HTC 10 Performance Review: A Snapdragon 820 Powered Flagship

As we’ve mentioned, the HTC 10 ships with Android Marshmallow v6.0.1 right out of the box. It is customized with HTC Themes and HTC Freestyle, but here’s a quick look at the default setup, as it looks upon first boot.


There are three home screens setup by default, with Blinkfeed to the far left, a few icons and the clock and weather widget at the center, and just a few more icons / folders on the right. We’re not going to dwell here because there are hundreds of themes available and with Freestyle, placement of icons and widgets are fully customizable. What we will say, however, is that it is obvious HTC put considerable effort into optimizing performance with its Android customization. The software on the HTC 10 is unobtrusive and the phone simply feels fast and responsive, not matter what you’re doing.

HTC 10 Camera Samples

We have only had a short time to experiment with the HTC 10’s camera setup, but have some initial impressions to share. The rear-camera on the HTC 10 features a 12MP UltraPixel 2 sensor, with laser autofocus, a BSI sensor, Optical Image Stabilization, and ƒ/1.8 aperture optics with 26mm focal length (80 degree; wide angle). The rear camera is complemented by a dual-tone LED flash as well.

The front camera is a 5MP shooter with autofocus, a BSI sensor, and an ƒ/1.8 aperture with 23mm focal length (86° wide angle). The front camera is capable of capturing FullHD 1080p video, and in a first, the front camera also features optical image stabilization.


In terms of picture quality, the HTC 10 produced nice images, but in sub-optimal lighting conditions there was a bit of noise. The laser autofocus system is super-fast, however, and colors had good saturation with realistic tones. 


Under optimal lighting conditions, the HTC 10 is capable of producing some really nice photos, with excellent color reproduction and sharpness. If you look at the shots of the tree tops, you can make out some really fine details off in the distance. Nice bokeh effects are also possible.

As much as is pains me to post this -- I'm not a fan of selfies (I even find the word irritating) -- the HTC 10's front-facing camera is pretty great in comparison to most other smartphones. The quality optics and built-in optical image stabilization make taking good selfies easier.


We should also mention that the HTC 10 has a host of manual controls, including a "Pro" mode with all of the adjustments for ISO, white balance, etc., you'd expect to find on a high-end smartphone. It can also do slow-mo recordings, panoramas, and the like.