HTC 10 smartphone picks up the flagship torch

by Eric Born — 9:02 AM on April 12, 2016

Hot on the heels of the Vive launch, HTC has announced its next flagship smartphone. With the HTC 10, the company has done more than drop the "One" and the "M" from the device's name. The phone's design and hardware suggests that HTC is taking aggressive steps to reclaim a corner of the competitive smartphone market.

Regarding the HTC 10's design, I'll first note that it doesn't look like an iPhone copy. (It feels like it's been a while since I could say that about a smartphone.) The HTC 10 features an all-metal unibody with a dual-textured finish. A chamfered edge wraps around the 5.2" Super LCD 5 display. The power and volume buttons are located on the right side of the device, and the standard Android buttons are located below the screen. A fingerprint sensor is built into the home button.

For the 10, HTC improved on the internals of the HTC One M9 in many ways. The phone is powered by the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, and it ships with 4GB of RAM. Users can pick 32GB or 64GB of flash storage, and the microSD slot can accept up to 2TB of extra storage. The battery is a bit stronger than the one in the M9, as well. HTC claims that the pack's 3000-mAh capacity lets it last up to two days on a charge. The charger connects through a USB Type-C connector, and purportedly can charge the device up to 50% in half an hour. Even better, HTC claims to use some kind of new tech that helps keep the device cool while it's charging.

HTC boasts about the number of pixels that its UltraPixel rear camera can cram into an image, but I think users will be a little more excited about some of the other new camera features. The 12MP rear camera now employs a BSI sensor, which HTC claims improves low-light performance. Both the back and the front cameras feature optical image stabilization, a spec HTC claims is an industry first.

The HTC 10 is available for pre-order now starting at $700. It comes in either black or silver. An unlocked version of the device is also available. 

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