HTC debuts U11 Plus: 6" 1440p LCD screen, Snapdragon 835, 3,930mAh battery, IP68 rating, Alexa support; ships November 20 in UK for £699, no plans for US launch
Vlad Savov / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
HTC has been running an unusually dense flagship cadence through 2017: the U Ultra with its second screen and AI assistant arrived in January at $749, followed by the pressure-sensitive-edge U11 in May at $649. The U11 Plus extends that line into big-screen territory while pushing the price higher still — €799 across Europe, £699 in the UK.
The striking detail is geographic: despite the U11 having sold unlocked in the US, HTC says it has no plans to bring the U11 Plus stateside, making this a Europe-first flagship from a company whose US presence has been shrinking.
First-order effects
- US buyers who wanted HTC's new 6-inch flagship have no official channel — the November 20 UK ship date and £699 price apply only to Europe, so importers and grey-market resellers become the de facto US supply.
Second-order effects
- Bundling both Alexa and Google Assistant gives Amazon a rare native foothold on a non-Amazon Android flagship, strengthening Alexa's case as a licensable assistant for hardware makers outside its own devices.
Third-order effects
- If HTC keeps treating the US as optional for flagships, its smartphone business consolidates around European and Asian markets where carrier relationships matter less — a structural retreat that narrows the global Android flagship field.
The trend: Android flagships are splitting into region-specific launches as premium pricing pushes marginal vendors like HTC out of markets where they lack carrier scale.