HTC U23 Pro review

Introduction

It's been a hot minute since we saw an HTC phone at the GSMArena office. Chances are that most of you haven't really been seeing many HTC handsets in the wild, either. It is hard to accurately pinpoint the current state of the former Taiwanese giant's smartphone research, production and manufacturing. You might remember that after collaborating heavily with Google on the Pixel line, HTC sold roughly half of its design and research talent and non-exclusive rights to smartphone-related intellectual property to Google in 2017 for $1.1 billion.

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Since then, HTC-branded phones have been few and far between and mostly in the budget price segment. Many of these rare Wildfire and Desire-branded phones have also been exclusive to the company's home Taiwanese market. We aren't even sure exactly who is manufacturing these and any current HTC devices like the U23 Pro we have for review today.

Historically, HTC manufactured all of its phones in its own factories. As far as we managed to dig up, that is no longer the case since at least back in 2020 when the company started outsourcing some of its manufacturing to Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Compal Electronics Inc. and China's Wingtech Group. Our HTC U23 Pro unit claims to be manufactured "In China", which could be mainland China or potentially Taiwan, depending on interpretation. The truth is, we don't really know, and the fact that we are even seeing an HTC phone with what seems to be an international release is surprising enough.

HTC U23 Pro specs at a glance:

Body: 166.6x77.1x8.9mm, 205g; plastic body; IP67 dust/water resistant (up to 1m for 30 min).
Display: 6.70" OLED, 120Hz, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 393ppi.
Chipset: Qualcomm SM7450-AB Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 (4 nm): Octa-core (1x2.4 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3x2.36 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 644.
Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; microSDXC.
OS/Software: Android 13.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 108 MP, f/1.7, 1/1.67", 0.64µm, PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.4, 120-degree, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 5 MP, f/2.2; Depth: 2 MP, f/2.4.
Front camera: 32 MP, f/2.5, (wide), 1/3.2", 0.7µm.
Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30fps, 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
Battery: 4600mAh; 30W wired, 15W wireless, 5W reverse wireless, Reverse wired.
Connectivity: 5G; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 6; BT 5.2; NFC; 3.5mm jack.
Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted).

Indeed, at the time of writing, the HTC U23 Pro seems to be up for sale on Amazon in the US, Canada, UK and Germany. A 12GB RAM and 256GB storage unit will set you back about €550/$670, which is not exactly a budget price point. Looking at the specs of the U23 Pro, it can probably best be described as a mid-ranger by current standards, rocking things like a 120Hz OLED display, a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset and a 108MP, OIS-enabled main camera. Technically, however, in the absence of any superior current HTC phones, the U23 Pro is the company's flagship offer. Make of that what you will.

In any case, the U23 Pro is an extremely intriguing device we can't wait to dig into if for nothing else, simply for nostalgia reasons.

Unboxing

However, before we get to any of the good stuff, let's quickly unbox the HTC U23 Pro. It ships in a very simplistic and plain-colored two-piece cardboard box. It is not eye-catching at all, with a very subdued two-tone design. Then again, the phone itself isn't trying to be flashy in any way, either. Regardless, the case is very sturdy and should do a perfectly fine job of protecting the phone, even in the absence of any plastic cradles on the inside.

The accessory situation is quite disappointing. Unless you count the included small HTC sticker as an accessory, all you are basically getting is a sturdy USB Type-C to Type-C cable. The cable is very basic and does not even include an e-marker chip, though. There is no charger in the box, which is quite a bummer.

Design

Let's not beat about the bush here. The HTC U23 Pro looks like a mid-range device through and through. Not only is it entirely made of plastic, but the size of its display bezels is so substantial that it kind of rivals some modern budget devices.

The front of the phone is almost entirely flat. It is a large slab of Gorilla Glass Victus, which we can't complain about. As we said, the bezel situation is less than ideal, and it's not like HTC is making the most out of the extra space here, with nothing particularly special occupying the areas like a stereo speaker setup. The U23 Pro just has a singular bottom-firing speaker. There are a couple of sensors near the top of the phone on the front as well as the earpiece, both very subtly hidden away, which is nice to see.

The phone's backside feels plastic, though we can't find any official info on the material. It features a very subtle, soft, smooth, almost velvet-like finish, which is nice to the touch but does seem to gather quite a bit of dirt and grease.

The back panel is nicely curved around the edges, which makes for a very comfortable in-hard feel. Measuring 166.6 x 77.1 x 8.9 mm and weighing in at 205 grams, the U23 Pro is not unwieldy in any way. Quite the opposite, it is easy to handle and weight distribution is excellent.

While there is some hollowness to the rear panel, the phone as a whole feels pretty sturdy with practically no flex. It's surprising, given that the middle frame also seems to be made of plastic.

We really enjoy at least a couple of subtle design details, like the embossed HTC logo on the back side and the glass-like camera island. The latter protrudes quite a bit, making the phone wobble while sitting on a flat surface, but we like how it looks. Plus, this is a minor issue that does not affect ergonomics and basically, any phone case will quickly take care of.

The HTC U23 Pro can be had in either Snow White or Coffee Black color options. These only seem to affect the back side of the phone. The front bezels remain black in both cases. Both color options are very subdued and stealthy. The U23 Pro feels right at home in every environment, even a boardroom.

Build quality

As we mentioned, despite being mostly made of plastic, the HTC U23 Pro feels sturdy and well put together. There is practically no flex to speak of. We have praised plastic as a building material in the past and will continue to do so. It does not scratch or dent quite like metal and does not shatter like glass. It is quite sturdy and structurally sound while remaining relatively lighter than the alternative materials. Sure, it doesn't feel or look quite as premium, but does that really matter if you are going to slap a case on anyway? That's a discussion for another day, though.

Beyond its plastic sides and most likely back side, the U23 Pro actually has some excellent other standout points in its build. For one, the front is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Sure, that's not Corning's latest and greatest material, but is still an excellent and confidence-inspiring choice.

Probably most impressively, though, the U23 Pro has an IP67 ingress protection rating. That means that it should survive a dip in up to a meter of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. If your unit gets particularly grimy, you could confidently, though still carefully, wash it down with, say, a water and soap solution.

Controls

The HTC U23 Pro has a rather interesting control set, mainly due to the inclusion of a side-mounted fingerprint reader. You don't see that often, particularly on a modern phone with an OLED display. Most manufacturers tend to now go for an in-display reader on their OLED devices.

The fingerprint reader left us a bit wanting in terms of accuracy. The situation did improve slightly after re-registering the print, but it is still not the most reliable reader, which is odd given the maturity of the capacitive technology behind this sort of reader. Speed was fairly decent on the reader, but HTC includes a pretty sluggish unlock animation, which makes the perceived speed of operation quite slow.

The actual button part of the fingerprint reader/power button combo works well enough. It has nice tactile feedback when pressed. It is also good to see that you can choose whether you want the fingerprint reader always on or triggered once you press the button.

The volume buttons above the power button are well-positioned and also offer decent tactile feedback. They are a bit on the smaller side, but we don't really mind that since that makes accidentally pressing them harder.

The left side frame of the U23 Pro is entirely empty and uninterrupted, with no controls in sight.

The phone's top side houses a 3.5mm audio jack - an increasingly rare addition at almost every price point. There is a secondary mic on here as well.

The bottom side of the U23 Pro is pretty busy. The main microphone is here, and so is the sole bottom-firing speaker. The USB Type-C port and the SIM card tray are here, too. It is a hybrid design that can either take two nano-SIM cards or one nano-SIM and a microSD card for storage expansion. We would have preferred a dedicated microSD card slot, but this is better than no expandable storage.

Curiously enough, the U23 Pro has an RGB notification LED, which is not something you often see. It is positioned in the top right corner on the front of the device above the display.

Connectivity

The U23 Pro has a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset onboard. It is a 5G chip with both SA and NSA Sub-6 support on both SIM slots. The phone has GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO and BDS support for positioning. Local connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (ax) as well as Bluetooth 5.2 with LE support. There is NFC on board, too, but no FM radio receiver.

The USB port on the U23 Pro is actually quite capable. Expectedly, it supports USB Host/OTG functionality. Not only that, but it does so at USB 3.0 speeds, which is to say USB 3.1 Gen 1, using newer naming or, USB 3.2 Gen 1, using newer still naming, or USB SuperSpeed, if you prefer that terminology. USB naming foolery aside, it can transfer data at up to 5 Gbps. Beyond that, however, the Type-C port also supports video output, which you don't see often.

The U23 Pro has a pretty good set of sensors on board. There is a TDK-Invensense icm4x607 gyroscope and accelerometer combo, a sensortek stk_stk3a5x hardware proximity and light sensor and a Voltafield AF6133E magnetometer and compass combo. The only major omission from the list is a barometer.

6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display

The 6.7-inch, 1080 x 2400 pixel display of the HTC U23 Pro looks pretty good on paper. It is an OLED panel and one with 120Hz refresh rate. Once we actually put the display through its paces and our standardized testing, we were left a lot less impressed.

Let's start with brightness. We measure a maximum of 725 nits on the slider, which is decent-enough for most outdoor scenarios but fails to impress. The U23 Pro has auto brightness, which works pretty well, but does not appear to boos maximum brightness any further. Well, saying that, we did measure 727 nits of max brightness in auto mode, but two nits is hardly a difference and well within the margin of error.

Let's talk colors next. The U23 Pro has a total of three display color modes - Natural, Boosted and Adaptive. All three aim for DCI-P3 and offer quite a wide color space. In terms of color accuracy, all three modes are pretty similar in their rendition, and none is particularly color-accurate. The U23 Pro tends to oversaturate all the primary color channels, presumably done to get that distinctive OLED "pop". The U23 Pro mostly gets that job done well.

The HTC U23 Pro has no HDR support on its display. However, some HDR decoding capabilities are onboard, namely for HDR10 and HLG. There is no HDR10+ or Dolby Vision, though.

HDR support • Netflix playback capabilities • DRM

The U23 Pro has the highest possible L1 Widevine DRM certification, allowing streaming services like Netflix to offer up FullHD streams and saturate the display's native resolution.

High refresh rate handling

As previously mentioned, the U23 Pro has a 120Hz refresh rate on its AMOLED display. The phone actually has support for three distinct refresh rates - 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz. In terms of settings, there are a total of three refresh rate modes as well - 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz.

Most modern phones tend to have at least some form of automatic refresh rate switching in order to balance refresh rate and the smoothness higher values provide with battery endurance. This, unfortunately, is not the case with the HTC U23 Pro.

There seems to be absolutely no automatic refresh rate switching behavior in place. If you set the phone to 120Hz, it just locks at a 120Hz refresh rate. It is the same with 90Hz and 60Hz. The only real exception are certain apps that request 60Hz operation implicitly, like Google Maps. You can really end up wasting power by doing something like video playback at 120Hz.

HTC U23 Pro operating at 120Hz

At least this means that high refresh rate gaming is straight forward and easy, right? Well, surprisingly, that is not the case. Out of the four games we tried, that can push frame rates beyond 60fps, two played nicely with a 120Hz refresh rate, while the other two lowered the refresh rate to 60Hz for some reason.

HTC U23 Pro gaming at 120Hz

All things considered, the HTC U23 Pro has some of the worst high refresh rate handling we've seen in a while on a modern phone. There is plenty of room for improvement.

Battery life

The U23 Pro is based on a pretty modern Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset. It uses a 4nm Samsung 4LPE manufacturing process. The on-board battery pack is a decent 4,600 mAh in size - not too large, but not overly small either.

We can't say that the battery endurance of the U23 Pro impressed us in any way. In our testing, it only managed 83 hours of total endurance. The phone didn't impress in any particular part of the test, but generally did alright in the video playback and 3G talk time portions. However, its poor standby time and Wi-Fi browsing tests really held it back.

As a reminder, the web browsing portion of our testing was conducted at the phone's top 120Hz refresh rate mode, while the video test part was done at 60Hz.

Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.

Video test carried out in 60Hz refresh rate mode. Web browsing test done at the display's highest refresh rate whenever possible. Refer to the respective reviews for specifics. To adjust the endurance rating formula to match your own usage patterns check out our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.

Charging speed

Unfortunately, HTC does not ship a charger with the U23 Pro. The company isn't super clear on what charging protocols the phone supports, either. All we know from the specs is that it should be able to charge at a rate of up to 30W.

After testing known good and versatile chargers, we discovered that the U23 Pro negotiates a Power Delivery (PD) charging session with a charger when available, with a possible fallback to Quick Charge. The phone does not seem to require PPS or anything fancy of the sort, so you should be good with a decent 30W or better PD 3.0 charger and cable combo.

In terms of charging speed, we managed to get the phone from dead to 33% in 15 minutes and then 60% in 30 minutes. A full charge took an hour and eighteen minutes. That's not particularly fast, but it's still alright in the grand scheme of things.

Speaker

As already mentioned, the U23 Pro only has a single bottom-firing speaker at its disposal. There is no stereo setup, not even a hybrid one. That's quite a bummer since a stereo setup can be attained in this price bracket.

On the plus side, the U23 Pro did manage to score a "VERY GOOD" loudness score in our testing, even if just barely so. In terms of frequency response, the output of the U23 Pro is actually quite clean. Mids, in particular, like voices sound good and clear.

There are no additional audio settings to tweak or experiment with. No equalizer or anything like that. You are stuck with what HTC offers out of the box.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.

Clean Android 13 OS

The HTC U23 Pro runs Android 13 out of the box. The ROM in question looks very clean and minimalistic, but we can't shake the feeling that there is just something "retro" about it.

Perhaps it has something to do with the square window prompts that the OS generates by default; perhaps it is the touch response sounds enabled by default, or maybe it's the fact that the out-of-box system navigation choice are the old-school Android buttons.

Navigation • Touch sounds

Other than that, however, most UX elements are basically stock AOSP, which some will surely appreciate. This includes things like rounded notification corners and large, oval, quick toggles.

But then you open up the task switcher and notice that there is a screenshot button instead of a clear all one. There are simply weird design choices scattered all over the place. Nothing major, but still odd little details.

General UI

The settings menu is pretty standard as well, so much so that there aren't even any special "advanced features" submenus or anything of the sort.

Settings menu

There are some hidden "extra" features here and there, like inside the Accessibility menu. But nothing really that special.

Accessibility settings

A dark mode is available called "Dark theme", which includes scheduling options. But again, nothing too special.

Dark mode

There is very limited gesture support available in the OS.

Gestures

Always-on display is nowhere to be found, though, and it is far from the only "core" feature omission.

At least HTC's software runs fast and smooth, and there is very little in the way of bloat. You basically get the Google apps pack preinstalled and not even in its complete state. For example, there is no file manager out of the box. And there is a folder full of pre-installed HTC apps called "VIVERSE". Among the included apps is a crypto wallet a few VR-related and device-companion apps.

VIVEVERSE apps

We aren't exactly sure how much sense it makes to push some of these apps to all users, particularly the hardware companion ones, but we wouldn't exactly consider the inclusion egregious bloat. Plus, all of these apps can easily be uninstalled.

Performance and benchmarks

The HTC U23 Pro is based on a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset. It is a pretty modern chip, dating from Q2 2022, with a great set of additional features and connectivity options. It is a quintessentially mid-range chip from Qualcomm that is rocking an octa-core CPU setup, consisting of one prime Cortex-A710 core, clocked at up to 2.4 GHz, three Gold Cortex-A710 cores, clocked at up to 2.36 GHz and four Silver Cortex-A510 ones, working at up to 1.8 GHz.

These are paired with an Adreno 644 GPU, working at 433 Mhz, an internal X62 5G/LTE cellular modem and a FastConnect 6700 chip that provides 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 (ax) and Bluetooth 5.2. The U23 Pro comes with 256GB of expandable storage and either 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Our test unit is the higher-tier 12GB/256GB one.

Let's kick things off with some CPU testing and GeekBench. We can see that the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 inside the HTC U23 Pro is performing as expected and in line with other devices with the same chip. So, HTC is making the most out of the hardware, which is great to see.

In terms of relative performance, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is about as powerful as the popular Snapdragon 778G in the CPU department and the original Google Tensor chip. However, it easily outperforms popular MediaTek chips, like the Dimensity 1080 and Samsung's Exynos 1380, as seen inside the Galaxy A54. The Dimensity 8200, 8020 and 9200 all have the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 beat, and so does the new Google Tensor G2 chip.

AnTuTu is a much more compound benchmark with graphics tests and tests for memory and storage. AnTuTu seems to be a bit less favorable towards the U23 Pro, though its results still fall in line well with other Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 devices, which is great to see.

Again, you can expect performance in the same ballpark as something like a Dimensity 7050 device or one based on the Snapdragon 778G.

The Adreno 644 GPU is not particularly powerful. You are not getting a graphics powerhouse here by any stretch of the imagination. Still, it has the Snapdragon 778G beat in terms of raw performance, as well as the Exynos 1380 and the Dimensity 1080 and 7050 (which is basically the same chip).

There is enough graphical performance here to tackle casual gaming and even some older bigger titles. 3Dmark paints pretty much the same overall performance picture.

Unfortunately, the HTC U23 Pro doesn't handle prolonged workloads particularly well in terms of thermal management. While the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is not particularly hot or power-hungry, and the phone's surface never gets more than slightly warm under load, the chip still thermal-throttles very aggressively.

Thermal throttling

The chipset loses a large chunk of its effective performance after a fairly short sustained load and worse still does so very abruptly, which could result in stutters in game.

Overall, while not a chart-topper, the HTC U23 Pro is far from strapped for performance. Its light and clean OS runs smoothly and responsively, and the phone chews through daily tasks easily. However, we have concerns regarding its aggressive thermal-throttling behavior and would not recommend the U23 Pro as a gaming machine, even for that reason alone.

A quad-camera setup with plenty of fluff

HTC seemingly went for quantity over quality when it came to the camera selection on the U23 Pro and the versatility of the camera setup. Four rear cameras with a 108MP snapper at the helm sound pretty good on paper. However, dig a bit deeper, and you'll quickly realize that these include a dedicated 5MP macro cam and a 2MP depth sensor. We would have preferred a telephoto camera instead to go along with the 8MP ultrawide. Then again, the main 108MP cam has plenty of resolution and could capture at least decent 2x zoom shots.

Before we get to that, however, we should do a rundown of the camera hardware the U23 Pro is working with. The primary 108MP camera is based on a Samsung s5khm6 sensor. It is more commonly known as the ISOCELL HM6. It has a nonapixel RGB Bayer arrangement, 1/1.67" optical format and 0.64µm individual pixels. The U23 Pro has it sitting behind an f/1.7 lens with OIS support. There is PDAF as well.

Then, there is the 8MP ultrawide cam. It is based on the Samsung s5k4h7 sensor or, more colloquially - the ISOCELL 4H7. It has a 1/4" size and 1.12µm individual pixels. It sits behind a rather dim f/2.4 lens and has no autofocus.

Then, there is the 5MP dedicated macro cam. It is also fixed focus and uses a Hynix hi556 sensor. It sits behind an f/2.2 lens. Finally, on the rear, we have a 2MP depth sensor. It is based on the GalaxyCore gc02m1 (1/5" size and 1.75 µm individual pixels) sensor and sits behind an f/2.4 lens.

On the front, the HTC U23 Pro has a 32MP selfie cam. It uses a Quad-Bayer OmniVision ov32c sensor with 1/3.2" optical format and 0.7µm pixels. The lens has a rather dim aperture of f/2.5. It has a fixed focus, so there is nothing fancy here, either.

The camera app on the U23 Pro is well-organized and mostly orderly, though some aspects are confusing here and there. The main photo interface, for instance, has a rather perplexing star toggle on the top, which we didn't manage to decipher. There are also toggles for HDR and AI scene detection here. You can only have one of the three enabled simultaneously for some reason. All of our samples were captured with AI scene detection turned ON.

Camera app UI

Beyond that, the settings menu is straightforward. We appreciate the inclusion of a lens distortion correction toggle, as well as one for the built-in QR reader and the optional "smile capture".

Camera Pro mode

There is a fairly feature-rich Pro mode available as well. You can adjust the metering mode, ISO (100 - 1600), shutter speed (1/4000 - 32s), exposure compensation (-12 - +12), white balance and manual focus. There is no focus peaking, though, nor is there a histogram or anything really fancy like that.

Before any sort of quality assessment, we need to mention that in its current state, the HTC U23 Pro camera app has quite a few stability and functional issues. It froze on us frequently during testing and crashed a few times. The worst behavior we observed, however, was the camera not saving some of our shots, despite behaving seemingly normally, as if it should have done so. HTC really needs to work on polishing the experience.

Daylight camera quality

The main camera on the U23 Pro captures photos in exactly 12MP resolution by default. These look decent, with nice natural colors and an acceptable, though largely unimpressive, level of detail. The shots are a bit on the contrasty side without going overboard.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera samples

In terms of criticism, finer detail, like foliage, doesn't look particularly well rendered. Dynamic range is also narrower than we would have liked. Shadows frequently get crushed. The photos also look a bit grainy, particularly on uniform surfaces like the sky.

You can force the main camera to capture in its full 108MP resolution. This, however, doesn't really result in more resolved detail.

HTC U23 Pro: 108MP main camera samples

In fact, you get softer, less processed photos with less sharpening and contrast applied. Surfaces tend to look a bit less grainy as a result, but that's about the extent of the benefits you get from shooting in this mode. We honestly would not recommend it, especially since you have to deal with huge file sizes.

The U23 Pro lacks a dedicated telephoto camera, but it still has plenty of resolution to do decent 2x zooms on its main 108MP cam. These shots look pretty similar to their 1x counterparts in terms of overall quality. That is to say, they are decent but unremarkable.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera 2x zoom samples

Detail is merely fine and not overly impressive. Contrast is cranked a bit, and there is some sharpening applied. Dynamic range is still limited with crushed shadows.

The U23 Pro doesn't do a particularly great job of portrait photos from its main camera.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera samples

Subject detection and separation are far from perfect. On the plus side, at least the quality of the background blur is nice and convincing.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Non-human subjects don't work particularly well with portrait mode. Getting it to detect and trigger is quite fiddly.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Before we move on, here is how the main camera on the U23 Pro stacks up against competitors in our extensive photo compare database.

HTC U23 Pro against the Realme 11 Pro+ and the Samsung Galaxy A54 in our Photo compare tool

Just like the main camera, the ultrawide can best be described as decent but unimpressive. Detail is decent, but that's about the only highlight. Dynamic range is decent.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera samples

There is plenty of noise in the frame and softness, particularly around the edges. There is a red tint in all of the colors.

The dedicated 5MP macro camera does a surprisingly decent job capturing close-up shots. These are nice and detailed, with great colors.

HTC U23 Pro: 5MP macro camera samples

The 32MP selfie camera on the U23 Pro captures 8MP photos, as expected from its Quad-Bayer setup. These photos look pretty good, with nice colors and facial tones.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera samples

Detail and facial texture could be a bit better.

Portraits captured with the selfie camera are surprisingly better overall than those from the main camera. Subject detection and separation are cleaner, though still not perfect. Background blur looks great.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video capture quality

The main camera on the U23 Pro can capture video at up to 4K. These are saved in a standard AVC (H.264) video stream at around 75Mbps and a stereo 48 kHz AAC audio stream inside an MP4 container.

Quality-wise, you get good detail and decent, if a bit washed-out, colors. There are no traces of noise in the frame. Dynamic range could be wider since detail in shadows gets crushed and highlights blown out.

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Here is how the main camera compares to its competitors in terms of video capture in our extensive video comparison database.

HTC U23 Pro against the Realme 11 Pro+ and the Samsung Galaxy A54 in our Video compare tool

The U23 Pro has EIS available for video capture. However, it caps out at 1080p, drastically impacting the level of detail the main camera captures. Plus, the stabilization itself is imperfect, with plenty of shakes left behind.

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The 2x zoom 4K videos from the main camera generally look quite similar to 1x ones in terms of quality. Contrast is a bit high, likely to combat any potential extra softness from zooming in.

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The ultrawide camera can capture videos at up to Full HD resolution. Just like photos, these have a noticeable red tint to them. Softness is a major issue, especially around corners.

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The selfie camera also maxes out at 1080p resolution. These videos are decent but unimpressive as well. Detail is good for this resolution, but contrast is a bit too high, and dynamic range is a bit narrow.

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Low-light camera quality

Low-light photos from the main camera can best be described as unimpressive. These are soft with plenty of noise. The contrast is cranked way too high, and plenty of oversharpening artifacts exist.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera low-light samples

Light sources are also handled very poorly and often blown out. Highlights are clipped.

The camera app on the U23 Pro applies some amount of night mode processing by default. There is also a dedicated night mode. It cleans up photos a bit. There is less noise in the frame and less sharpening and contrast. Light sources are handled much better. These photos are generally brighter as well.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera night mode samples

Even so, these photos are not overly impressive in the grand scheme of things.

At 2x zoom mode, the main camera captures similar quality shots, but naturally a bit softer and perhaps slightly noisier than 1x ones.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera low-light 2x zoom samples

You can also have night mode enabled at 2x zoom. The effects are very similar. This mode cleans up photos, removes some noise, brightens up everything, and has better light source handling overall.

HTC U23 Pro: 12MP main camera night mode 2x zoom samples

The ultrawide camera is quite disappointing in low-light conditions. These photos are very noisy and soft. Light sources are badly blown out, too.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Capturing with night mode on the ultrawide camera helps a lot in relative terms. Detail is much better, and so are light sources.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

Even with the extra processing, these photos still look very soft and noisy.

The selfie camera also has a bad time with low light. Faces come out soft with almost no skin texture and discernable features. At least colors and skin tones look good, but that's little consolation.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera low-light samples

Enabling night mode on the selfie cam doesn't dramatically affect the overall quality. Perhaps the backgrounds look a bit sharper and more detailed, but the subject still looks soft.

HTC U23 Pro: 8MP selfie camera night mode samples

4K low-light videos from the main camera look decent but unimpressive. Detail is good and colors are nice. Light sources are handled quite well.

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Unfortunately, the dark areas are too dark, and detail is almost entirely crushed.

At 2x zoom, the main camera can still capture 4K videos. These look noticeably softer than 1x ones. Light sources are also blown out.

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Unfortunately, the ultrawide camera does quite poorly in low-light conditions. Its 1080p videos are extremely dark and very soft. There is practically no detail left to work with. These are borderline unusable.

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The competition

At the time of writing, an HTC U23 Pro will set you back about €550/$670 for a 12GB RAM and 256GB storage unit. Availability seems pretty good with Amazon US, Canada, UK and Germany listings. That is not exactly a budget price point, and plenty of alternatives are available at a similar price point. Many similar devices are quite a bit cheaper, putting into question the value proposition HTC is making here.

Let's kick things off with Samsung and the popular Galaxy A54, which fits the same budget. A 128GB/8GB model will run you just around €350, while a 256GB/8GB variant costs about €399, making it notably cheaper than the U23 Pro. The Samsung phone matches the expandable storage of the U23 Pro and also offers IP67 ingress protection and Gorilla Glass 5 protection for its display. The Galaxy A54 also has a 120Hz AMOLED panel with HDR10+ support. Battery life is notably better on the Galaxy, although the Samsung mid-ranger is limited to 25W charging. The Galaxy A54 also has better 50MP OIS-enabled main and 12MP ultrawide cameras but lacks a telephoto shooter.

Another Samsung phone worth mentioning is the much cheaper Galaxy A34, which brings a similar overall experience on a much tighter budget.

Unsurprisingly, there are a couple of viable options over in camp Xiaomi. For less than the U23 Pro, you can get a Poco F5 with Gorilla Glass 5, stereo speakers, a large 5,000 mAh battery with 67W charging, a 12-bit 120Hz HDR-capable AMOLED display, a potent Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset and a pretty versatile camera setup with a 64MP OIS-enabled main shooter.

Alternatively, you could lower the budget quite significantly and go for something like the ever-popular Redmi Note 12 Pro. Despite its lower price, it still offers much of the same Xiaomi experience, including the stereo speakers, 5000 mAh battery with 67W charging and a 10-bit 120Hz HDR AMOLED display. The Xiaomi Poco X5 Pro is another option quite similar to the Redmi with a Snapdragon chipset and better battery life, but also some concessions, like no OIS.

Samsung Galaxy A54 • Xiaomi Poco F5 • Realme 11 Pro+ • Google Pixel 7a

Another alternative is vivo's V27 Pro. It missed on a European launch, but where available, it represents a great choice for less money than the U23 Pro.

It is hard to ignore the Realme 11 Pro+ in that category. Its starting MSRP is less than €300. All the while, it offers stereo speakers, a large 5,000 mAh battery with a whopping 100W charging and pretty good battery endurance. It also has a large 6.7-inch HDR10+ 120Hz OLED display. The Realme 11 Pro+ has a very interesting camera setup in its own right, with a 200 MP f/1.7 main snapper with OIS.

Last but not least, why not consider a Google Pixel? As long as a large display isn't high up on your wish list. The new Pixel 7a would naturally be our first choice with its 90Hz OLED display, 64MP main camera and nicer 13MP selfie.

If that happens to be a bit too pricy for you, then there is the older Pixel 6a, which is far from outdated. Sure, you'll have to live with a 60Hz refresh rate and a much smaller display, but one that is still HDR-capable. The Pixel 6a also offers IP67 ingress protection stereo speakers and decent battery endurance. Its camera system is still world-class, mostly thanks to Google's prowess in computational photography. And all of this, plus pure Android and very long software support, can be had for just around €330 at current pricing.

Our verdict

As mentioned multiple times, the U23 Pro is not a cheap device. A 12GB/256GB unit will set you back around €550/$670. While technically, it happens to be a flagship in HTC's current lineup, that is simply due to the lack of better hardware in the company's roster. In objective terms, it cannot rub shoulders with competing flagship offers.

In fact, it is pretty easy to see that most of the viable hardware and feature-comparative competitors to the U23 Pro out there are noticeably cheaper. It is just not a great value proposition overall. There are no two ways about it. You can get better hardware out there for less.

That being said, prices change constantly, and it is always a good idea to try and evaluate a phone as a product regardless of pricing. There are certain aspects of the HTC U23 Pro we found quite enjoyable. Its design is nice and classy. The inclusion of Gorilla Glass Victus and an IP67 ingress protection rating are both highly appreciated. We also like the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack, an RGB notification LED and a very capable USB 3.0 Type-C interface with video output.

Unfortunately, the U23 Pro fails to nail many of the basics. While not terrible, its display could be more bright and color-accurate, and the high refresh rate handling leaves a lot to be desired. The battery life is disappointing, and the camera experience is decent at best but largely unimpressive.

Frankly, the U23 Pro left us a bit wanting. We expected a lot more out of HTC's return to the international phone scene, even if it's a midrange device.