HTC U11

The HTC U11 is somewhat of a phone unstuck in time. It's got all the processing might of any 2017 flagship, offers a modern, quite useful digital assistant, and dips its toes in high-tech features like active noise cancellations. But it's also a phone that feels – and maybe more critically, looks – a little dated. Was enough of the U11's design already set before HTC even got a whiff of such looks from its competition? Like it or not, but the U11 looks like a phone that might have stood out in 2016 – not 2017. And all the pretty colors and shiny back panels in the world aren't going to change that; the design is stale. If HTC were already on the top of the market, maybe that wouldn't matter so much. Extras like the free case are nice, as is the analog headphone adapter, but neither is a reason to buy the phone. The noise-canceling USonic earbuds very much could be, but as they stand now, the noise-suppression effect isn't supremely impressive in practice – it very much works, but you don't experience a night-and-day change in background noise levels when switching it on.

The only problem there, as we've said before, is that the U11 just isn't as flashy, as modern-looking, or even as brag-worthy as its closest competition. When you buy the U11, it's almost as if you're saying “I want a phone that performs like a bleeding-edge flagship, but looks and feels like my last phone.” And you know, there totally will be shoppers who resonate with a thought like that. But if HTC wants to remain competitive, it really needs to start thinking about even bolder, even flashier design for its next big smartphone.