Look back a few years and you’ll see the famous HTC take on some beating as all the devices deemed fit by HTC as flagship models fell straight short of the fighting the competition and thus failing to prove the HTC’s old ‘quietly brilliant’ tagline. But with the tenth try, HTC brings up something really brilliant to the plate. This can be accounted as the all awaited comeback of the famous HTC. HTC 10 is the company’s 2016 flagship device that looks ready to take on and take down some fierce contenders. The battle is tough but will it take the perfect score and be crowned as the flagship device of the year. The review breaks down all this device offers and where it lacks.
Design and Dimensions
The device is standard HTC long which amounts to 145.9 mm in length and 71.9mm wide and is 9 mm thick. The device weighs about 161 grams making it quite comfortable for the hand. The device feels premium and the new chamfered edges all around add to its beauty. The device when viewed from angles casts a premium shade to the device adding points to its design. The aluminum body feels a bit sturdy and sometimes slippery but provides with an overall pleasing feel. The round back provides extra grip. The chamfered edges are exclusive to the HTC 10 which makes your device show its magic from a distance.
Display
HTC 10 has a 5.2 inch display classified to be a super LCD calculated to be operating at a resolution of 1440 by 2560 pixels which makes up a whopping 556 ppi density. The screen is positively rich and feels great on the eyes. The device has great viewing angles just about anywhere indoors. The screen was barely visible when used in broad daylight. You get rich blacks and the screen never feels bleached out. The display feels vibrant and pretty color accurate but when compared to the other smartphone giants, the video quality looks a bit less refined because of the different technology being used by other high end devices.
Sound
The previous HTC devices have been known for their ‘boom sound’ speakers on the face of the phone. HTC gets rid of them in this latest model replacing them with two speakers, the larger one on the bottom of the phone and other one placed in the cut out of the earpiece. They both work together forming a surround sound feeling which feels good to the ears. But does it compare to the old HTC model’s boom sound? Well, no it isn’t. The flagship falls short of what its previous models offered. The speakers are elegant and provide a nice listening experience but are no match to the front facing stereo of HTC phones in the past. The phone also exhibits great call quality.
Specifications
It nails all the boxes on the specifications sheet. HTC 10 wins hearts with it blazing fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip working miracles under the hood. The Adreno 530 GPU rendering makes your gaming experience stand out. 4GB RAM allows a great deal of multitasking with the device. All these perks allow this device fly high on the benchmark tests. It ships with an internal storage of 32 GBs or 64 GBs. As a cheery on top of the cake, the HTC 10 allows expandable storage -a property lacked by other full metal smartphones. The Mobile device is IP53 dust and water proof which provides decent protection from the dust and dirt. The flagship comes with Android Marshmallow v6.0.1 out of the box skinned and tweaked by HTC Sense 8. The device in the looks, feels pretty close to stock android and provides snappy experience because of the shortened out animations. HTC 10 does not miss out on the fingerprint sensor and has it engraved in its home button.
Camera
On paper, the phone has a 12 mega pixel shooter with an aperture of f1.8. It also has features like Optical image Stabilization, an LED flash and laser autofocus. The image quality stands just above average. In great light, the phone performs pretty well coming out with great image quality and stunning Full HD videos. Images do not either too feel over-sharpened nor squeaky. The f1.8 aperture allows good background blurred images if you desire. The camera on this device does a little bit better than others in low light. The camera overall stands above average and is definitely not the best camera in the market. The 5 megapixel front camera allows great selfies and rightly justifies the need for the selfie obsessed people.
Software
HTC Sense 8 makes your device feels snappy. The device feels responsive straight out of the box and this experience does not shimmer out. HTC sense keeps the bloatware to a minimum keeping either the company’s app or opting for Google’s edition of the app. This saves space making the device more responsive and less crowded. Sense 8 is a skin on top of the sweeter than ever version Android OS, Marshmallow. More optimized than its predecessors, it manages all that is thrown at it efficiently making it one of the most optimized mobile update to the Android OS.
Battery Performance
The HTC boasts a massive Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery. With all battery hungry things like display, navigation, background app refreshing and Facebook on, the device lasted about 15-17 hours which amounts to a pretty decent battery. The battery stood high with an endurance rating of 66 hours easily allowing you to make it through the day without an extra hour of recharge. The phone also supports fast charging which saves a great deal of time.
Additional Features
HTC supports fast charging which juices up your device to about 50 percent in half an hours’ time. The phone also has a USB Type C port which accounts for faster data travelling. The device swallows a Nano-sim for functioning and has a Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection watch its back.
Price Group
The device has a rather high price tag of $699 off contract in the United States. The HTC 10 sells at about 612 Euros in Europe and costs about 418 Pounds in the United Kingdom. The device is pretty high end that provides all that a phone must have in today’s competitive market which justifies the price tag.
Final Verdict
The device feels pretty great in the hand and is a charm to use. Not only does it look great in the hand but the grip that this phone provides makes it a great device to hold on to. The phone has awesome buttons that is a must for a phone this high end. HTC 10 is rightfully the comeback for the company that gave us brilliant devices in the past. The phone checks all the important boxes making its way into my heart. This phone is all that a phone needs to be. HTC 10 is imperfect but it’s a phone you can live with happily. It does not disappoint.