Today HTC announced their latest flagship, the U11, featuring a 5.5-inch, Quad HD display, Snapdragon 835 processor, and new glass and metal design and a new way to interact with it.

HTC is also introducing "Edge Sense", a new way to interact with the U11 by letting you squeeze the sides of the device to perform different functions. This new feature can be configured to do a variety of tasks with either short or long squeezes. You can set a short squeeze to open the camera and then take a picture when the camera app is open. A long squeeze can be configured to launch the Google voice assistant or toggle the flashlight on and off.

When the smartphone is turned on, the device will offer a calibration tool consisting of a few minigames in order to set the standard squeeze pressure. The mechanism supports two levels of squeeze based on time, and the calibration is done in order to determine a squeeze compared to a standard grip, which is one of the initial queries we had on the device. After the device is calibrated, it uses the phase of the reflected ultrasound waves for detection.

At launch, a number of stock apps will be preconfigured with squeeze actions, and some of these will be configurable at the system level. Then later in the year software will be made available that will allow users to configure any app to take advantage of the squeeze. HTC says Squeeze actions also work with gloves.

In addition to the new squeeze actions, the HTC U11 will also support voice interaction through the Google Assistant and will also receive Amazon Alexa support in July.

In addition to Edge Sense, the U11 has a similar design to the U Ultra from earlier this year. That means it's metal and glass with curved panels that blend into the metal frame and vibrant colors.

The device lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack, instead relying on its USB Type-C port for charging, data transfer, and audio function. In addition to the headphones, HTC is including a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter for use with other headphones.

The smartphone has a a5.5-inch QHD (2560x1440) SLCD5 IPS display, Qualcomm's latest 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage with support for microSD cards (a version with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will be available in select markets, but not the US), a 12-megapixel camera with optical stabilization and dual-pixel autofocus, and a 3,000mAh battery. The U11 is also rated for IP67 water and dust resistance.

HTC is partnering with Sprint in the US as the exclusive carrier partner for the U11, and it is available for preorder now and will be hitting stores on June 9th. Pricing is on-par with other flagship smartphones, at $29 per month for 24 months ($696 total). Those that preorder the phone will get two Amazon Echo Dots for free. An unlocked version compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon is also available for preorder from htc.com and Amazon for $649 and will be shipping in June.