The HTC Bolt is the bigger sibling of the HTC U Play, which is yet to hit the market. The arrival of the HTC Bolt was announced on Nov. 11, 2016.
While the HTC Bolt is targeted at a more premium segment, the HTC U Play is a looking to lure those keen on a mid-range smartphone.
Here is a comparison of the specifications and features offered by the two new HTC smartphones.
Display And Design
The HTC U Play is the smaller of the two and sports a 5.2-inch FHD display with resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. The HTC Bolt, on the other hand, boasts a bigger 5.5-inch Quad HD display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels.
Both the smartphones are covered in scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass. The HTC Bolt uses Gorilla Glass 5, but whether the U Play uses Gorilla Glass 4 or the same is not known. The HTC U Play touts a pixel density of 428 ppi, whereas the HTC Bolt has 534 ppi by comparison.
Moreover, the HTC U Play comes with an aluminium body and glass accents while the HTC Bolt comes only with an aluminium unibody.
Processor And RAM
The HTC Bolt houses an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2 GHz.
The HTC U Play has an octa-core MediaTek Helip P10 processor, which is also clocked at 2 GHz. The HTC U Play has Mali-T860 MP2 GPU, whereas the Bolt has an Adreno 430 graphic processor.
The HTC Bolt and the HTC U Play both have 3 GB of RAM.
Storage
The HTC U Play will be available in 64 GB of storage, whereas the HTC Bolt comes with 32 GB of on-board storage.
Both smartphones are equipped with the option of storage expansion up to 2 TB via a microSD card.
Camera
Both smartphones are equipped with a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with Dual LED flash.
However, while both the U Play and Bolt are equipped with optical image stabilization and autofocus, the former boasts a back-illuminated sensor as well.
Moreover, while both HTC smartphones support face detection, and have a self-timer, digital zoom and geo tagging functions, the U play also comes with RAW image capture and touch-to-focus features.
When it comes to shooting modes as well, the HTC U Play scores more than the HTC Bolt. While the HTC Bolt comes only with the panaroma option, the HTC U Play offers burst mode, high dynamic mode, range mode with HDR, and panaroma effects.
The HTC U Play boasts a 16-megapixel wide-angle selfie snapper in comparison to Bolt's 8-megapixel front camera.
Clearly when it comes to camera capabilities, the HTC U Play has an edge over its sibling.
Battery
HTC Bolt comes with a 3,200 mAh battery compared to HTC U Play's 2,500 mAh battery. None of the smartphones have removable batteries but the Bolt comes with the option of dash charging, which is not included in the U Play.
Apparently, the HTC U Play supports a talk time of 15.21 hours on 3G compared to HTC Bolt's 23 hours on 3G. The talk time figures are yet to be established from user reviews after the U Play hits the market.
Operating System
The HTC Bolt runs on Android 7.0 Nougat coupled with HTC Sense UI. As for the U Play, it has been confirmed that the smartphone runs on Android with HTC UI, but the version of Android is yet to be known.
Additional Features
Both HTC handsets come with an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, haptic feedback, voice dialing, voice commands, and voice recording.
The two smartphones have a fingerprint sensor, but the HTC Bolt comes with water and dust resistance IP57 certification. The HTC Bolt comes with an added hearing aid compatibility of M4 and T4.
Price
The HTC Bolt can be purchased from HTC's website for $600. The U Play has not been released yet but is rumored to be priced at around $440.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to consumer preference and budget as to which smartphone of the two is the better buy.
