HTC will announce their new device, the M10, tomorrow… What can we expect from it?
HTC “ain’t what they used to be” and that’s very obvious. Sales were down by more than a third in 2015 and although it was nominated for our 2015 smartphone of the year, the HTC One M9 was a bit of a disappointment in terms of sales. It was a beautiful phone that sadly underwhelmed and was too familiar to the highly rated M8. It had a very meh camera, downgraded battery and an uninspired design.
We’re expecting big things from HTC this time around and the M10 will be their saving grace if they can pull it off. A good example of pulling it off is Samsung. Whatever mountain Samsung climbed for their reawakening, hopefully HTC found it and hired the same Sherpa guide.
It has been heavily rumoured that HTC will be dropping the “One” from it’s mainline series of phones. Perhaps an attempt at rebranding themselves and giving the new device a clean slate. HTC Perfume M10? HTC Ten? HTC 10? Most likely the latter.
Starting with one of the weaknesses of the M9 we mentioned, HTC will be definitely changing up the design for the M10. Looking at the #powerof10 teaser HTC dropped on us a while ago, we can see the newly introduced outward curves on the edges of the M10. Not long after this, @evleaks tweeted a complete look at the M10 and confirmed our theory on the teaser. It looks like the recent A9 but with chamfered edges, a massive leap from the M9. If this turns out to be the final design, we’re more than happy. It’ll be a sign that HTC are trying to work on their weaknesses and that they are listening to the feedback.
.@OnLeaks Can I play too? pic.twitter.com/aIRC8Zd9Y5
‘ Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 4, 2016
Another weakness that definitely needs a massive revamp is the camera, otherwise they should probably dig a hole and lay in it. The M9 had a massive 20 megapixel rear-camera, on paper it should have dazzled, but it did the opposite. It wasn’t bad, just nothing special over the M8 or the 8 megapixel, iPhone 6. HTC Chief Financial Officer Chialin Chang said, “We can confidently say that HTC will have a very, very compelling camera experience. We’re making this comment after we’ve seen what’s going on in the market.”
A leaked spec sheet reveals the M10 will have a 12 megapixel Ultra Pixel shooter, with laser autofocus and optical image stabilisation (OIS).
Qualcomm’s latest chipset the Snapdragon 820 will most likely be running the show in the M10. The 820 is also seen on rivalling phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5. We’re also expecting the same amount of RAM seen on both; 4GB. A fingerprint sensor is the new norm and the A9 had a pretty good one that HTC should be including one on the M10. With the recent renders, we expect it’ll be on the home button. Due to the fingerprint sensor it seems BoomSound will no longer be double front-facing, cue sadness, but it’s progression. Sound quality is definitely still on top of HTC’s agenda as they’ve always received rave reviews about audio quality. Playing to a strength is always a wise move and it seems they will judging from the advert below. We’re expecting a souped up BoomSound with a built in DAC. According to a recent leak BoomSound will be dubbed the “Hi-Fi Edition.”
32GB of internal memory will apparently be available and expandable via microSD, though how much will be confirmed tomorrow. 3000 mAh of battery is looking likely, seeing as rivals have about as much or more. The A9 ran Android 6.0 Marshmallow from the get go, so the M10 probably will too.
There is so much leaking before the Power of 10 event tomorrow that it just won’t be much of a surprise. According to the leak there will be a 5.2-inch screen and according to @evleaks it will be a LCD 5 panel, not AMOLED. Gorilla Glass 4 is what we’re betting on, for protection.
Not sure if this has been reported yet, but HTC 10 features a super LCD 5 display – not AMOLED. Battery = 3000mAh pic.twitter.com/NbWonSaC3T
‘ Evan Blass (@evleaks) 20 March 2016
LG and Samsung have had a massive head start announcing the G5 and S7 respectively, at Mobile World Congress way back in February. With a huge amount of leaks in the past few months (and today) the M10 seems pretty much out there in the wild and we can expect it to be released soon. There’s no iPhone 7 to compete with and the iPhone 6s is pretty much old hat now, so the timing is as good as it’s going to get.
But are there any patient HTC fans left? Will it wow us as much as they hope? We’ll know everything tomorrow. Expect an update from us here at What Mobile.
For more on HTC, visit What Mobile’s dedicated HTC page.
