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Android Google Hardware

HTC 10 With 5.2-inch QHD Display, Snapdragon 820 SoC, 12MP Camera Launched at $699 (theverge.com) 57

Dan Seifert, writing for The Verge: HTC is today formally announcing the 10, its flagship smartphone for 2016. The HTC 10 follows last year's M9 and blends the design of the M series with the A9 that came last fall. HTC says it spent 12 months designing this phone and integrated feedback from its customers throughout the development process. The 10 has everything you might expect from a flagship Android phone in 2016. There's a 5.2-inch, quad HD Super LCD 5 display that HTC says displays 30 percent more color than last year's phone. The screen is covered in Gorilla Glass with curved edges that blend into the phone's metal frame. You'll be able to find out if that's enough for HTC to compete when the phone ships next month for $699. One interesting feature, which separates HTC 10 from many other Android flagship smartphones, is support for AirPlay. The feature enables the smartphone to stream media content to an Apple TV.
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HTC 10 With 5.2-inch QHD Display, Snapdragon 820 SoC, 12MP Camera Launched at $699

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    The average smart phone has an 18 month lifespan. That puts the cost of having this thing at about $40/month.

    I, for one, don't think a smart phone is worth $40/month just for the privilege.

    • You can easily keep the phone for twice as long, maybe more. Other than gaming, I don't see any application requiring a new phone.
      But still, $20/month is quite high. These phones are not worth the extra $$$ over $400-500 phones such as the Nexus series.

      • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

        And after three years the battery dies and it's impossible to replace.

        • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

          HTC ONE M8 battery is still at 99% capacity. Friends with the M7 are still going strong.

          the problem is that HTC puts the battery in a spot that when it swells it will destroy the LCD. so at the end of life it does not just hold a charge anymore, it shatters the display.

          • Something else, too (Score:2, Interesting)

            by fyngyrz ( 762201 )

            From TFS:

            The 10 has everything you might expect from a flagship Android phone in 2016.

            I read TFA, and I didn't see anything about cordless charging. That is a feature I not only expect, but require from a "flagship Android phone." Without it, what I expect is that the charging connector will become unusable like it has in every non-cordless-charging phone I've owned. And which, since the advent of cordless charging, is now only a (very) bad memory.

            (delighted user of a Galaxy S7 w/cordless charging here. Tha

            • by Anonymous Coward

              Because cordless charging doesn't work it's limited to 500ma MAX rate and is why almost all phones have abandoned it as large capacity batteries require a 1Amp or higher charge rate.

              • by fyngyrz ( 762201 )

                Because cordless charging doesn't work

                LOL. The earth is also flat. You keep hanging on to those ideas, no doubt they'll come true due to your personal convictions, you bet.

            • by Anonymous Coward

              I tend to plug the USB cable into my phones roughly 2-5 times a day, for varying uses, and have yet to have a charging port fail on me...
              (No idea if that's a low or high amount).

              So I'm kinda curious what you do with your phones...

              • by tom17 ( 659054 )

                I have probably plugged my HTC One M7 in about 10 times a day. No issue whatsoever with the port.

                Some people may be unnecessarily rough with their connectors though. Dunno.

                One thing I do know is that when they designed micro-usb, they did it such that the male connectors die and not the ports. This was a problem with mini-usb as ports would die rendering devices junk. I have had this failure-by-design on a few cheapie micro-usb cables so I am happy it's workign as expected.

                Maybe he meant mini-usb...

                I hope u

            • by Krojack ( 575051 )

              I got the Nexus 6P and the USB-C port feels much more solid than all the old micro USB ports on every device I have ever owner. Wireless would be handy in the N6P but I'm ok without it.

            • So long as HTC loves aluminum casings, wireless charging is not going to be available on those phones.

              Design choices. HTC should be making some.

          • by tom17 ( 659054 )

            Still running my M7 here and it's doing great. Still fine for gaming too (I only really play Real Racing 3 on it).

            Thinking of what to get next and this HTC 10 will be on my list of options. I need to buy outright this time though as I won't be able to retain my good data plan if I get a new contract.

            And yes, I think $20/mo is worth it.

          • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

            My M7 did experience the swelling battery syndrome, which isn't fun when it pushes out the display.

          • by jfengel ( 409917 )

            Has there been some technology change that allows that? I've got a slightly older phone with a replaceable battery, and it needs to be replaced about once a year or so. Which is OK; they cost around ten bucks. (Forty, if I bought certified parts, but Anker makes knock-off parts that do at least as well.)

            Do the non-replaceable batteries have a different technology that allows them to last longer?

        • My phone is 2.5 years old and I don't plan on replacing it (or its battery) before another 6 months.
          Although I agree that user replaceable batteries are better, I could still replace the battery in my phone if I really wanted to (but not change it quickly every day).

      • Personally, I'll always go with a phone that costs less than $200. With the way they lock the phones down, there's no way to guarantee 100% that you will be getting updates 2 years down the road. And even if you are getting updates, there's no certainty that you'll even want to be on the same operating system in 2 years time.

        In the last decade, I've my phones have been running Windows phone 6, Symbian, Android 2.2/2.3, and currently Windows 8/10. When I bought my Android phone, I was sure that I'd never

        • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

          Personally I avoid any crap sold by anyone other than the Google Play store that are 100% unlocked and boot loader unlocked with none of the bullshit that these manufacturers are pulling.

          My current android phone is an HTC M8 only because the One Plus X I got is a steaming pile of crap. and taught me that One Plus phones are junk. Next one will be a $600 phone from google directly that is a developer phone. the only way to freaking get a pure android and have it my property without carrier crap inserted a

          • by varag ( 714360 )

            Good point, but the Google phones comes with non-replaceable batteries and no SD card slots.

        • by Luthair ( 847766 )
          The trouble is that $200 phones are pretty much guaranteed to be quickly abandoned by manufacturer & carrier. So while you're avoiding the upfront cost you're going through more devices causing more waste.
          • First, I don't buy carrier tied phones anymore. I've learned my lesson from getting carrier locked phones that never got the update when other unlocked phones did. Also, this is part of the reason that I went with Windows phone this time around. Microsoft is much more in control of the updates and you are much more likely to receive the updates, even on the $200 phones. They are very similar to Apple in this regard.

            • by Luthair ( 847766 )
              We also know already that Microsoft is abandoning quite a few, even relatively recently phones for the Windows 10 upgrade.
          • Check out the Moto G line of phones. Unlocked GSM phones for approximately $200, no carrier bloatware and Motorola is pretty good about staying current with Android. My Gen 1 Moto G is still going strong with Android 5.1

            This might change with the Lenovo buyout but for now a good deal if you don't need a flagship phone and want an unlocked phone.

      • That was my immediate reaction: barring any hidden defects, this looks like a nice piece of hardware(and not having the Nexus series' de-facto ban on microSD slots is a nice touch); but $700 buys a lot of smartphone these days; and I'm having a hard time discerning the difference between this device and the $400-$500 range, especially since any mobile CPU that the vendor hasn't brutally crippled will either kill your battery or hit its thermal limits in short order if it actually runs at full speed, so the
    • by amiga3D ( 567632 )

      You may be right but 40 bucks is less than I spend on a typical meal out with my wife. The shitty, half-ass service on the other hand is where I get fucked.

    • by Luthair ( 847766 )
      My Nexus 4 lasted me ~39 months before I needed to replace it.
  • I'm looking forward to testing one of these. Over the years, my primary phone has always been an HTC. I had a T-Mobile DASH (an HTC made Blackberry clone running Windows Mobile 6.x), MyTouch 3G Slide, MyTouch 4G Slide, One M7, and One M8. The M9 just wasn't a worthy phone, IMO, so I went with the LG V10. The LG phone is very nice, but I really miss how seamlessly smooth HTC's Sense UI pairs with Android. I want a new HTC, but I won't settle for second-best. I hope the 10 delivers.
    • by mlts ( 1038732 )

      I'm definitely getting one, because the hardware is well within the pack of flagship phones, HTC allows unlocking via htcdev (and being able to load my own ROM is something that makes/breaks a device for me. No unlockable bootloader means no sale.)

      I have had very good luck with HTC phones. They are on par with everyone else, have MicroSD cards (which is quite useful for nandroid and Titanium Backup storage), have stood up to daily use quite well, and have done well for a daily workhorse device. With Cyan

  • They probably still don't have monthly security updates. They should make it an integrated OS feature that Google can push updates automatically on everyone. Security only, of course. But there are all these vendors trying to get you to buy phones, and if you have a malware-ridden phone you pretty much have to buy a new one.
  • I've had HTC phones for >10 years; G1, Sensation 4G, M7, M8. I see nothing fascinating about the M10.

    Much more interesting to try a Nexus, and I may even buy a Nexus 5 just to try it out. Craigslist is full of them, and cheap.

    The M10 is evolutionary, but I need recommendations on superthin covers/cases to protect the edges. My M8 looks and feels terrible. I drop it. Sue me.

  • Worth noting is that is scored 88 in DxOMark, which puts it in a split first position together with Samsung Galaxy S7. Seems they really delivered on the camera: http://www.dxomark.com/Mobiles [dxomark.com]

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