HTC announced its newest smartphone, called merely the HTC 10. But does the phone come from a lineage? Yes, it does indeed. Then why an entirely different name from the series? We are going to look at a few aspects that we think contributed towards changing the name of the new company flagship.
HTC released the One M9 earlier last year with millions gripped to see what it would bring. But when it was made public, the phone didn’t seem to create a stir at all.
The HTC One M9 did usher in the use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipsets ensuring consumers that their needs for reliable processing power would be fulfilled. A quick look at the M9 and one would hardly be able to discern it from the M8.
With the same brushed aluminum body and the grated speakers on the front face, HTC released the M9 with the same familiar aesthetic features as its predecessor. One imperative detail about the M9 was a 20MP camera lens.
It was meant to make the M9 the winner among photography enthusiasts, but that did not happen either. While the camera app was indeed fast, it was not able to capture good detail in images and was compared to older generation Blackberry cameras.
Turning on the HDR feature did improve the colors in a final shot, but all in all, the most important feature of the M9 was a failure. The HTC One A9 was intended to make up for the disappointment caused by the M9.
The A9 too, however, didn’t meet the expectations of many didn’t lead to much revenue regarding sales for HTC. When the A9 was released under the ‘One’ flagship of devices, consumers naturally expected to see the glory of a real flagship phone.
However, the device didn’t come along with the power of Qualcomm’s 810 series chipsets but instead housed used Qualcomm’s 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 617 chipset where four cores clocked speeds of 1.5GHz while the other four clocked at 1.2GHz, little enough considering a flagship phone with a steep price tag.
The A9 also came along with just 3GB of RAM, when flagship standards demanded at least 4GB. The screen employed on the HTC One A9 was a Super AMOLED screen and not the current Super LCD one’s which rendered brighter colours but at the cost of making them seem a little unrealistic at times as hues appear more natural on LCD panels.
The One A9 was also mocked for being a complete aesthetic copy of the iPhone 6S. Although HTC made several public statements about the design being a clear mix between previous ‘One’ and ‘Desire’ flagships, anyone looking at the HTC One A9 would tell you that it looked just like the iPhone 6S.
It seems as though HTC made a wise decision when it decided to call its newest phone just HTC 10. With no addition of ‘One’ or ‘M’ in the name, the company is probably hopeful not to see any more negative comparisons drawn between their older phones and the renewed one they just launched.
The new HTC 10 has taken 12 months in the making, and HTC has said it has progressively implemented customer feedback throughout the design and manufacturing process, to ensure that the new phone brings a truly refreshed look and user experience.
The HTC 10 comes along with flagship grade configuration that’s the latest Snapdragon 820 chipset, with two dual-core Kyro processors, that clock speeds of 2.5GHz and 1.6GHz respectively.
The phone comes along with a 4GB RAM and an Adreno 530 GPU which brings a vast improvement to the processing power on the device. HTC has said it has made improvements to both the software as well as the hardware of the new phone to ensure fluid user experiences, especially with its 12MP rear camera which is said to bring improved low-light photography.
The rear camera is also capable of recording videos in 4K resolutions along with Hi-Res audio. A built-in amp in the new phone also tunes your audio to 24-bit quality for enhanced playback experience while the BoomSound speakers let you enjoy ambient playback with the superior quality.
The HTC 10 will be made available in US markets in May and will retail for a price of 46,399 ($699). The phone will be offered in the colours of Black and Silver in the US markets and even in the colour ‘Gold’ in markets outside of the USA.
