HTC was once a powerful force in the telephone market. Even just a few years go the visitor was producing solid Android devices; the One M7 in particular was one of my favorite handsets of the time. Just over the final ii years HTC has lost meaning ground, releasing a collection of uninspiring mid-range devices and flagships that failed to compete with the big guns of Samsung, Apple and LG.

The HTC 10 marks the offset of a new chapter for HTC. The visitor listened to user feedback – particularly surrounding the disappointing One M9 – to craft an entirely new, high-cease device with a competitive and fresh set of features. If there'due south any recent production from HTC that could make the company relevant again in the smartphone infinite, it's this one.

The signature metal body of past HTC smartphones has returned, consummate with new additions similar a fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C. The photographic camera, a problem area for HTC's past devices, has been completely overhauled in the HTC ten with a new 12-megapixel sensor, a wide f/1.8 lens, and optical image stabilization. Plus we're seeing welcome iterations such as a new 5.2-inch 1440p LCD and a Snapdragon 820 SoC.

Crafting beautiful loftier-terminate smartphones is HTC's specialty, and the HTC x is another exemplary display of this. The all-metal unibody, which encompasses the unabridged rear panel and the sides of this device, is one of my favorite chassis of the year. It looks fantastic, with the shiny beveled rim complementing the matte dorsum panel perfectly. All of the qualities of aluminium are on full brandish here, leading to a premium industrial design with a feel to friction match.

But it's not simply the metal that makes this pattern practiced: HTC's designers are masters at nailing the fiddling things. The way the metal unibody joins the drinking glass front end console minimizes a difficult edge, which makes the phone comfortable to hold. The polycarbonate antenna bands are a necessary part of this design, and if anything they add to the visual appeal. The curved back panel hides thickness and fits well in your palm. The raised camera module looks surprisingly good in person too.

That's non to say the pattern is perfect. The front panel, which is white on the silvery model, doesn't await almost equally slick equally the rear panel. The pattern here is rather derivative and unimaginative, which is a stark divergence from HTC's previous smartphones.

The lack of stereo, front-facing BoomSound speakers is a huge disappointment coming from previous HTC handsets. I e'er love seeing a good sound organisation on a smartphone – information technology's cracking for playing games or watching the odd YouTube video – and historically HTC has had the best. However, with the main speaker relocating to the bottom of the handset, the HTC 10'south speaker organization is pedestrian at best.

The regression here isn't all bad. The bottom speaker is used in conjunction with the in-call speaker above the brandish while playing audio, and so the handset notwithstanding delivers stereo audio. However the two speakers aren't weighted evenly: the bottom speaker is more powerful and better quality, which makes the audio produced sound like it's mostly coming from 1 side when the handset is held in a mural orientation.

The speaker below the brandish has been removed to fit in a fingerprint sensor, which doubles as a physical dwelling house button. I adopt these sensors to exist positioned on the back of the handset as information technology's a more natural position (and it would allow BoomSound to remain), just HTC'due south sensor here is very responsive and accurate every bit you'd expect from a modernistic flagship.

To the left and correct of the fingerprint sensor are the back and app switching navigation buttons respectively. You wouldn't know they were positioned in that location every bit the backlit icons only appear when one of the buttons is pressed. Considering the lengthy body of the HTC 10, I would have preferred on-screen buttons here to help with usability; the physical buttons are slightly too far down the confront of the handset, especially the back button as a right-hander, for comfortable one-handed utilize.

The power and book buttons are located at a comfortable position on the right side of the device. HTC has cleverly textured the ability button so that it tin can be easily distinguished from the volume rocker without looking, which makes information technology very easy to hitting the power button every fourth dimension y'all want to. Again, this is some other small bear upon that HTC has made to improve the design of the HTC 10.

Around the edges HTC has also included a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, and the USB-C port on the lesser. I e'er similar the inclusion of a USB-C port on smartphones, and this is no exception. There's also two trays on either side, one for the nano-SIM, and the other for the microSD card slot. The trays are well subconscious enough to not disrupt the rest of the pattern.