HTC has finally announced when it will reveal its latest flagship phone: April 12th, three weeks away. There, HTC is expected unveil the HTC 10, the first true successor to the HTC One M9.
A powerful metal phone with a killer camera
According to renders posted earlier in March (and shown above), the M10 will include a physical home button, large bevelled edges and an aluminium design that doesn’t include the One M line’s customary dual front-facing speakers. The 5.2-inch QHD phone will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow, underneath HTC’s regular Sense UI.
The killer feature of the phone will be its 12-megapixel UltraPixel 2 rear camera, which is equipped with a laser autofocus system and an OIS-enabled f/1.8 lens. Inside, you’ll find a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage plus Micro SD expansion and even USB-C charging.
A tough time for HTC
The event invitations went out to press outlets across the world on Tuesday, with a photo showing an darkened office building, lights off except for a single room where work continues into the early hours of the morning. In a way, it’s a pretty apt selection for the beleaguered company.
After all, HTC has seen successive quarters of loss amidst rapidly dying sales, largely at the hands of brands like Samsung, Huawei, Oppo and Lenovo. HTC will be looking to show that they still have what it takes to produce a world-class Android smartphone. They’ve taken some extra time, in order to avoid direct competition with Samsung and LG, and they’ve got to make good use of this opportunity.
We admit it. We’re obsessed… but in a good way.
It’s not all doom and gloom for HTC, though. It’s been rumoured that they’re working with Google once again on the Nexus program. Reports suggest that Google will be retaining much more control over the phone’s design and features this time, but a successful HTC-made Nexus could still help prop up the company. HTC’s Vive virtual reality headset has already received excellent early reviews, and should also help the company survive once it goes on sale in early April.
Wrapping up
The HTC 10 looks like a solid phone, and it may yet help the Taiwanese recover from a tough few years and return to the glory days… the phone just has to be awesome, well advertised and not too expensive… can HTC do it? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.