HTC U Ultra – Camera

The U Ultra comes with an OIS-equipped 12-UltraPixel sensor on its back, and on its front is a 16-megapixel selfie shooter, with an UltraPixel mode for lower light and auto-HDR.

I’ve never been a huge fan of HTC’s UltraPixel tech as it has been a little hit-and-miss in the past. UltraPixel is a marketing term for some imaging tech that HTC began peddling at the launch of the original One smartphone.

HTC claims it lets its phone cameras capture up to 300% more light by using larger pixels than regular cameras. The tech in theory means an UltraPixel camera can shoot photos, apply filters and share images faster because it’s taking in less data.

All this sounds great, but in the past I’ve found it’s not all so rosy and the feature can lead to some oddities when taking photos. Sadly this remains the case on the U Ultra.

The rear camera’s f/1.8,aperture and the inclusion of OIS are also, on paper, great and the unit works well in regular light, but it has a tendency to overexpose photos.

Low-light performance is also slightly disappointing. In dark conditions the camera lags, with a noticeable delay from when you press the on-screen shutter button and the photo actually being taken.

Video recording suffers the same issues, which is a shame, as the camera can record at 2160p at 30fps and 720p at 120fps, which is more than good enough for the odd holiday short.

You can see a selection of photos taken on the HTC U Ultra below: