HTC 10 officially unveiled

The long-awaited HTC 10 has finally been unveiled. HTC pulled back the digital curtain today to show off the phone on a web stream. Those who have been keeping up with the HTC 10’s rumors will be fairly familiar with the phone’s official spec list, hardware design and software features. That being said, there are a few surprises which we were not expecting.

Design

Starting with the design, the new HTC 10 is built with a unibody aluminum shell which wraps around the back and sides of the phone. Since this is the basic premise of the HTC One, One M8 and One M9’s design as well, HTC chose to change things up a little by carving off a thick edge on the back which gives the phone a unique look while allowing it to rest comfortably in your hand with a solid grip. The polycarbonate inserts are in their usually stops, running edge-to-edge near the top and bottom of the device and the camera, dual-LED flash and laser autofocus sensor are centered below the top antenna line. Flipping the phone around to the front and you’re treated to a single slab of 2.5D Gorilla Glass which seamlessly meets the aluminum at the edges of the device. Above the display is a thin speaker slit, proximity and light sensors and the HTC 10’s front-facing camera. Below it is a fingerprint sensor which doubles as the phone’s home button. Hidden below the glass on either side of the fingerprint sensor are capacitive buttons which light up when the phone’s display is turned on.

The right edge of the phone is where you’ll find the volume rocker and textured metal power button. One of the phone’s BoomSound speakers is positioned on the bottom edge next to the UBS Type-C charging and sync port. Unfortunately while the 3.5mm headphone jack has been positioned on the phone’s top edge. The overall look of the HTC 10 is a cross between the HTC One A9 and the original HTC One (M7). The aluminum finish will be available in carbon gray, glacier silver, camellia red and topaz gold. The glass on the front of all three color options will be black, but the glacier silver HTC 10 will also have a white front glass option.

Specifications

The HTC 10’s specifications match up nicely with the rumors. HTC has sourced a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC to power the phone and has equipped it 4GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot which supports cards up to 200GB (1TB in the future), a 3,000 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support which allows the battery to charge 50% in just 30 minutes. HTC states that the 5.2-inch Super LCD 5 QHD display on the front of the phone is 30 percent more color accurate and 50 percent more responsive to touch than the displays HTC has used on previous flagship devices. The fingerprint scanned on the front of the phone is even quicker that the one used on the HTC One A9. It can recognize a fingerprint in 0.2 seconds and improves upon that over time thanks with a built-in learning algorithm. The phone also comes with the usual array for NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz).

Since HTC has taken a lot of heat for delivering sub-par camera performance in its flagship devices over the past few years, HTC is stepping up its game by offering a 5MP camera on the front and 12MP camera on the back of the HTC 10 – both featuring optical image stabilization and large aperture f/1.8 lenses. The rear camera can record 4K video and is enhanced with laser auto focus which will allow for shorter and more accurate focus times for subjects that are within a few meters of the phone. The drop in total megapixels for the main camera will seem like a step back, but HTC has chosen a sensor with larger pixels which allow it to perform better in low light. The 12MP camera on the front will not only give selfie-obsessed consumers the ability to snap high-resolution selfies, but it will allow them to capture more blur free images and videos with the built-in optical image stabilization. The camera app has been optimized to launch in just 0.6 seconds and comes with a Pro mode which give you manual controls and the ability to capture the original RAW image file.

The HTC 10 does not have two front-facing stereo speakers like HTC’s flagship phones have had in the past, but BoomSound is still present with a slightly different implementation. The speakers built into the earpiece grill on the phone’s front will act as a “tweeter” and the second speaker on the bottom edge of the phone will act as a “woofer.” Together, HTC claims that the two amp-enhanced speakers offer a better audio experience than any other flagship phone launched in 2016. Plugging into the phone’s 3.5mm headphone back, users will also be treated to high fidelity audio playback (enhanced by Dolby) with “two times the power of a conventional headphone amp.” The HTC 10 is also “the world’s first stereo 24-bit Hi-Res audio recording, capturing 256 times more detail than standard recordings, across twice the frequency range.”

Software

Out of the box, the HTC 10 runs on Android 6.0.1 with HTC Sense 8. The basic premise of HTC Sense 8 hasn’t changes much from last year, but HTC has gone even further in reducing its app and UI clutter. The skin looks closer to stock Android than it ever has and HTC has even stripped out its own music and Gallery apps in favor of using Google Photos and Google Play Music. Naturally, BlinkFeed is still built into HTC’s launcher, but the experience has been tweaked and fine-tuned even more.

The most notable new software features within HTC Sense 8 is Freestyle Layouts. Users have the option to create their own home screen customization which includes stickers instead of the usual app icons. Rather than placing the stickers into the traditional home screen grid, you’re given the option to drop them wherever you want.

Availability

As always, the price of the HTC 10 will be different in local markets, but HTC has shared that the HTC 10 will go on sale later this month.