After what was unquestionably a pretty boring period of time in the smartphone market, 2016 is shaping up to be a breath of fresh air. First Samsung unveiled its sleekest and most powerful smartphone ever in the Galaxy S7 edge, then LG showed off some nice original thinking in the modular G5 flagship phone.
Now, it’s time for HTC to show off its headliner for the first half of 2016 — and the HTC 10 turned out to be quite a headliner indeed.
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The brand new HTC 10 looks just like the phone we’ve seen a number of times in the leaks that led up to today’s unveiling, but the real story is in the details.
HTC said in meetings ahead of today’s announcement that “10 is about perfection.” While no phone is perfect, HTC 10 included, the company did a tremendous job of taking the experience offered by its earlier handsets and refining it as much as it can possibly be refined considering today’s technological confinements.
The battery is better, lasting up to 2 days according to HTC. No flagship smartphone to date has been able to provide two full days of battery life on a single charge. And in case that wasn’t enough, HTC also included support for Quick Charge 3.0, which can refuel the 3,000 mAh battery from 0% to 50% in less than a half hour.
The camera is better, having scored an 88 in DxOMark’s tests. That ties it with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 as the best smartphone camera in the world, which is incredible considering how many issues HTC has had with camera quality over the years.
Performance is better, powered by a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 820 chipset and 4GB of RAM. The display is better, with 5.2 inches of real estate and 2K quad HD resolution. The audio is better, with “BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition” providing an entirely new high-quality sound experience through the handset’s external speakers or through wired headphones. And the software is better, with HTC having stripped away much of the bloat in favor of Google apps that come built into Android.
Everything is better.
The new HTC 10 will begin rolling out in some markets as soon as later this week on April 15th. In the United States, the unlocked version compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile networks will be available for preorder beginning today for $699 on HTC’s website. Preorders will begin shipping sometime in early May. Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint will also sell the phone directly, and will announce pricing and availability details separately. Curiously, it appears as though AT&T will not sell the HTC 10 directly.
Be sure to check out our hands-on HTC 10 preview for some early impressions, and you’ll find the phone’s full specs below.
HTC 10
SIZE:
145.9 x 71.9 x 3.0 – 9.0mm
WEIGHT: 161g
DISPLAY: 5.2 inch, Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixels, 564 pixels per inch) Super LCD 5 with curved-edge Gorilla Glass
PLATFORM
- Android™ 6 with HTC Sense™
PROCESSOR
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 820
- Quad-core, 64-bit, up to 2.2Ghz
MEMORY
- Total storage: 32GB or 64GB (available capacity varies)
- RAM: 4GB
- Expandable: microSD™ expansion supports additional memory cards up to 2TB with Flex Storage (optional cards not included)
CAMERAMain Camera
- 12MP HTC UltraPixel™ 2 (1.55µm pixel size)
- Laser autofocus
- BSI sensor
- Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
- f/1.8 aperture, 26mm focal length
- Dual tone LED flash
- 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio
- Slow motion video recording at 720p, 120fps
- Modes include Auto-HDR, Panorama, Pro mode with manual control and 12-bit RAW format support, Hyperlapse, Zoe capture, Video Pic, and continuous shooting up to 8fps
Front Camera
- 5MP (1.34µm pixel size)
- Autofocus
- BSI sensor
- Optical Image Stabilization (OIS)
- f/1.8 aperture, 23mm focal length
- Full HD 1080p video recording
- Modes include Auto-HDR, Auto Selfie, Voice Selfie, and Live Make-Up
SOUND
- HTC BoomSound™ Hi-Fi Edition
- Dolby Audio™
- Personal Audio Profile
- Hi-Res Audio certified
- Hi-Res Audio earphones
- Hi-Res Audio stereo recording
- Three microphones with noise cancelation
NETWORK2G/2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
- 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- 800/850/1800/1900 MHz (Japan)
3G UMTSVaries by region
- 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
- 850/AWS/900/2100 MHz (America)
CDMA
- 800/1900 with EvDO Rev. A (America)
4G LTE™ (up to 450Mbps)Varies by region
- Asia/Europe: FDD B1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 32; TDD B38, 40, 41
- America: FDD B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 28, 29, 30
- Japan: FDD: B1, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 21, 26; TDD B38, 41
- Support Cat 9 LTE: downloads up to 450Mbps, uploads up to 50Mbps
SIM
- Nano SIM
SENSORS
- Ambient light sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Motion G-sensor
- Compass sensor
- Gyro sensor
- Magnetic sensor
- Fingerprint sensor
- Sensor Hub for activity tracking
LocationVaries by region
- GPS + GLONASS + Beidou (Europe and Asia)
- GPS + GLONASS (America and Japan)
CONNECTIVITY
- USB 3.1 Gen1, Type-C
- 5mm stereo audio jack
- Bluetooth® 4.2
- Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5GHz)
- NFC
- DisplayPort
- DNLA™
- Miracast™
- Google Cast™
- AirPlay™
- HTC Connect™ for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to compatible multi-room audio systems, TVs, portable speakers and home entertainment systems
BATTERY
- Capacity: 3000mAh
- Talk time on 3G/4G: up to 27 hours
- Standby time on 3G/4G: up to 19 days
- Power saving mode
- Extreme power saving mode
- Quick Charge 3.0 with cool charge: up to 50% charge in 30 minutes
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
- Display color personalization
- Ice View case
- Motion Launch
- Quiet ring on pick-up
- Pocket mode
