The Nokia 6 and HTC U Ultra are pretty much new phones as they have been in the market for a few weeks now following their January launch.
While the two phones are worlds apart, where the Nokia 6 is a budget phone whereas the HTC U Ultra is a premium phone, you’d be better off with the former than the latter, especially if you love durable products – and Nokia.
One of the qualities that made Nokia phones so popular was the durability and with its first phone on the market, the Finnish company proves that it’s still the go-to smartphone company for outdoor lovers. Thanks to JerryRigEverything tests, where the two phones are put through total destruction tests, we have details of how these two phones could fair on in the real world.
Where the Nokia 6 passes the test with flying colors, the HTC U Ultra proves that it’s not the go-to phone in 2017, especially with its high-end $750 price tag. As usual, the test starts with scratching off the phone’s screen, where the U Ultra starts scratching at level 6 on Mohs scale, which is not so good from Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 technology. Luckily enough, this easy scratching of the phone’s front panel won’t really affect the fingerprint scanner in normal use, but even if it does, the sensor should still be able to work.
Unlike past cases where HTC has sometimes used plastic materials to cover the camera lens, the HTC U Ultra has glass on the front-facing shooter, but the earpiece has a piece of cloth, which can be ripped apart with time. The phone has glass on the front and back panels and a metallic frame joins the two pieces together. Like the front, the back has Gorilla Glass 5 protecting it as well and it will also take some effort to scratch it. The camera is not easily destructible, but the flash and AF are plastic, which makes them easily catch scratches in the test. Even though you can still work with a scratched flash, the story is not the same when it comes to AF.
Using Mohs level 9 pick, the back of the HTC U Ultra is easily turned into a mess full of scratches and cracks. It gets even worse when it comes to the bend test as the back’s glass material cracks heavily thanks to the already existing scratches and cracks, but this doesn’t mean that the phone wouldn’t bend heavily if it was intact. Still, the fact that it has a full metal chassis makes up for this. Also, the bend test doesn’t affect the phone, but the ease at which it was able to bend should be an area of concern for U Ultra buyers.
When the Nokia 6 is taken through the same tests, it actually outshines the HTC U Ultra by far. Unlike the latter, the former has a metallic body and the screen has the older Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protecting it. Still, it manages to start getting scratches at level 6, just like the HTC flagship and basically many other flagships that have gone through a JerryRigEverything test.
The metallic body means that the razor blade easily scratches it, but the scratches are nowhere to be seen on the fingerprint scanner and front-facing camera. Nokia’s long-standing reputation as far as mobile phone durability is concerned is also put to test here, but the Nokia 6 easily passes the bend test, with JerryRigEverything unable to bend it whatsoever. Apparently, the only disappointment that JerryRigEverything has about the Nokia 6 is the earpiece fabric that easily comes off, which is a huge blow in the face of the HTC U Ultra, considering their huge price differences.
So, if you are in the market for one of the most durable phones that won’t make you break the banks, the Nokia 6 is one good phone to start with. The year is still early, we might get a new challenger somewhere along the way.