The HTC 10 has been announced and the suggestion box for your phone wants/needs has been thoroughly emptied. The feature list is never-ending however here are the ten big things to note about the new HTC 10.
One piece of aluminium
Yep, one block of aluminium was carved, shaped and sculpted to house the components of the HTC 10 providing you with a sexy, solid and well constructed device.
Buttons and “not” buttons
HTC 10 has capacitive touch buttons on the front (back, multi-task, home/unlock) and physical buttons on the side (volume and power). The touch buttons on the front are interesting because unlike the Samsung Galaxy S7, the home button doesn’t “click”, it’s touch sensitive only while still having an ultra quick (0.2 seconds) fingerprint sensor built-in. The power button is also textured so you wont confuse it with the volume key on a blind press.
Selfie game, on point
HTC acknowledges the selfie culture and embraces it. The camera on the front has the bells and whistles normally only seen on the rear of most phones. Optical Image Stabilisation, 5MP, f 1.8 and 86 degree wide angles means you’ll fit all your friends in the photo, it’ll look great in low light and won’t be ruined by a nervous hand.
Boombox in your pocket
HTC 10 is loaded with… speakers! The iPhone 6S has one at the bottom which fires into your palm whereas the HTC 10 has one at the top firing towards your face, one at the bottom doing the same and a built-in woofer. Since the build is aluminium it also means it’ll have a more “solid” sound.
Less bloat, more Google
HTC have accepted that competing with Google on their own operating system makes little sense. HTC won’t fill your phone with their own Contacts app, their own Calendar app (lol S Planner) etc. Instead, they’ve accepted that Google is making great apps that work well with the operating system and ecosystem, no need to fight it. As a result, the phone runs quicker and leaner.
Hi-Res Everything
The HTC 10 has gone high resolution….all the things. HTC 10 packs a 2K display in the 5.2inch screen with 564ppi – you’ll never notice a pixel. The rear 12MP camera can shoot 4K video and also capture audio in hi-res 24 bit, never seen on a phone before. Even more than that, the HTC 10 has a built in digital to analogue converter to further improve the sound of your audio experience.
Time Saver
The HTC 10 has the engine of a supercar, it’s fast. Initial benchmarks are proving this in many categories. Touch response is being measured and it’s faster than the Galaxy S7. App launching is faster and charging your phone will also be quick, 0-50% in 30 minutes, despite having 2 days of battery life it is good to have fast recharge. All of this basically means that you can do all the things on your phone faster than you used to, and that gets you back to living your life in the real world quicker.
The accessories are worth keeping
While HTC no longer has an agreement with Beats by Dre, they are still going strong on their audio front. 24bit audio in the device is a big deal, but paired with cheapo headphones means the experience won’t be there. HTC are including a great pair of earbuds in the box, 13mm speakers built-in and capable of 24 bit audio projection meaning the experience will only surprise you. The charger in the box also looks good and will be colour matched with your phone (black/black, silver/white). If you opt for the Ice View case you’ll love that your display will shine through but is also touch sensitive still, take a call without opening the case for example.
Storage on storage, on storage
The HTC 10 comes with 32GB of storage onboard. It has a microSD slot for expandable memory. It uses Google Flex. What this means is that content on your phone can be on the phone, on the card or in the cloud. This includes apps, photos, music, video, and even the data within apps (Spotify offline tunes for example). Not having space for another photo is no longer an issue.
AIR…. wait for it… PLAY
Many Android phones have DLNA and Miracast. This Android phone will be the only one on the market that will play nice with Apple in a way. AIRPLAY. Listening to tunes on your HTC 10 is lovely with those insane speakers but flick it over to the Apple TV and play that audio through your home stereo. Flick the tunes to an AirPlay speaker and the experience from your iPhone will be re-lived. This is a big deal however it is only for audio and not for video or mirroring.
The HTC 10 will be available in Australia this April and we’ll have a full review shortly.
