HTC 10: What Buyers Need to Know
The Taiwanese handset maker, HTC has gone ahead and launched its next flagship smartphone called HTC 10 across the globe including India.
According to the official Indian website of the brand, the handset will be soon coming to the Indian shores and it has get us pretty excited. But should you really buy the newest flagship from HTC, here is an explanation of what is different in the device and whether or not its a worth buy.
HTC 10 is a lot thicker than its rival
At 158 gms and 9 mm thickness at its thickest point, there is no doubt that this one is one of the chunkier devices in the market. Place it next to an iPhone, Galaxy S7 Edge or even Huawei P9 and you can visibly see how much fat the handset is. In case you are more of a sleek device type, HTC 10 would not appeal to your taste. On the other hand, the chamfered edges and the curved back of the device nestles comfortably in the palm of the user and is not always at the risk of slipping down as is the case with other flagships mentioned above. The metallic build quality of HTC 10 is quite sturdy, however, the handset still feels like the One M7. HTC needs to innovate and come up with a design that is more inline with constantly evolving aesthetics in the industry. To be fair to the brand, it did try to change the design philosophy by placing the Boomsound speaker on the bottom and a physical home button slash fingerprint scanner on the lower bezel of the handset.
A novelty in flagship category: 3000 mAh battery
In an age where the smartphones are getting Quad HD display and more processing power, one thing that makes a real difference is how long it lasts on a single charge. These days flagship devices are getting sleeker and slimmer, which means lesser estate for a battery. This is the reason why most flagship devices are equipped with either a 2400 mAh battery or in iPhone's case, 1800 mAh. Most brands make up for the lack in battery strength by opting for Quick Charging, which allow the handset to charge from zero to 100% under an hour. Now imagine the same feature with a massive 3000 mAh battery, which HTC 10's bulky chassis allows for. Needless to say, the upcoming HTC flagship is supercharged in terms of battery.
12 Ultrapixels camera: Takes in more light and details
If you have ever used a One M7 or One M8, we are sure you would have been amazed by the camera on the rear panel of the device, which was a 4 Ultrapixels module. In theory, Ultrapixels are normal Megapixels with larger pixel sizes that take in more light and thus create better looking images. Now imagine the same camera with three times the Ultrapixels count, it is bound to be a winner. However, one of the drawback of this camera is while it is great for colour reproduction and vibrancy, it fails in detailing and sharpness. If you zoom in on an image captured by HTC 10, you are bound to fine grains or blurs, which is not the case with cameras on Galaxy S7 Edge or iPhone 6S. Therefore, if you are someone who pays attention to detail and need to crop a section of a larger image frequently HTC 10 is a poor choice.
HTC finally gets onto Quad HD wagon
Frankly speaking, we were quite disappointed with the display on HTC One M9, which was quite overhyped and came with just 1920 x 1080 pixels. However, with HTC 10, the brand has finally taken a step towards improving the visual experience on its device by leaps and bounds. The 5.2-inch display of the handset comes with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, which finally puts HTC on Quad HD wagon. Moreover, the display panel is Super LCD panel, which happens to be one of the best displays around. Since this is the first ever Quad HD smartphone from HTC, it is a good buy for brand's loyalists.
Android as it is meant to be
In the past, brands always felt the need to skin the stock Android operating system with their own UI since stock Android was still evolving. However, now the operating system has got much much better allowing brands to focus more on hardware and less on user interface. Samsung was the brand to trim its own Touchwiz UI and now HTC is following in its steps. The Android operating system on HTC 10 is how it is meant to be. The gallery, mail and other duplicated apps like browser has been replaced with Google's stock apps like Gmail, Photos and Chrome for a streamlined experience. Moreover, there is an all new freestyle homescreen layout in HTC Sense, which allow users to customise the look of their handsets in any which way with downloadable themes. All in all, HTC 10 is a delight to use for any existing HTC user.
Verdict
If you ignore the chunkiness of the device and the lack of detail in captured images, HTC 10 is a good flagship device. This handset has a good battery and a great software, however, it is lacking the finesse that comes with owning a flagship device. For the price tag that HTC 10 is expected to come with, you will be better off with Galaxy S7 Edge for its dual curved display, LG G5 for modularity or Apple iPhone 6S. HTC mobile price has always been placed well. However, the price of the phone is not revealed as of now. It is expected to be close to Rs 50,000.