Design
Design wise this is unmistakably an HTC design at first glance. The metal finish on the back with the 2 antenna lines, the sharper and more angular design language, the round camera lens, all reminiscent of the HTC One M7. The detailing and finishing on the phone is just sublime.
The front has a 2.5D curved glass around the edges, and that meets a small chamfered edge around the front as well. Instead of an HTC logo, you now have a capacitive home button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor. It is flanked by 2 capacitive navigation buttons as well instead of the on-screen button that HTC started using on the One M8. Both setup offers its own advantages and disadvantages, so in the end it just boils down to personal preference.
(The removal of the front logo is a nice touch, but the home button does make it look a bit like a Samsung phone.)
The surprise comes when picking up the device. It feels extremely solid, and somehow comfortable to hold. Looking at the angular design with the huge chamfered edges, I was expecting it to be a little uncomfortable to hold. I was wrong. Pretty much everyone who held the phone said it felt great in the hand.
The power button is nicely ribbed to differentiate itself from the volume rocker, and both are made of metal as well and extremely solid. My only minor complaint would be that the buttons are a bit stiffer than I would have liked, and requires a bit more effort to depress.
(The fingerprint sensor on the HTC 10 is very fast, and consistent.)
Display
On the front, the phone houses a 5.2-inch QHD Super LCD 5 display. The colours are vibrant, and viewing angles are decent too. Definitely a high quality panel here. The default “Vivid” settings were a bit too over-saturated for my liking though, and a quick change to “sRGB” mode solves the problem. Outdoor visibility is decent but not amazing, and on the opposite end of the scale, the lowest brightness setting on auto is still too bright for a dark room. It still doesn't beat the latest Samsung's Super AMOLED panels, but for an LCD panel, it's pretty good. Certainly way better than what was on the LG G5 in my opinion.
HTC claimed that they have the lowest touch latency for their touch screen, and in my time with it, it's pretty snappy. However I can't really tell the difference from the S7 Edge though, which feels just as snappy. It is still nice to see a company take these things seriously though.
Performance
It is pretty much a similar story with the processing package. The phone uses the obvious flagship processor from 2016, the Snapdragon 820 chipset with 4GB of RAM. Day to day performance is very smooth, and rarely would I see stutter or dropped frames. App launch speeds are fast, and switching between apps seems effortless too. There isn’t really much to complain about when it comes to day to day performance.
However when it comes to playing games like Kingdom Hearts Unchained X, I noticed a slightly longer load time between screens, and a bit of dropped frames when the scene gets really busy. Something that I did not notice on the S7 Edge.
The phone does get a little bit warm from time to time, but never gets too hot to handle. It is certainly not as toasty as compared to last year’s Snapdragon 810 chipset. Keeping in mind that it is a metal body, being warmer to the touch is to be expected.
Sound
The Boomsound speakers on the HTC One M7 was amazing when I first heard it. Since then there have been many other smartphones that have used the same stereo front firing speakers setup. However this time round HTC decided to go for a different Boomsound setup. The top earpiece is the “tweeter”, and at the bottom of the phone you have a “woofer”. The idea is that with this separation, you’ll be able to hear more details.
In terms of quality, I would say they sound better than the G5 or S7 Edge for sure. The sound is crisp, and clear. I noticed that there is a minimum working distance though. If you are too near to the phone, you will hear the separation of the sound. The highs from the top, and the lows from the bottom. However move a bit further away from the phone, and you’ll hear the sound “merge” into one, making it feel like the sound is emanating from the entire front of the phone rather than from a single location on the phone.
The headphone jack output is also miles above what Samsung and LG has to offer, with the output being significantly louder. This is great for me as when I jog I prefer the volume to be a bit on the louder side.
Overall, I am not a 100% sold on this idea though. I still enjoy the stereo front firing speakers on the One M9, Moto X Style, and Nexus 6P more. They tend to be a bit louder, and provides a bit more depth to me.
Software
Comparing the day to day performance to the LG G5 using the same processor, it is clear that HTC is still king at optimising Android skins. The touch responsiveness is great, and I rarely see stutter or dropped frames navigating the UI. Comparing it to the LG G5 and even the S7 Edge, I would say HTC still has the upper-hand here.
I normally prefer stock Android devices, but HTC sense is one the first Android skins that I could live with since version 5.5. It is the same story for the current HTC Sense too which is relatively clean and light. HTC said that they worked with Google to optimise the OS and reduce the amount of duplicate apps, and it is definitely a welcomed move. Instead of HTC’s own applications, the phone comes with a lot of Google alternatives that a lot of stock Android fans would appreciate. Google Calendar, Google Photos, Google Play Music, etc. It is a bit of a double-edged sword though, because sometimes the manufacturers do bring additional functionality with their own default apps.
HTC kept the adoptable storage feature that LG and Samsung chose to omit with their flagship devices. A nice touch that would make the 32GB option more palatable.
(Interestingly, despite the “diet”, if you compare the system storage usage on the S7 Edge versus the HTC 10,
you'll see that HTC 10 actually uses more storage space.)
I used to think that stock Android is the only way to go, but these days the skins from Samsung, HTC, and Sony has improved so much that I don't really mind them anymore. In a few instances, I actually prefer them over stock Android due to the additional features that they bring. Be together, not the same right?
Sensible Enhancements
Along with the new and improved Sense UI, comes the Boost+ application, which helps to clean up junk files, clear the RAM, and manage battery life during gameplay. Which seems to be a trend these day, with LG and Samsung both including their own built-in application to do similar tasks. There is a nice addition though, which is the ability to lock apps, which comes in really handy when you have apps that you don’t want other people to use on your device.
Other software enhancements should be familiar to past HTC owners already, like the gestures to launch the camera, double tap to wake, three finger swipe to cast screen, etc. Blinkfeed, and Zoe camera are still around as well, and it’s still something I don’t find really useful.
Battery
The HTC 10 has a 3000mAh battery, which is pretty standard in 2016. In my time with it, I found the battery life to be pretty decent actually, and better than what I got from the LG G5. The phone lasted me a day or normal use with ease. The best part is, Quick Charge 3.0 allows me to quickly top up the phone’s battery in a short amount of time. It may not last as long as the S7 Edge, but considering the smaller battery, I am pretty happy with the battery life of the HTC 10.
Camera
Even before the release of the HTC 10, rumours were floating around that the phone uses the same camera sensor as the Nexus 6p, with the addition of OIS. Which really hyped up the camera for me knowing how nice the sensor on the Nexus 6P was. Then on launch day, DXOmark rated the phone with the same score as the S7 Edge, which puts it at the top alongside it. In real life usage though, I think the S7 Edge still has the edge here.
In daylight images looks good. Nice detail, truer to life colours. The image processing tend not to sharpen the image as much, and seems less aggressive when compared to its competitors.
The laser auto focus isn’t as quick as Samsung’s Dual Pixel sensor, and sometimes when I tap on a subject to focus on it, it is unable to find the focus immediately. If I just let the camera focus on its own, there isn’t such a problem though, which leads me to believe it’s more of a software thing that can be fixed.
(HDR Auto)
(HDR Off)
With HDR mode on auto, the camera is good enough at figuring out when to use HDR and when not to. But the HDR processing could still use a bit of work though. While it highlight shadows well, brighter area sometimes still gets blown out. The same is true for night shots. With HDR on auto, the camera uses HDR quite frequently especially when you have street lighting contrasting the dark environment. The lights often gets blown out even more because of the HDR mode. I found that turning HDR off in night situation made the shots look more natural and pleasing.
In low-light, the camera captures nice details, and colours were pleasing and not too exaggerated. OIS seems to be doing a decent job at keeping out camera shake too, and capture speed is still fast.
The camera viewfinder however is a bit choppy with a slightly lower refresh rate than I would have liked. It is still not as bad as the one on the LG G5 though. Perhaps I’ve been spoilt by the high refresh rate viewfinder of the S7 Edge in low-light.
You can launch the camera quickly even when the screen is off by swiping down on the screen twice. However compared to solutions from LG or Samsung, the camera doesn’t launch nearly as quickly.
Overall the camera has a lot of potential to be great, having seen what the Nexus 6P can do with good image processing. As it is, it is still a great camera that I think most people will be happy with using as their daily shooter. Not to mention the inclusion of OIS on the front camera which is a first for smartphones.
Full resolution images here.
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It is pretty disappointing that so far there is no indication that the HTC 10 would be coming to Singapore. I really like the phone despite some minor complaints. It is a phone that I can easily recommend over the LG G5, and one that could be a great alternative to Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It may not be the best at everything, but it does everything well enough. It has an amazing build quality, a great performance, a nice and lean UI, good battery life, good camera, good speakers, fast fingerprint sensor, and good display. Oh, and HTC is pretty good at updating their phones too compared to Samsung.
I have to say though, I still think the S7 Edge is the best Android phone one can buy at this point in time. It still has the best display in the market, arguably the best camera hardware, a bigger and more lasting battery, and a slightly better performance when playing games. Oh, and it's water and dust resistant too. But, the HTC 10 has enough going for it that I would totally consider it as my daily driver without feeling like I have to compromise too much. I mean just look it.
However, for consumers in Singapore, the HTC 10 is a tough pill to swallow at its market price now, which is higher than the S7 Edge. Being an export set means that you won’t have any warranty if there is anything wrong with your phone too. If you can wait, perhaps when and if the phone starts selling in Singapore officially, and the price isn’t as steep, the HTC 10 can be a great buy.
In the end, this is neither a revolutionary product, nor one that would leapfrog Samsung's offerings this year. It is just a product that combines and showcases the strength of HTC. I don’t think that the HTC 10 will single-handedly revive HTC’s handset business, but I think it’s a great start to show people that at least they know what they need to do to create compelling smartphones.
Now… how about that rumoured HTC Nexus phone...
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