelty takes pictures. Let's make the best possible overview of the rear and front cameras at the moment.

rear camera

On the upper left side of the fingerprint scanner are a module of two cameras and a built-in flash.The first is 12 megapixels with f / 1.8 aperture, the second is an additional 20 megapixels and f / 2.6 aperture. CMOS BSI (backside illumination) camera sensor. It affects the quality of color reproduction, sensitivity to light, image quality.

Under the two modules is a dual LED flash. Of its advantages, it can be distinguished that it shines constantly, so it is more comfortable to shoot video in dark places. The disadvantage is that the quality of the backlight is much worse than the xenon flash used on professional video and cameras. The maximum photo resolution is 4032x3024 pixels or 12.2 Megapixels.

The functionality of the device allows you to shoot video quality in 4K at 30 frames per second (fps). As with any decent smartphone, there is autofocus. There is also an optical 2x zoom.
All camera features:

• autofocus;
• scene selection mode;
• HDR shooting;
• exposure compensation;
• digital zoom;
• self-timer;
• panoramic shooting;
• white balance adjustment;
• touch focus;
• ISO setting;
• geographic labels;
• continuous shooting;
• face recognition.

Front-camera

The capabilities of the front camera affect the quality of the selfie. For HTC U19e, it allows you to take pictures with a resolution of 5632x4224 pixels or 23.8 megapixels. The aperture size is f/2. The smaller the divider (f / 2), the larger the size of the aperture itself and the quality when shooting is better. However, the image becomes worse at the edges, and the perspective is distorted. The front camera shoots at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels or more familiar Full HD.

She also participates in face recognition when unlocking the smartphone.

Speakers

The Taiwanese company decided not to buy third-party speakers, but to install HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi, which they produce themselves. The sound comes out quite good, but for 420 euros or 30 kopecks thousand rubles it could be better.

Comparison with potential competitors and conclusion

After the new smartphone is described, let's compare it with five competitors from this price segment - within $ 475.

Housing material

To begin with, it is worth considering the material from which the rivals of the HTC U19e are made:

One Plus 6 - glass, metal;
Huawei P30 Lite - glass, aluminum inserts;
Samsung Galaxy A70 - glass, plastic;
Xiaomi Mi9 - glass, metal;
Honor 10 - metal, glass

As you can see, almost all rivals are made of the best material. Apart from Huawei P30 Lite, Samsung Galaxy A70. The novelty is losing.

Screen

HTC U19e has an Amoled display.

One Plus 6 - AMOLED;
Huawei P30 Lite - IPS ;
Samsung Galaxy A70 - Super Amoled;
Xiaomi Mi9 - Super Amoled;
Honor 10 - IPS;

As for which is better: IPS or AMOLED, you can argue for a long time. The first is less saturated, but the eyes get tired faster from the second. The choice is up to the buyer.

CPU

The performance of the smartphone depends on it. The hero of the article has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710.

One Plus 6 - Qualcomm Snapdragon 845;
Huawei P30 Lite - Kirin 710;
Samsung Galaxy A70 - Qualcomm Snapdragon 675;
Xiaomi Mi9 - Snapdragon 855;
Honor 10 - Kirin 970;

All opponents are superior to U19e, except for Huawei P30 Lite and Samsung Galaxy A70 - their hardware is much weaker.

Camera

The better the camera, the better the pictures. The nineteenth has a total of 32 megapixels back and 20 megapixels front.

One Plus 6 - 36MP/16MP;
Huawei P30 Lite - 34MP/32MP;
Samsung Galaxy A70 - 40 MP / 32 MP;
Xiaomi Mi9 - 48 + 12 + 16MP / 20MP;
Honor 10 - 40MP/24MP;

At this point, the brand new phone loses even to Samsung.

Battery capacity

For the Chinese, it was 3930 mAh.

One Plus 6 - 3300 mAh;
Huawei P30 Lite - 3340 mAh;
Samsung Galaxy A70 - 4500 mAh;
Xiaomi Mi9 - 3300 mAh;
Honor 10 - 3400 mAh;

But in terms of battery capacity, it is ahead of everyone except the A 70.

Advantages and disadvantages of HTC U19e

• quality material;
• the presence of NFC;
• high battery capacity;
• good processor;
• quality screen.

• overcharge;
• weak camera;
• not the most powerful processor in comparison with competitors.

It turns out that for the price stopped by the manufacturer for HTC U19e, you can choose a device with more impressive characteristics. To do this or give preference to the new product from HTC - the choice is up to the buyer.