Prior to the launch of the HTC U 11 the company has been teasing the ‘Edge Sense’ aspect of the smartphone as a marquee feature. We have had peeks of its function in videos and images and what not. The company also patented the technology which leads us to believe that the company rates the feature highly. So what is the HTC Edge Sense? Does it make life easier for the average user? Or is it just a gimmick like some say? Let’s take a look at what the new tech brings to the table
Simply put, the Edge Sense is a shortcut to certain functions of the smartphone, whereby you squeeze the edges of your smartphone to do certain things quickly, for example, to open apps. Very much like the Blackberry convenience key which is used as a shortcut key to open apps, Only with the Edge Sense the execution is not by pressing a button but by squeezing the edges of the phone. But the Edge Sense is much more than your regular shortcut key.
HTC has implemented sensors in the edged which are always active and are sensitive to different intensities of squeeze. So there is a soft squeeze and a hard squeeze. You can assign different functions to both types of squeeze. And they are always on. They will work as well when your hands are wet or in gloves.
Now some have already called this feature a gimmick, the feature could be much useful in some case scenarios. case in point. You are taking selfies or couple of good photos where timing is needed, pressing the hardware button or on-screen button can lead to loss of quality. On the other hand, squeezing is much faster and also natural hence provide a better option. On the downside, back covers or cases may prove to be a hindrance to its use. How much of a hindrance will it be is yet to be seen.
Since the HTC U 11 has already launched we have had glimpses of the myriad shortcut options provided by the Sense Edge. Yo can set a certain squeeze to a certain favourite app. You can set it to launch the camera, to turn the flashlight on, or to wake your virtual assistant – Google’s own or Amazon Alexa.