Skip to main content

Review: HTC gets back in the game with its latest Android smartphone

When HTC released its One M7 in 2013, it not only proved that makers of Android smartphones could create phones that were as beautiful as Apple’s, it also pushed competitors like Samsung and LG to finally build handsets that weren’t made of creaky plastic.
But with the phones it released since then, HTC seemed to stop innovating, and it quickly fell behind the competition.
Which brings us to the new HTC 10. Available for preorder for $700 and on sale in early May, the 10 is the handset that HTC hopes will win you over again and make you forget about Apple’s iPhone 6s and Samsung’s Galaxy S7.
Sporting a sleek new look and packing a vastly improved 12-megapixel camera, the 10 stands a fair chance of doing just that.

Design and size

When HTC unveiled its One M9 last year, the company took a lot of heat for failing to make any meaningful changes to the handset’s design. It was as if HTC simply copied and pasted the plans from 2014’s M8, made a few small tweaks, and called it a day. Worse still, the M8 itself was essentially a carbon copy of HTC’s One M7.

Thankfully, the company seems to have woken up when designing its HTC 10.
Like its predecessors, the 10 is built on an all-aluminum body. But while it pays clear homage to the One M7, the 10 is no clone.
Sporting embellished chamfered edges that beautifully reflect light and a rounded camera lens, the 10′s futuristic exterior easily makes it one of the most attractive phones around.
Up front, HTC got rid of the dual front-mounted Boom Sound speakers found on the M7, M8, and M9 and instead coated the 10’s face with an edge-to-edge glass panel that gives the phone a cleaner look. (It also happens to ape Apple’s iPhone 6s.)
Boom Sound isn’t gone, though: HTC moved the speaker previously located below the phone’s display to its bottom edge. The top speaker, meanwhile, has been redesigned to look like a traditional phone speaker.
Because of its contoured back, the HTC 10 tends to look bulky next to the likes of the Galaxy S7, but it’s really not. Measuring 5.7 x 2.8 x 0.35 inches, the 10 is in fact taller, wider, and thicker than the S7 (5.6 x 2.7 x 0.31 inches), but only by the slimmest of margins.
Nonetheless, the 10 is significantly bigger than the iPhone 6s (4.4 x 2.6 x 0.28 inches), but that’s because the 10 has a 5.2-inch display, compared with the iPhone’s 4.7-inch panel.
HTC’s designers failed to keep up with the competition in one significant way. Samsung introduced waterproofing with its Galaxy S7, promising that the handset can survive in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes. HTC says the 10 can easily shake off getting a glass of water spilled on it, but that’s not quite the same thing. I’d rather know my phone can take a dip and keep on ticking without issue.

A good, not great, screen

The HTC 10’s 5.2-inch display packs a 2560 x 1440 resolution. By comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 rocks a 5.1-inch panel with that same resolution, while Apple’s iPhone 6s has a 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750 resolution screen.
Source: YahooTech

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The War between Iconic Emeka Ike and Segun Arinze

The war between iconic actors Segun Arinze and Emeka Ike seems to have no end in sight. In a recent interview, Arinze had said Ike should stop embarrassing the Actors Guild of Nigeria by parading himself as its president. According to Segun: ‘Emeka should grow up. As far as I am concerned, Ibinabo Fiberesima is the bonafide president. Even in the recent judgement that came out recently telling us to return to the status quo, what does it mean? We were told to go back to the way we were. There was no time Emeka Ike was pronounced the president of AGN. Let him bring out the copy of the judgement and show us if he is man enough. He should wake up and stop embarrassing the guild.” Well, these words did not go down well with Ike who believes Segun Arinze “is an illiterate who should have been in jail.” He told Saturday Beats: “I heard Segun Arinze was interviewed and he said so many things about me and nobody asked me for my own side. I don’t think it was a balanced report. Se...

Jonathan, Abiara ask Nigerians to pray for 2015 polls

                                       President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday felicitated with Nigerian Muslims as they commemorate the birth of Prophet MuMuhammad. In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President urged Muslims to use the opportunity offered by the Eid-el-Maulud to offer special prayers for successful and peaceful elections in the country next month. Also, the General Evangelist, Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide, Prophet Samuel Abiara, has appealed to politicians to embrace peace and avoid any act that could lead to violence ahead of the 2015 general elections. The clergy, who spoke in Lagos during the crossover service, decried insecurity and economic decline as a result of falling oil prices. He said, “We are deeply concerned over the continuous killing of the innocent people of Nigeria. The land is becoming...

400-YEAR Old Church Emerge From Receding Water

No biggie, but a Colonial-era church has emerged from receding waters in Mexico. Leonel Mendoza fishes every day in a reservoir surrounded by forest and mountains in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas. But in recent days, he has been ferrying curious passengers out to see the remains of a colonial-era church that has emerged from the receding waters. Pretty impressive, right? A drought this year means the level of the Grijalva River, which flows into the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir, has dropped by 25 meters (82 feet). It is the second time a drop in the reservoir has revealed the church since it was flooded when the dam was completed in 1966. In 2002, the water was so low visitors could walk inside the church. ‘The people celebrated. They came to eat, to hang out, to do business. I sold them fried fish. They did processions around the church,’ Mendoza recalled. The church near Quechula was built by a group of monks headed by Friar Bartolome de l...