HTC U Ultra with sapphire crystal display glass lands in Europe on April 18

HTC's U Ultra comes in two versions. One has 64GB of storage and Gorilla Glass 5 on top of the display, while the other boasts 128GB of memory and a sapphire crystal glass on top of the screen. The former has been out in many markets for some time now, but the latter has so far been confined to the company's home of Taiwan. That's about to change, though.

Starting on April 18, the sapphire-clad U Ultra will become available in Europe. This is true at least for Germany and Switzerland. As you'd expect, it will be anything but cheap. In fact, you'll need to shell out a whopping €849 or CHF 849 for one. To put things in perspective, the regular U Ultra with Gorilla Glass costs €699. So that's a €150 premium you'd be paying for the additional storage and fancy screen protection.

Speaking of which, while sapphire crystal ranks very highly on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, scoring a 9, it's more brittle than Gorilla Glass. So you won't be able to scratch it with anything except a diamond, but it might shatter upon an impact easier than if you went with the alternative U Ultra option.

Source (in German)