Arriving significantly earlier than previous HTC flagships, the HTC U family has two different models, the high-end U Ultra and the mid-range HTC U Play. In this post we’ll be focusing on the former. Editor’s note: HTC did not allow us to record any footage of the HTC U Ultra and U Play due to the non-final software.
Prior to the smarphones' launch, HTC was bogged down by a spate of leaked videos and rumors about the build and looks of the HTC Ultra, codenamed the Ocean Note.
Amidst financial troubles and tough competition in the smartphone market, HTC had fallen behind its major competitors, Apple and Samsung in the recent years.
However, with the launch of the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play, the company shows that it is ready to offer a tough fight in the smartphone market space.
There's now even more reason to believe that HTC is busy building both Google Nexus phones for 2016, as today we're seeing new alleged codenames and benchmarks for the devices.
Internally, the HTC Nexus phones are dubbed M1 and S1, according to prolific phone leaker Evan Blass, and this leak is corroborated by previous codename mentions of "Marlin" and "Sailfish." Makes sense.
You may have heard the new Nexus phones go by other codenames in the past like T55 and T50. But these older monikers likely allude to their respective 5.5-inch and 5.0-inch screen sizes.
Yes, it's being strongly suggested that HTC's new Nexus phones are pairing down on the dimensions of the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P and 5.2-inch Nexus 5X. We're a long way from Motorola's massive Nexus 6.
HTC builds arguably the best-looking smartphones in the Android world, so last year upon the launch of the HTC One M9 we were disappointed to find not much in the way of new hardware that could help it to compete against its rivals Samsung and LG, which have already unveiled their 2016 flagships in the form of the Galaxy S7 and LG G5. Thankfully, it’s all change for 2016. Also see: Best smartphones 2016.
HTC has been building up hype around the #powerof10 for some time - but what does it actually mean? According to the company it represents a decade of building smartphones, and is all about perfection.
No longer will you hear us criticise HTC for shunning a Quad-HD screen or a fingerprint scanner, for example. The screen is both larger and higher in resolution, a responsive 5.2in Super LCD 5 2K panel with a 564ppi pixel density. And the new fingerprint scanner responds to the touch in just 0.2 seconds.
The HTC 10 boasts 24-bit Hi-Res audio (for both playback and recording), with a powerful headphone amp, the ability to upscale 16-bit- to 24-bit audio, and a high-performance DAC that delivers 10 times lower distortion than rival devices. A Personal Audio Profile can be created to perfectly suit your personal listening style.
There’s also an awesome 12Mp UltraPixel 2 camera - “a world-class camera” in HTC’s words - that has a dual-tone LED flash, 1.55um pixels, OIS, a laser autofocus, and support for 4K video and RAW files. Two awesome cameras, in fact, since the 5Mp UltraPixel UltraSelfie front-facing camera is the first selfie camera to come with OIS. HTC cites a DxOMark score of 88 for the HTC 10, one of the highest camera-quality scores of any phone to date.
The non-removable battery is now higher in capacity, rated at 3,000mAh and, although it doesn’t support wireless charging, a combination of Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and HTC’s own Rapid Charge tech means you can charge the battery up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes. Boost+ tech is designed to make the HTC 10 faster, consume less power and to provide effective security and application management features, such as automatically optimising the phone’s memory and boosting battery life during gaming.
Software has been improved, and notably so, now more simplistic and user-friendly with less duplication between Google and HTC apps. The material design is applied throughout, and HTC has completely ditched the home screen grid in favour of a freestyle layout - you can arrange your app icons however you like. HTC has also tweaked the software to make it more responsive, and claims that apps launch twice as fast. We’re looking forward to watching the camera launch in 0.6 seconds - our one issue with the HTC One M9’s performance. See all smartphone reviews.
HTC 10 full specification
Operating system: Android Marshmallow with HTC Sense Screen: 5.2in Quad-HD (2560x1440, 564ppi) Super LCD 5 with curved-edge Gorilla Glass Processor: 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 64-bit, quad-core RAM: 4GB Storage: 32/64GB, microSD up to 2TB Primary camera: 12Mp HTC UltraPixel 2, 1.55um pixels, laser autofocus, BSI sensor, OIS, f/1.8 aperture, 26mm focal length, dual-tone LED flash, 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio, slo-mo video at 720p/120fps, camera modes: Auto-HDR, Panorama, Pro mode with manual control and 12-bit RAW format support Hyperlapse, Zoe capture, Video Pic, continuous shooting up to 8fps Front camera: 5Mp, 1.34um pixels, autofocus, BSI sensor, OIS, f/1.8 aperture, 23mm focal length, 1080p video recording, camera modes: Auto-HDR, Auto Selfie, Voice Selfie, Live Make-Up Audio: HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition, Dolby Audio, Personal Audio Profile, Hi-Res Audio certified, Hi-Res Audio earphones, Hi_res Audio stereo recording, three mics with noise cancellation Connectivity: 4G LTE (Nano-SIM), dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS and GLONASS, NFC, DisplayPort, Miracast, Google Cast, AirPlay, HTC Connect, DNLA, USB-C Sensors: Ambient light, Proximity, Motion G-sensor, Compass, Gyro, Magnetic sensor, fingerprint sensor, Sensor Hub for activity tracking Battery: 3000mAh with Quick Charge 3.0 support (up to 50% in 30 minutes), extreme power saving mode, up to 19 days on standby or 27 hours talk time Extras: Display colour personalisation, Ice View case, Motion Launch, Quiet ring on pick-up, Pocket mode Dimensions: 145.9x71.9x3.0-9.0mm Weight: 161g
