HTC 10 Performance Review: A Snapdragon 820 Powered Flagship

HTC launched its latest flagship smartphone on Tuesday, the aptly named HTC 10. The HTC 10 is the follow-up to devices the HTC M9 and M10 (sans the letter designation), and as such, it has a similar design language and high-end feature set. The HTC 10, however, packs some of the latest mobile hardware currently available, including Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon SoC, HTC's highest-resolution UltraPixel camera sensor to date, and 24-bit Hi-Res sound, all wrapped up in a rigid, durable metal unibody.


HTC has also done some interesting things with the software on the HTC 10. In addition to including the newest version of Google’s Android right out of the box (v6.0.1, Marshmallow), the HTC 10 offers the latest version of HTC Themes with the device, along with something called the HTC Freestyle layout. Together, these HTC proprietary software tools allow users to customized many aspects of the UX on the HTC 10 – you don’t even have to arrange icons, widgets or stickers in a simple grid with the Freestyle layout, you ca move them anywhere and even overlap them.

Let's first give you a quick video walk-around of the device and then we'll journey on in much more detail with our full review. 


The HTC 10’s main features and specifications are listed below. Take a gander at what this latest flagship smartphone from HTC has in store and under its hood, then we’ll dig in a little deeper on it's performance and user experience on the pages ahead...

HTC 10 Specifications & Features

Model Name	HTC 10
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Quad Core, 64bit, up to 2.2GHz
Display	5.2 inch, Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixels) Pixel density at 564 ppi (pixel per inch) Super LCD 5, Curve edge Gorilla Glass, Display colour personalization
Memory	ROM: 32GB / RAM: 4GB Available storage for users: about 23GB Extended memory: microSD up to 2TB
SIM	Nano SIM
Network	2G/2.5G - GSM/GPRS/EDGE CDMA: 800/1900 with EVDO Rev A 3G UMTS 4G LTE (up to 450Mbps)
GPU	Adreno 530
OS	Android v6.0 (Marshmallow OS)
Connectivity	NFC, BT 4.2, Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz) Display Port, Chromecast, DLNA, AirPlay, Miracast
Main Camera	12MP (HTC UltraPixel 2 with 1.55m pixel) Laser Autofocus, BSI sensor Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) ƒ/1.8 aperture and 26mm focal length (80deg; wide angle) Dual tone LED flash
Front Camera	5MP (1.34m pixels) Autofocus, BSI sensor Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) ƒ/1.8 aperture and 23mm focal length (86° wide angle) Full HD 1080p video recording
Sound	HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition Dolby Audio, Personal Audio Profile Hi-Res audio certified, Hi-Res audio earphones Three microphones with noise cancellation
Sensors	Ambient light sensor, Proximity sensor, Motion G-sensor, Compass sensor, Gyro sensor, Magnetic sensor, Fingerprint sensor, Sensor Hub
Battery / Charging	Capacity: 3000 mAh Talk time on 3G/4G network: up to 27 hours Standby time on 3G/4G network: up to 19 days Power saving mode + Extreme power saving mode Quick Charge 3.0 with cool charge - Up to 50% charge in 30 min
Price	$699 (without carrier subsidies) Find It On Amazon

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The HTC 10 features a 5.2-inch Quad HD, LCD screen (1440 x 2560 pixel resolution, ~564ppi) with a wide 92% NTCS color gamut, a Snapdragon 820 SoC with four of Qualcomm’s latest, custom Kryo cores and an Adreno 530 GPU. Paired to the Snapdragon 820 is 4GB RAM and 32GB of built-in storage. The HTC 10 also features a 12MP world-facing camera with HTC’s UltraPixel technology, a 5MP front-facing camera with optical image stabilization, 802.11ac WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, and all of the typical sensors (accelerometer, GPS, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, compass, proximity, etc.) you’d expect to find in a flagship device. The home button also has a built-in fingerprint sensor, which is lightning fast. And as we’ve mentioned, the HTC 10 also runs Android v6.0.1 Marshmallow.

If you’re on top of the smartphone scene, the most obvious competitor to the HTC 10 is Samsung’s excellent Galaxy S7. The two devices share the same SoC, somewhat similar screen size (5.1" vs 5.2"), resolution, memory, and OS, and have other similarities as well.


Before we dive into the benchmarks and tour the HTC 10, here’s a quick look at what comes included with the device. Inside the HTC 10’s box – along with the device itself, of course – we found a USB charger that feature’s Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology, a USB Type-C cable, a pin tool for popping out the nano-SIM and micro-SD expansion trays, and a standard lit pack, with a user’s guide, quick-start guide, warranty info, etc.