After what was unquestionably a pretty boring period of time in the smartphone market, 2016 is shaping up to be a breath of fresh air. First Samsung unveiled its sleekest and most powerful smartphone ever in the Galaxy S7 edge, then LG showed off some nice original thinking in the modular G5 flagship phone. Now, it's time for HTC to show off its headliner for the first half of 2016 — and the HTC 10 *turned out to be quite a headliner indeed. DON’T MISS:* 5 new features expected in this week’s Tesla Model S refresh The brand new HTC 10 looks just like the phone we've seen a number of times in the leaks that led up to today's unveiling, but the real story is in the details. HTC said in meetings ahead of today's announcement that*"10 is about perfection." While no phone is perfect, HTC 10 included, the company did a tremendous job of taking the experience offered by its earlier handsets*and refining it as much as it can possibly be refined considering today's technological confinements. The battery is better, lasting up to 2 days according to HTC. No flagship smartphone to date has been able to provide two full days of battery life on a single charge. And in case that wasn't enough, HTC also included support for Quick Charge 3.0, which can refuel the 3,000 mAh battery from 0% to 50% in less than a half hour. The camera is better, having scored an 88 in DxOMark's tests. That ties it with Samsung's Galaxy S7 as the best smartphone camera in the world, which is incredible considering how many issues HTC has had with camera quality over the years. Performance is better, powered by a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 820 chipset and 4GB of RAM. The display is better, with 5.2 inches of real estate and 2K quad HD resolution. The audio is better, with "BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition" providing an entirely new high-quality sound experience through the handset's*external speakers or through wired headphones. And the software is better, with HTC having stripped away much of the bloat in favor of Google apps that come built into Android. Everything is better. The new HTC 10 will begin rolling out in some markets as soon as later this week on April 15th. In the United States, the unlocked version compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile networks*will be available for preorder beginning today for $699 on HTC's website . Preorders*will begin shipping sometime in early May. Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint will also sell the phone directly, and will announce pricing and availability details separately. Curiously, it appears as though AT&T will not sell the HTC 10 directly. Be sure to check out our hands-on HTC 10 preview for some early impressions, and you'll find the phone's full specs below. HTC 10 SIZE:* 145.9 x 71.9 x 3.0 - 9.0mm WEIGHT:* 161g DISPLAY: 5.2 inch, Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixels, 564 pixels per inch) Super LCD 5 with curved-edge Gorilla Glass PLATFORM Android™ 6 with HTC Sense™ PROCESSOR Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 820 Quad-core, 64-bit, up to 2.2Ghz MEMORY Total storage: 32GB or 64GB (available capacity varies) RAM: 4GB Expandable: microSD™ expansion supports additional memory cards up to 2TB with Flex Storage (optional cards not included) CAMERA Main Camera 12MP HTC UltraPixel™ 2 (1.55µm pixel size) Laser autofocus BSI sensor Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) f /1.8 aperture, 26mm focal length Dual tone LED flash 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio Slow motion video recording at 720p, 120fps Modes include Auto-HDR, Panorama, Pro mode with manual control and 12-bit RAW format support, Hyperlapse, Zoe capture, Video Pic, and continuous shooting up to 8fps Front Camera 5MP (1.34µm pixel size) Autofocus BSI sensor Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) f /1.8 aperture, 23mm focal length Full HD 1080p video recording Modes include Auto-HDR, Auto Selfie, Voice Selfie, and Live Make-Up SOUND HTC BoomSound™ Hi-Fi Edition Dolby Audio™ Personal Audio Profile Hi-Res Audio certified Hi-Res Audio earphones Hi-Res Audio stereo recording Three microphones with noise cancelation NETWORK 2G/2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 800/850/1800/1900 MHz (Japan) * 3G UMTS Varies by region 850/900/1900/2100 MHz 850/AWS/900/2100 MHz (America) CDMA 800/1900 with EvDO Rev. A (America) 4G LTE™ (up to 450Mbps) Varies by region Asia/Europe: FDD B1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 28, 32; TDD B38, 40, 41 America: FDD B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 28, 29, 30 Japan: FDD: B1, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 21, 26; TDD B38, 41 Support Cat 9 LTE: downloads up to 450Mbps, uploads up to 50Mbps SIM Nano SIM SENSORS Ambient light sensor Proximity sensor Motion G-sensor Compass sensor Gyro sensor Magnetic sensor Fingerprint sensor Sensor Hub for activity tracking Location Varies by region GPS + GLONASS + Beidou (Europe and Asia) GPS + GLONASS (America and Japan) CONNECTIVITY USB 3.1 Gen1, Type-C 5mm stereo audio jack Bluetooth® 4.2 Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5GHz) NFC DisplayPort DNLA™ Miracast™ Google Cast™ AirPlay™ HTC Connect™ for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to compatible multi-room audio systems, TVs, portable speakers and home entertainment systems BATTERY Capacity: 3000mAh Talk time on 3G/4G: up to 27 hours Standby time on 3G/4G: up to 19 days Power saving mode Extreme power saving mode Quick Charge 3.0 with cool charge: up to 50% charge in 30 minutes ADDITIONAL FEATURES Display color personalization Ice View case Motion Launch Quiet ring on pick-up Pocket mode
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