The HTC11 EYEs is here with a 3,930 mAh battery and dual selfie camera

• The HTCU11 EYEs has been announced in Taiwan and China.
• The device features a 6-inch FHD+ display, 3,930 mAh battery and dual front-facing camera.
• It’s going on sale for the equivalent of around $512, but it’s not yet known if it will land in the US.

HTC has launched the U11 EYEs. The Taiwan company had teased its announcement recently and we’d heard some rumors about the new smartphone, but the device was officially unveiled in China and Taiwan earlier today. Arriving with HTC’s largest ever smartphone battery, and some impressive camera features, the U11 EYEs is an intriguing take on the midrange Android handset.

The device comes with a 6-inch, Full-HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) Super LCD3 display with 18:9 aspect ratio, protected by Gorilla Glass 3. It features a 64-bit, octa-core Snapdragon 652 chip, 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of onboard storage (expandable up to 2 TB via microSD).

As for the cameras, the U11 EYEs houses a 12-UltraPixel rear sensor with f/1.7 aperture and dual-tone, dual-LED flash, as well as phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilization, and 4K video recording. Meanwhile, the front camera features a dual 5 MP + 5 MP camera setup with f/2.2 aperture and HDR. This camera also includes a bokeh-effect mode both for images and videos (check it out here), which looks like it will become one of the standout features of the handset.

HTC USonic headphones with active noise reduction are also included, as is HTC’s squeezable Edge Sense technology.

There’s a 3,930 mAh battery on board with USB Type-C connectivity, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, and the handset measures in at 157.9 x 74.99 x 8.5 mm, weighing 185 grams. Rounding off the core specs details is an IP67 certification for dust and water resistance, while the U11 EYEs is running Android Oreo out of the box.

The use of a dual front-facing camera setup, large battery, noise-cancelling headphones and Edge Sense technology, make this a midrange phone that stands out. But the use of a 2016 chipset—which wasn’t flagship quality at the time—might put some people off.

This old-hardware-with-new-ideas approach could lead to some great handsets if manufacturers choose to pursue it in future, however—especially when there are only small changes happening each year in the smartphone world right now.

The U11 EYEs will be available from Wednesday in China, coming in metallic blue, black and red, but it’s not known if it will make its way to the US later. It’s also not cheap, especially given the core specs, coming in at CNY 3,299, roughly US$512.

Find out more about the HTCU11 EYEs at the official HTCwebsite, and give us your thoughts on the handset in the comments.