In a final roll of the dice, HTC has finally unveiled the HTC 10 smartphone on its website. Part of the reason they called it the HTC 10 is because the Taiwanese company is marking 10 years of existence, and because they feel this smartphone is a “10”.
By its own admission, the company says it aimed for perfection and totality with this new flagship phone.
HTC 10 Smartphone A Perfect “10”
The HTC 10 smartphone follows last year’s HTC M9, blending the design of the A9 with that of the M series. HTC says it spent close to a year designing the HTC 10, integrating feedback from users all through the development process.
The HTC 10 (no M or One in the phone’s name, just 10) has all the things that might interest you in a flagship Android phone. First, the new phone is available in both 32 and 64GB versions, with both featuring microSD cards that accommodate up to 2TB. It also has a long-lasting 3,000mAh battery that’s able to keep your phone charged for up to two days.
Flipping the phone over, you will encounter a 12-ultrapixel rear camera, which promises to let in 136 percent more light. The result: sharper pictures with more vibrant details. The sensors on this camera are a big improvement compared to the old HTC shooters.
At the front, the phone features a 5.2-inch, quad HD Super LCD 5 display, which the Taiwanese company says displays 30 percent more color than its predecessor. Complementing the phone’s metal frame is a curved Gorilla Glass screen.
Coming down to the operating system, HTC has gotten rid of unwanted apps and bloatware. Instead, the company has incorporated a tighter integration with Google, only providing a handful of apps with users having the option to get their preferred apps at Google’s Play Store. The phone runs on Android 6 (Marshmallow). Also, as you might have already guessed, the 10 uses a quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM.
HTC has always been a little crazy about audio, and it is a bit surprising to see BoomSound audio back. The front-facing stereo speakers that we had become accustomed to have been replaced with a tweeter up top and a woofer at the bottom of the phone. The low and high frequencies come from above and below. The sound is crisp and loud as all audio is up-scaled to 24-bit quality, which sounds really great on the included hi-res certified earbuds. Since people’s hearing abilities are all different, HTC infused a test that defines your “personal audio profile.”
Here is a video released live today announcing the phone:
HTC seems to have hit all the right buttons with regards to the specs, looks, and features of the HTC 10 smartphone. And even before the phone hits the shelves, we can easily tell that it will be loved by small business owners who are always on the go.
While carrier pricing details have not been released yet, you can pre-order your unlocked version from HTC for $699. The phone will start shipping next month and will be available in black and silver. Japan will get a special red color while global markets will have a gold option.
Image: HTC
Karl Schempp
It’s great that HTC finally fixed their weakness in camera technology. They even improved stereo recording, but what everyone seems to forget is that a successful successor device needs to have all the great technology available in the market that can be packaged together. The reason the M9 didn’t do well is because it ran hot initially, the camera was poor, and had no Image Stabilization, and it did NOT have a biometric reader of some type that is needed for future secure commerce transactions.
Note though that any company that removes a great feature like front-facing (FF) STEREO speakers from an existing product on its next iteration has engineers with mush for brains. It’s likely that the HTC 10 will be another weak seller, like its predecessor. Even Samsung brought back a microSD slot on the Galaxy S7. There are NO good reasons to remove the FF stereo speakers that offer full frequency sound through both left and right speakers. Right? One keeps improving, not removing good stuff. The Galaxy S7 Edge is the way to go till some company can create a follow up flagship device with FF stereo speakers, like the upcoming new Nexus that HTC will be building.
If smartphone users think that FF stereo speakers should not be part of their multi-media experience when using the device, then they should ask themselves, “would they buy a TV without stereo speakers – like it was in the 70s – great mono sound?” If you added speakers to your TV, would you face the speakers towards your couch, or would you face them to the side or back walls? If the smartphone plays back HD video, then the smartphone should play back stereo sound (full frequency of sound through both the left and right speakers). It just makes sense. Of course, both large and small multi-media smart devices should also have jacks for earplugs or headphones when privacy is required. This just makes sense too. Right?
I also watch youTube videos on my M9. I hold up my phone and watch different types of clips with it, while I’m lying down. Those FF stereo speakers make a huge difference. I can watch John Oliver (Last Week Tonight) clips in HD, and the stereo sound is awesome. My next portable computer (which will just happen to make phone calls as well) MUST have stereo sound (without accessories), and if HTC does not offer it in a few years, then I’ll be buying someone else’s smart multimedia personal assistant device.
Boomsound is just some hardware and software inside the device (and more importantly it’s a marketing term). It has nothing to do with where sound exits the device. In my opinion, the engineers had it right, when they designed the exits so that the direction of the sound waves moved forward and hit your face, and a strong pleasing stereo effect was achieved by having the sound exit from both sides of the screen when you held it in landscape mode, as if you were watching a small LED flat screen TV.
LightStruk stated: I have a One M8, and I bought it specifically for the loud, front-facing, stereo speakers. I use those speakers every day! I can watch videos without cupping my hand around the bottom bezel like you have to with an iPhone, and the stereo separation is obvious. I can turn my phone around and show some friends what I’m watching, and they don’t have to alternate between pointing the speaker at their ear and watching the video. I put it on my kitchen counter and listen to podcasts as I cook. I turn on music and sit it on the table while playing with my toddler. The sound that comes out is actually tolerable!
So, I believe Stereo FF speakers are just as necessary as an HD colour display.