HTC has a lot on the line. Its last two high-end smartphones – the One M9 and the One A9 – failed to excite smartphone buyers, and the once-great company is now suffering from serious quarterly losses. To make matters worse, HTC is trying to claw its way back to the top of the smartphone food chain at a time when competition between flagship smartphones is at an all-time high. With Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, LG’s G5, and Apple’s iPhone 6S-leading the pack, the HTC 10 faces a very tough crowd — but HTC is not afraid. It’s gone as far as to call the device a “Perfect 10.” We’ve been using the HTC 10 as our daily driver for the past week to see if it can take on the competition and regain its position as one of the best flagship smartphones. Classic HTC design with a twist If the iPhone 6S and the HTC One M8 had an affair, the resulting love child would look something like the HTC 10. The sleek aluminum back with its perfectly centered camera, subtle HTC logo, and slim antenna lines recalls the glory days of HTC design. A slim silver ring protects the camera bulge, and the back edges of the 10 are machined at a 45-degree angle to add some grip to the slippery metal phone. The curved back and striking edges make it very comfortable to hold. The 10 looks beautiful when the light strikes the edges at just the right angle, and it’s one of the nicest looking Android phones from 2016 so far. It’s more stylish than LG’s bland G5, and it doesn’t attract fingerprints like Samsung’s otherwise gorgeous Galaxy S7 Edge. The silver version is flashier for those who want to stand out, and the matte black model looks subtler. Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends Meanwhile, the smooth glass front flows without interruption from top to bottom – just like it does on the One A9, which is best known for looking exactly like an iPhone. We love the way it looks. It’s much more attractive looking than the One M9 with its metal speaker inserts on the front. Of course, that monolithic glass front eliminates the possibility of placing BoomSound speakers on the front of the 10, which will surely anger HTC fans who loved those front-facing speakers. Have no fear, BoomSound fans. HTC popped the speaker on the bottom edge of the device. It’s supposed to be just as good as previous BoomSound speakers, too (more on that later). Right next to it is the USB Type C port for juicing up your HTC 10. The volume rocker sits above the textured power button on the right side of the device, along with the SIM card slot. The power button is easy to find and the texture helps differentiate it from the volume key. On the left side, you’ve got a MicroSD card slot for expanded storage. HTC chose to place the headphone jack up on the top of the device, which feels very outdated. It’s an odd choice, especially for a modern phone with a 5.2-inch screen. The headphone jack may be centered on the top of the phone, but it cuts through the sleek edge, leaving a strange little nick in an otherwise sleek design. There’s also an oval-shaped fingerprint sensor on the front that’s slightly recessed. It’s not a button, so you don’t have to press it to unlock your phone like you do on the Galaxy S7. The fingerprint sensor is wickedly fast and accurate, though we did run into trouble when our fingers were a bit wet after washing the dishes. However, most fingerprint sensors have trouble with moisture, so that’s no surprise. Overall, it’s one of the best fingerprint sensors around, and we love that you don’t have to press a button to unlock the phone. Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends The screen itself is bright and rich. The 5.2-inch Quad HD screen sports a 2,560 x 1,440 pixel resolution and density of 564ppi (pixels per inch), which is the standard for an Android flagship these days. It’s a Super LCD 5 display made out of Gorilla Glass, so it’s not quite as rich as the Super AMOLED panel you’ll find on the Galaxy S7, but certainly still ridiculously beautiful. HTC also decided to shun the always-on display trend set by LG and Samsung. You’ll have to touch your HTC 10 to check the time, but luckily, a couple taps will bring up the time and notifications. Related: HTC Vive review After living with the Galaxy S7 Edge’s always-on display for a time, we missed having that feature on the HTC 10. However, the fingerprint sensor on the HTC 10 makes unlocking the phone to check the time and notifications a breeze, so it’s not too much of a problem. Also, if you’ve never had an always-on screen, you won’t miss it. Spectacular specs HTC went with high-end specs on the 10. Every aspect of this device is top notch, from the gorgeous 5.2-inch Quad HD screen, to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM. The processor is the exact same chip you’ll find in the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and the LG G5. During our testing, the HTC 10 was lightning fast and we never experienced lag on the device. Just like most Android flagships, the HTC 10 comes with either 32 or 64GB of storage, which is expandable via a MicroSD card up to 1TB. HTC also supports Flex, or adoptable storage, which lets you use external storage as your internal one. It’s a feature that Google enabled in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but not everyone adopted the new standard. For example, Samsung opted out of Flex storage on the Galaxy S7 lineup. We’re glad HTC accepted Flex storage, because now you won’t get those annoying prompts asking if you want to store that app or photo on your MicroSD card every time you save something. It makes having expandable storage less of a hassle. The HTC 10 has just about everything you could possibly want on a high-end Android phone, except one thing: water resistance. It’s a real bummer, especially if you’re accident prone, but the durable metal back should be some consolation. At least you know the HTC 10 won’t crack front and back when it hits the sidewalk. Just beware of toilets and glasses of water. Sound that’ll please audiophiles Just because you don’t see two front-facing speakers on the HTC 10 doesn’t mean the company has forgotten about audio. HTC says its “re-engineered” BoomSound Hi-Fi edition speakers separate the woofer and the tweeter, so that the sound output of the woofer comes from the bottom speakers, and the tweeter through the top speakers. That means you’ll be hearing higher notes coming out of the top, and the mid-to-lower notes coming out of the bottom speaker. HTC says that the 10 sounds just as good as the One M9, even though the sound is coming out of the bottom – not the front of the device. However, the new speaker position does mean that you have to be careful how you hold the 10 when you listen to music. If you cover that speaker up, the sound gets muffled. In our tests, the HTC 10’s speakers sounded better than most smartphones, but not as strong as previous devices with BoomSound. We compared the 10 to the iPhone 6S Plus, which is hardly known as a paragon for audio quality, and the difference wasn’t obvious. In fact, the iPhone 6S Plus sounded clearer, even though the HTC 10 had more depth. The 10 occasionally sounded muddy and less crisp. That’s not to say the speakers are bad – They do offer a more surround sound style of audio and they blast out music nice and loud. Related: Samsung Galaxy S7 edge review Additionally, the headphone amp offers the ability to upscale 16-bit to 24-bit audio, and each speaker has its own dedicated amp as well. HTC’s offering a Personal Audio Profile that essentially lets you personalize the sound you hear from the 10 to your own tastes. You can choose between five different frequencies, sort of like a hearing test, to best optimize the sound output. It was a fun experience, setting up my own audio profile, and I’m sure audiophiles will love it. The test was easy to do, but you should really do it in a silent place – not a busy office. Once you’re done, you can toggle it on and off to hear the difference. Although I’m definitely not an audio expert by any means, the sound profile did sound better than the canned track. The HTC 10’s ability to upscale tracks and cater to audiophiles’ desire for personalized high-res audio is unique. LG’s G5 makes you buy a special module for nearly $100 to get the same experience, and it looks like you can’t even buy that module in the United States. This makes HTC the clear winner on the audio front. If high-res audio matters to you, the HTC 10 is the phone you’re looking for. It’s the only device on the market that prioritizes audio above all else. A solid camera Previously, HTC’s UltraPixel camera tech has fallen flat. Although you could produce cool focusing effects, it didn’t have the resolution to make it worth it. With the 10, HTC upgraded the UltraPixel rear camera to a 12-megapixel sensor with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), and laser autofocus. The device also boasts an f/1.8 aperture,1.55

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