HTC U19e smartphone review: 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, 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 performance devices? Let's figure it out.

General information about the smartphone HTC U19e

First, let's define competitors at a price of up to RUB 30,000. Among them are such novelties as: Honor 10 (20-25 thousand), Xiaomi Mi9 (at a discount there is 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 last year, so comparison with them is especially relevant.

The design of the phone makes the first impression on customers every time. 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 of the 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).

Housing

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

Screen

The screen is one of the most important parts of every phone.Here the manufacturers have supplied the Amoled display. The diagonal is 6 inches. Screen resolution - 1080x2160 pixels. There is support for FHD + resolution, videos are uploaded at 1080p. The aspect ratio is the most popular in 2018-2019, elongated in a height of 18: 9. The pixel density is 402 ppi. There are no cutouts and bangs so popular recently on the screen, so you won't have to watch the video under the "visor". However, manufacturers have made rather big frames at the top and bottom.

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

Specifications

CPU

A smart Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, which is created using a 10-nanometer process technology, is in the new product as a hardware platform or processor. It delivers decent gaming performance. The number of processor cores reaches 8. The CPU operates at up to 2200 megahertz. The speed of the gadget depends on this parameter, along 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 expanded memory of 6 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of permanent memory (this is the only configuration, 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. communication 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 on the network match.
Additionally, 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 are supported, EDGE, HSPA +: HSDPA 42 Mbit / s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit / s.
There is support for the following navigation systems: Dual GPS, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou (Chinese GPS, analogue of our GLONASS).

Wi-Fi with 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). SIM size - Nano-SIM.

Software, sensors, sensors

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

The device has built-in modules: NFC, Bluetooth of the fifth generation, 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 a good autonomy of the device and can be used for games or watching movies. Active games require more performance, so any phone will drain faster. In order not to wait several hours for the phone to charge, manufacturers have added support for Quick Charge 4.0. Naturally, the smartphone has the popular USB Type-C connector. HTC U19e can charge, transfer data via USB, and the On-The-Go (OTG) function is also available, which allows you to connect USB devices without using a computer.

Camera overview

Recently, the 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 is a dual camera module and a built-in flash. The first is 12 megapixels with an aperture of f / 1.8, the second - at an additional 20 megapixels and with an aperture size of f / 2.6. The camera sensor is CMOS BSI type (backside illumination - illumination of background objects). It affects the quality of color reproduction, sensitivity to light, image quality.

There is a dual LED flash under the two modules.Of its advantages, it can be distinguished that it shines constantly, so it is more comfortable to shoot video in dark places. The downside is that the backlight quality is much worse than the xenon flash used on professional video and still 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, autofocus is present. There is also an optical 2x zoom.
All camera functions:

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

Front-camera

The capabilities of the front camera affect the quality of selfies. 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 aperture itself and the better the quality when shooting. 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 the more familiar Full HD.

She also participates in face recognition when unlocking a smartphone.

Speaker

The Taiwanese company decided not to buy third-party speakers, but to install the HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi, which they produce themselves. The sound is good, but for 420 euros or 30 thousand rubles it could have been better.

Comparison with potential competitors and conclusion

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

Body material

To begin with, it's worth considering the material from which the HTC U19e rivals 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;

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

CPU

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

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 the U19e, except for the 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 in the rear and 20 megapixels in the 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 new phone loses even to Samsung.

Battery volume

At 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 the volume of the battery, it is ahead of all, except for the A 70.

Pros and cons of HTC U19e

• quality material;
• availability of NFC;
• high battery capacity;
• good processor;
• high-quality screen.

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

It turns out that for the price the manufacturer has stopped for HTC U19e, you can choose a device with more impressive specifications. Do it or give preference to a new product from HTC - the choice is up to the buyer.