Gimmicks are a means to an end for many smartphone manufacturers. They need a way to have their device stand out in a crowded smartphone market, and one easy way to do that is to offer a new feature, or features, that can be easily installed on a bullet list placed next to a phone inside a store. Of course, some might be harder to explain than others, and even if there's a nice list a store representative might have to go in-depth to explain it, but it's certainly better than nothing.
As long as it works, anyway.
Some manufacturers have had better luck with this than others. Samsung, for instance, isn't really suffering from the same issues it used to, where they used to cram a ton of features into a phone and call it a day. Unfortunately many of them just didn't work all that well, so even if they sounded cool it ultimately didn't matter.
LG decided to give a modular smartphone a shot, back when the news cycle was focused so hard on modular phones being the next big thing, but it only lasted one generation, despite plenty of claims that the LG-branded accessories would get support in future iterations of the G-series. RIP, LG Friends.
In an interesting turn of events, HTC has decided to go back down the route of gimmicks, but it has apparently worked out for them! Mostly because the rest of the phone has been working out like gangbusters. The U11 is a hit for HTC, selling faster than previous popular phones from the manufacturer, and I don't remember seeing a negative review for the handset.
But then there's that Edge Sense feature, which, honestly, I don't hear about at all anymore. Even when I see people praising the U11 these days, it's mostly about two things: the camera and the color(s). And it's usually about the color more often than not, which definitely makes sense. The U11 color options, and its design, are pretty amazing.
So, now that the U11 is out in the real world and people have their hands on it, I wanted to hear from you owners. Are you using the Edge Sense feature at all? If so, how often do you think you use it on a daily basis? Is it one of the reasons you picked up the phone, and has it lived up to the hype? Or is this something you simply turned off and forgot about? Let me know!
