- Analysis by KJ David
A more-ambitious cousin to HTC's 2018 Desire 12 and 12+ smartphones, the U12+'s array of pros and cons possibly secures it a spot among the best phablets. Nonetheless, our prying eyes for specs caught a couple of hiccups that could hurt its chances.
One of its setbacks comes in the form of a 3500mAh battery capacity 
, which may sound decent by middle-class standards, but comes off as a tad problematic, considering its firepower on the display and imaging fronts. Its 188g body weight might be a turn-off for some upscale shoppers as well, particularly when compared to the sub-170-gram weights of several tantamount 6-inchers.
Another slight con is its 128GB maximum internal storage capacity , which is half the 256GB native storage caps boasted by some full-fledged premium-class Androids. It supports a mammoth 2TB's worth of external memory 
, though, so it's not all that bad.
Leading the HTC U12 Plus's pros is one of the brand's highest-specked mobile displays (as of this Phonerated review), particularly, a large 6-inch Super LCD 6 HDR-10-enabled 18:9 display with a Quad HD+ (2880 x 1440) resolution and a VR-worthy (Discover the best phones for VR here) 537ppi pixel density . This interface is coupled HTC's Edge Sense 2 , which is essentially a gesture suite that lets users control the phone by giving it a squeeze. A couple of examples include squeezing on both edges to quick-launch voice assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa and pressing on one edge to shrink the screen for one-hand use.
The U12+ is also pretty big on imaging, sporting a total of four cameras. At the back, it features a dual-lens system made up of a 12-megapixel wide-angle HTC UltraPixel 4 main lens and a 16-megapixel telephoto lens . Together, they enable things like 4K-2160p video-recording at 60fps , optical zooming (up to 2x), and what HTC calls UltraSpeed Autofocus 2, the latter being a blend of phase-detection and laser autofocus -- imaging perks that could plug it into our list of the best phones for photography. Up front, it boasts twin 8-megapixel front cameras , making it one of the first few smartphones to offer dual selfie cams. Its front camera setup is equipped with AR Stickers, a Bokeh Mode, and a screen flash function.
Providing the U12+'s pros and cons with the much-needed processing power is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 eight-core 2.8GHz processor , which is the CPU-of-choice for many of the fastest smartphones when it debuted. Its engine is ably accompanied by 6GB's worth of RAM , while an LTE Cat 18 network adapter promising data rates of up to 1.2Gbps (1200Mbps) leads the connectivity front.
A few other features include an IP68-rated (waterproof and dust-tight) body , HTC's signature BoomSound Hi-Fi audio system, and a liquid surface finish of either Ceramic Black, Flame Red, and Translucent Blue (this variant comes with a translucent backing).
With all that said, it's pretty clear that HTC's U12+ is bound for the pockets of mobile photographers and multimedia junkies, but a little more raw power and native memory would have been nice.
** This phone is also known as: HTC U12+
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