For a company that’s had a rough patch in recent years, the HTC 10 is just the sort of device the doctor ordered to get the company back on track. The design is on point, the hardware is capable, and the device is a credible contender for the premium flagship crown.
The trouble is the competition hasn’t been complacent, and smartphone buyers have never had so many great devices to choose from. Can the 10 win back HTC’s past glory in the smartphone space and earn that coveted spot in your front pocket?
Pros:
- Great build quality
- Sharp and bright screen
- Restrained approach to software
- Top-notch performance
- Good audio output on headphones
- Great selfie camera
- Fast charging
Cons:
- Rear camera results inconsistent in low light
- Derivative design, lacks water proofing
- Lacks the front-facing speakers
- Average battery life
- Pricing not competitive
What’s Good?
The 10 follows a safe, somewhat derivative, design evolution instead of trying something new.
It’s well-built and premium-feeling in the hand,
and there’s just that tiny bit of design flair with the pronounced chamfered edge around the rear and bordering the
screen’s Gorilla Glass cover. Too bad HTC missed a design trick by not making the phone waterproof…
Under the hood, the HTC is as kitted out as you’d expect a flagship to be, with Qualcomm’s latest top-end processor, the Snapdragon 820, which is du jour for flagships launching in 2016, and frankly one would expect no less for the price (I’m looking at you, Sony!).
There’s bags of RAM, all 4GB of it, and the phone handled graphic-rich games, heavy photo edits and filters and pretty much everything I threw at it without missing a beat.
What HTC scores on is in the software department. This time around, we’d like to laud HTC for the amount of restraint it has shown in the Android 6.0.1-based Sense UI.
HTC has spent time and effort cutting back, and it shows. If you’re a fan of customisation though, HTC has theming features and stickers to make the 10 truly your own.
Rounding out the impressive package is the tack-sharp quad-HD 5.2-inch Super LCD 5 display, which at 564ppi gives you sharp text and details all around, and decent levels of brightness. But it’s not quite as vibrant or eye-catching as the ones on the Samsung flagships, plus there’s no always-on mode either.
There’s a fast fingerprint scanner, plus high-res audio support with the BoomSound system which works great with earphones, and there’s Apple AirPlay audio streaming support, which means you can use an Apple TV or a Chromecast with the 10 straight out of the box.
That said, the 10 lacks the phenomenal stereo BoomSound setup we’ve grown to love on the One series. The 10 isn’t bad per se – it’s possibly one of the best speaker setups today, but it just isn’t what it used to be.
What’s Bad?
HTC 10 gets a lot of things right with its camera – the laser autofocus makes focusing super snappy and the rear camera’s bright f/1.8 optically stabilised lens turns out excellent photos in good light. This is without question the best camera from HTC yet.
Yet, in inconsistent or low-light conditions, it struggles both with autofocus and noise levels, and this is where the Samsungs edge ahead.
On the flip side, the 10 is the first smartphone to feature an optically stabilised front camera, which means sharp selfies and
video in low light which probably matters more these days for a lot of folks.
In a phone packed with superlatives, a bigger and more efficient battery wouldn’t have hurt, and the 3000 mAh capacity does the job of lasting a day of day, but with inconsistent results.
Some days it would go the distance while on 4G all day, and others it would have me hunting at 7 pm for the USB-C cable to top it up. Fortunately, Quick Charge 3.0 compatibility alleviates some of these concerns, but wireless charging would have been a nice touch.
Why Buy It?
There’s a lot going for the HTC 10, but at Rs 52,990, the pricing is a bit of a letdown…though it isn’t much of a surprise if you’ve tracked HTC for a while. That said, one has to address the elephant in the room – the Samsung S7 – which is cheaper and offers slightly better battery life, a better camera, wireless charging and water resistance.
This is a great phone for HTC fans who’ve been waiting for a stellar device to come by, and it gets most things right. One only wishes pricing had been more competitive to give the 10 the fighting chance it deserves.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)