HTC 10: 5 Things I Learned on the First Day (Video)

The new HTC 10 is coming to the United States soon after being announced on April 12. It has a beautiful all-aluminum design, improved camera, fingerprint scanner, top-of-the-line features to rival the Galaxy S7, and much more. Now, after spending a little over 24 hours with the HTC 10, here are some thoughts, impressions and five things I learned about this device over the course of a day.

A full review is coming soon, but in the meantime we have some thoughts on our HTC 10 hands-on video and first impressions as well as what we did and didn’t like about this new phone. I can already say that this might be HTC’s best smartphone in recent years, and it’s definitely a device to consider.

For 2016, HTC has completely overhauled its smartphone approach, abandoning the “M” branding, improving the camera and design, and offering a paired clean software experience unlike Samsung or LG. Similar to what Motorola did with the Moto X. There’s a lot to love and a lot to talk about about the HTC 10, so let’s get started.

In recent years HTC has really struggled to compete with Samsung, Apple and even LG in the smartphone market, but 2016 may be their return to dominance. They’ve put together a versatile smartphone with a clean, sleek and durable design with every box ticked on the specs sheet and no gimmicks. This is arguably HTC’s best smartphone ever.

In fact, after only 24 hours, I can recommend the HTC 10 instead of the LG G5. It’s a nice finished product, fast and smooth, has a great camera, and battery life looks promising so far. We had our first impressions and overview video above, and below is more information for those debating whether it’s worth waiting until early May to buy the HTC 10.

Perfect Design

HTC is one of the best when it comes to premium, well-made smartphones, and this is extremely evident in the new HTC 10. On the back this is clearly an HTC smartphone, but it has this new double-width chamfered edge with a nice shine. him. It looked a bit silly at first (or in leaks), but it actually looks pretty good in hands and in real life. The edges are slightly rounded and fit comfortably in the hand.

Those looking for a premium all-metal phone will definitely love it, and it’s not glass-encased like the Galaxy S7. So it’s not a fingerprint magnet and you don’t have to worry about cracks or damage if you drop your phone.

HTC received a lot of criticism last year for keeping the design the same as the HTC One M8 and possibly the One M7, but this year it’s completely different. It has a large chamfered edge, a sleek new look, a smaller camera bump, and it’s very well made. Coming from the LG G5, the HTC 10 makes me appreciate a well-made solid design.

But the most noticeable changes come from the front. No more wasted screen with big aluminum bezels, dual speakers, a big black bar for the HTC logo and soft keys. Instead, we have the original capacitive touch keys with a dedicated home button and fingerprint scanner in the middle. It’s not a button like the Galaxy S7, but it’s the home key and it works fine.

Another important aspect of the design is that it can be made stylish and durable without losing the essential features. There’s still a micro SD slot, a new USB Type-C charging port and two speakers (in different locations) to expand storage, but there’s more below.

All said and done HTC is similar but different and in a good way. It’s refined in every way, durable and feels like one of the best smartphones we’ve used in 2016.

HTC 10 Display

Finally, the HTC 10 has a bigger screen to compete with the rest of the Android competition. The original HTC One M7 was only 4.7 inches, then over the last few years they have offered a 5-inch 1080p display. While everyone else has huge Quad-HD screens.

Well, HTC 10 users got what they wanted. It now features a large 5.2-inch 2560 x 1440 Quad-HD S-LCD5 display. It’s not AMOLED like the Samsung or Nexus 6P, but it still looks surprisingly good.

Colors are clear and bright, not oversaturated, and very accurate. It’s not overly warm or cold without the yellow or blue undertones and it looks really good. It also works great outdoors, something that many of HTC’s Super LCD displays offer.

The new 5.2-inch screen lacks soft keys, so there’s plenty of room for movies and videos. HTC has also covered it with Gorilla Glass 4 for scratch protection. While not as pretty as AMOLEDs from other smartphone makers, it’s still a great display. The LG G5 screen left a lot to be desired, and the HTC 10 fills that gap perfectly. Those who haven’t bought the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge should consider the HTC 10.

BoomSound Hi-Fi Speakers

A major feature and design shortcoming HTC has been offering for years is the front-facing dual speaker. These have gone in favor of a large slab of glass and of course the fingerprint scanner on a larger 5.2-inch screen.

However, buyers should not worry too much about the lack of speakers. In fact, it still has two speakers and sounds great. Like most other phones, HTC has added a speaker to the top front of the earpiece and a secondary speaker to the bottom. As seen in our picture below.

The top front speaker is loud and clear with all the loud sounds from any music or video. The spec sheet actually describes it as a front tweeter for the high end, and the bottom speaker is a dedicated subwoofer for the bass and low end audio spectrum. Both speakers have their own amp for power, and they all come together to sound really good.

With HTC 10’s new BoomSound Hi-Fi speakers, users can feel and hear great sound. Loud, crisp and clear, and more of a side class. Rather than calling it a drop. We were pleasantly surprised and pleased with the speaker quality.

So for those of you interested in the HTC 10 until you see the dual front speakers disappear, we suggest you try it in stores before you decide.

Improved and Clean Software

I’ll admit, I’ve never liked HTC phones because of the Sense UI that covers stock Android. Similar to Samsung and LG, HTC has always overlaid Android with its own UI, making things more complicated than they needed to be. This is not the case with the HTC 10. In fact, it’s the best version of HTC Sense yet and something we’re excited to see.

HTC has taken a similar approach to Motorola, keeping most of the stock Android design tactful and adding useful features to it like Boomsound controls, HTC Blinkfeed, additional settings options, and a few other things. All this is powered by a fast and capable Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM, just like the Galaxy S7 or LG G5.

Tap a fingerprint on the front scanner and directly unlock the new and improved HTC Sense software. It looks more like stock Android with touches of Google’s material design guidelines and everything is smooth and fast. Animations run at full speed, but that’s fine. Opening websites, updating apps, navigating through settings and even switching between apps is all fast and seamless. Prior to the launch event, HTC claimed this would be the best and fastest Android experience ever, and they may be right. We’ll need more time with hardware and software and will talk more about that in our full review, but we like what we’ve seen so far.

Most phones are full of unnecessary apps, controls, and bloatware. While there is a bit of bloat from the carrier models, it’s still very basic, unlike this unlocked model we have. HTC uses many of Google’s apps instead of bundling them with the phone and adding their own apps like everyone else. The result is more storage for the end user, a cleaner and better experience, faster operation and easier and faster updates later.

Camera, Battery and Charger

A few other areas where the HTC One M8 or M9 struggled had to do with the camera and battery life. None of this is a problem in 2016. In fact, the camera has already tied or surpassed the Galaxy S7 Edge as the best camera phone on the market, and the battery is bigger this year too.

Here are all the features of the HTC 10, then we will continue to talk about the camera, battery and charging.

This year HTC is probably using the same camera as Google’s flagship Nexus 6P. It has a 12-megapixel (UltraPixel 2) camera with a larger sensor, which provides fast shots and improved low-light. It’s the same approach that Google, Samsung and even Apple have taken in all their latest phones.

HTC uses a large 12 Ultrapixel camera with fast f/1.8 aperture, laser autofocus, dual-tone flash and optical image stabilization. It also records 4k video and slow motion. So far it seems to be a very capable smartphone on par with the Galaxy S7 and by leaps and bounds better than the HTC One M9 from 2015.

We also have the world’s first front camera with optical image stabilization. I think it’s called HTC UltraSelfie camera. It has a 5-megapixel camera with image stabilization and a fast f/1.8 aperture. This will take great photos whether you are using the rear camera or taking selfies with the front camera. We’ll discuss more in our full review.

Users will also be happy to see a large 3,000mAh battery that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology. In other words, it can be charged between 0-80% in about 35-40 minutes and can be fully charged in a little over an hour. instead of 2-3 hours.

It lasts a long time, charges fast, and uses a new USB Type-C cable. Type-C is reversible and plugs in both directions, is faster for data transfer when carrying photos and videos, and can even charge other devices via USB Type-C. The future.

We haven’t been able to fully test the battery life yet, but it looks very promising so far. HTC claims about 2 days of battery life with mixed use, which can be a bit of a stretch, but this should offer some of the best battery life of any phone available. Stay tuned for more details and be on the lookout for a full review soon.

The new HTC 10 will be available on Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile in early May, or it will be available from HTC.com with prices starting at $699 for AT&T. Carriers will announce pricing and availability in the near future. Users can also pre-order from HTC for $599 using promo code “HTC1008”.