HTC 10 Review

The roadmap of HTC's flagship hasn't been a rocky one. Their One series has been an interesting one but always fall a bit short in living up to the namesake. The M7 had a promising start, the M8 got better, and the M9 fell a bit short of the mark.

Late last year, things changed as HTC launched an interesting device w/ the One A9. Although it had an iPhone-like look to it, it had a better camera & better take on software. This made for an interesting move and expectation for their 2016 flagship. Gone is the One title as it is just the HTC 10. Time to see if the 10 is the One.

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Design/Build

Don't expect HTC to skimp out on the look on their latest flagship. That is something you can always count on. The original leaks of the device made it look a lot worse than it does in person. The 5.2inch frame is a bit bigger than the M9 but still comfortable enough to wield w/ one-hand.

This time around we have an aluminum unibody shell again but this time it has a very visible chamfer for a better grip. Now /w an edge-to-edge display which means lot less wasted bezel space than before. Now you don't have any water-resistant coating/sealing but built good enough to handle drops. It is still premium but offers an even more seamless, simplistic look overall.

Display

This is the 1st time HTC has stepped things up in the screen panel department as it goes from 1080p HD to QHD on the resolution side of things. The 5.2inch QHD offers up a Super LCD3 panel w/ 564ppi. So in other words, you get a super bright screen pumping out detailed colors & clarity. So it's no real surprise that HTC's 1st QHD panel looks as good if not better than their rivals on the market.

Performance/Battery Life

HTC also made sure to step things up w/ its internals as well. The 10 touts a 64-bit 2.2GHz Snapdragon 820 quad-core CPU coupled w/ 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage expandable up to 2TB via microSD. All makes for a super speedy experience on all things: from opening apps, gaming, video streaming, etc. Zero complaints and zero lag throughout my time w/ it.

Underneath it all, the 10 offers a 3000 mAh battery. HTC says the 10 will give users a 2-day battery life. Well, we didn't get quite that but maybe 2 work days (2 10-hour days) or a little bit more. I was able to get around 14 hours w/ heavier usage and about over 24 hours w/ light-to-normal usage. But not 2-days as they suggested. Standby time has been beautiful too, BTW. The 10 is rocking a USB-C port along w/ Quick Charge 3.0 to get up to 50% of a charge in 30 minutes.

Camera

HTC utilized a newer version of the Sony sensor utilized from the beloved Nexus 5X/6P. It has a f/1.8 12MP 2nd-generation Ultrapixel lens technology w/ OIS, dual LED flash, and a laser auto-focus on the rear. On the front, we have a f/1.8 5MP lens also w/ OIS. The great news is that HTC's camera curse has been lifted. It shines in almost all conditions as the laser auto-focus works against it at times. We've dived into it a bit more in-depth about its overall performance earlier this week.

HTC 10 Camera Review

Sound

The BoomSound that you know and love is gone. Welcome to the BoomSound 2.0 as the audio focus is more internal than external. So instead of the dual front-facing speakers now have one facing in the front (the speaker/tweeter) and one facing the bottom (subwoofer for bass). But plugging in your headphones is where you get the real audio treat.

The 10 has its own 24-bit DAC (digital to analog converter) built-in along w/ a DSP (digital signal processor) that upscales the atypical 16-bit audio quality to 24-bit. You can do even more w/ the Personal Audio Profile feature that allows you to tune the audio content to your specific desires & headphones. BoomSound has evolved to an even better audio experience that puts their rivals to shame.

Software

The 10 is running Android's latest w/ 6.0 Marshmallow underneath the latest version of their Sense UX. Which may sound like business as usual but this time around HTC worked closely w/ google to avoid the silliness that occurs w/ a skinned Android device. Where you would usually have multiple versions of the same kind of app (like Gmail + HTC's Mail app, Google Photos + HTC's Gallery app, etc.) has diminished almost completely.

As far as the usual suspects from HTC, you still have BlinkFeed present as it is now powered by News Republic and now adds video integration to the mix. The overall customization of Sense has gotten leaps & bounds better. Their keyboards have themes via TouchPal as well as their Theme Store has good content within it. One of them being their Freestyle Layout which allows you to place add items to your homescreen free from the grid layout on any other Android device.

The overall flow of the software is still Sense but more in tuned w/ Material Design that comes w/ Android 6.0. Definitely love everything HTC did w/ Sense this time around. It is beyond tolerable as it is actually good.

Sidenote: With HTC working close w/ Google on the software side of things could feed into the rumors of HTC handling the Nexus duties for 2016.

The HTC 10: no gimmicks just a great smartphone.

TG 2 Cents

After playing it safe last year, I'm glad HTC decided to do things a differently this year. Of course on the outside, it doesn't seem like much had changed but it has. From retaining a premium look to evolving BoomSound (both internally & externally) to creating the best-skinned version of Android and to finally getting a good handle on cameras.

Unlike last year, this is HTC's finest. For anyone w/ any previous HTC device, I would urge you to upgrade to the 10 if possible. This is the one you've been waiting for.

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