HTC 10 Review

G’day all and welcome to my non-technical review of the all new HTC 10. For those after the full technical specifications you can find them here.

Unboxing

Out of the box the new HTC 10 looks fantastic. Now I am not one for aesthetics but the sculptured metal back really does look brilliant. With slightly chamfered curves on the back, the phone not only looks terrific it also feels comfortable in the hand. Looking from the front of the phone the volume and power switches are on the right hand side. The top of the phone has the typical microphone headset jack and the bottom of the phone has the charging port. The phone has 2 ejectable trays located at the top left and right side of the phone. The right side tray holds the micro sim and the left hand side holds a micro SD memory card.

Design

After charging up the phone in around an hour it was time to fire it up. I was presented with the typical Android screen that asks for the time, data and location. I was also asked numerous times to setup my Google account however I skipped on this option. Evident to me immediately was the big home screen button didn’t seem to be a mechanical one. Tapping the button lightly kicks in the function without any need to apply pressure. Having an old iPhone 4 and Galaxy S3 with a dicky home screen button I was thinking this could only be a good design decision as those mechanical home screen buttons tend to wear out over time.

Set-up

Onto the Android play store it was time to set up my bookmarks, contacts and apps. The phone comes with a Bluetooth transfer program however those who have a Google account will know it’s simply a matter of signing in to transfer or sync content from a previous device. The Bluetooth transfer program gives you additional options to transfer content such as text messages and photographs.

Camera

After setting up my apps and home screen it was time to fire up the camera. There is something special about taking those first couple of shots and the HTC 10 did not disappoint. It was an extremely overcast day when I started taking pictures and even with the low light level every picture came out clear and detailed. The front camera would have to be the the king of the selfies as the picture quality was just as good as the rear camera on some of my other phones. Firing up the video camera for short 30 second video returned simular excellent results. The video was clear and detailed but I was unable to play the video back on my antiquated laptop.

Other features

Sitting outside at my local café with heavy traffic going by it became evident to me that the volume on the speaker phone was outstanding.  For the first time I could actually hear all of the conversation in a noisy environment without having to plug in a headset.

Android Marshmallow

The new version of Android compliments this phone perfectly with further improvements to already excellent features. After several weeks of trying to trip the phone up I am yet to find any bugs or glitches.

Note: One of the internal packaging boxes had what I thought was a fancy metallic HTC badge. It was only after wasting half an hour searching through my car did I discover that the metallic badge happens to be the sim eject tool.

I think I had a blonde moment with the sim eject tool....

To sum up…

The Good

• The phone looks and feels fantastic.
• The phone is lightning fast at every task.
• The phone charges quick.
• The new Android version works flawlessly and is probably the best version yet!
• The front and rear camera are brilliant.
• Speaker phone volume and quality is outstanding.
• Expandable micro sd storage will always be an iPhone killer.

The Bad

• The back of the phone scratches easy.
• The amount of Google bloatware that comes with these phones is getting out of hand.

The Ugly

Amazingly, nothing to report.

The HTC 10 really is a winner in every area. It looks good, feels good and works brilliantly. The speaker phone is by far the best I have used and the latest version of Android complements this phone perfectly.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the above review are my own and do not represent those of Optus or its staff.