HTC 10: Will it be a game changer for the Taiwanese phone maker?

Will HTC10 break new ground? That's the question everyone is asking as Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC unveiled its flagship phone yesterday. While it hasn't yet said when it will reach Indian shores, the HTC India website lists the HTC 10 Lifestyle as of now. There's certainly a lot riding on the HTC 10, with the Taiwanese smartphone maker hoping that the new phone will herald a turnaround in the fortunes of the company. HTC's sales were down by more than a third in the calendar year 2015.

This time HTC has not named the phone under 'ONE' or 'M' brand and has called it just 10. What caught our attention first is that the phone claims to provide up to two full days of battery life on a single charge. The HTC 10 packs a 3000mAh battery which works out to a talk time of up to 21 hours on 3G networks and a standby time of up to 21 days on 3G.

As for specs, the phone features a 5.2-inch super LCD 5 display, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 652 and comes in 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage model. HTC 10 comes with an expandable storage via microSD card upto 2TB.

The phone will also have a new BoomSound technology. The BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition comes with Dolby Audio and three microphones with noise cancellation feature.

Inside, it runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with HTC Sense running on top. The phone also features a 12-megapixel camera with HTC's Ultrapixel technology, meaning bigger pixels to let in more light and thus high quality pictures. It has a 5-megapixel front camera that can also capture in 4K.

The HTC 10 supports Quick Charge 3.0 with cool charge, which means improved thermal management and claims that the handset can be charged up to 50 per cent in just 30 minutes.

On paper, the phone is surely an improvement on the earlier HTC One M9 in every aspect, be it camera, screen or power. However, what stands in front of it is Samsung's Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 6S.