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HTC One X......My Take

DISCLAIMER: This phone was purchased by me. Its the Indian sim-free version. I am no fanboy. I have used a variety of smartphones over the last decade. The views presented are unbiased and as objective as possible. The review was written over a period of two months due to obvious reason that I went through a couple of replacements that took a painfully long two months to materialize. Therefore the views and observations have been updated as and when I managed to get my paws with the phone. This review is late because it was in the oven for a long time due to delays as mentioned above.
Plz dont start a flame war.
Introduction
So after waiting impatiently for 8 days, I finally received my HTC One X. I had pre-ordered the X on 2nd of April. Needless to say I was itching to get my hands on this highly anticipated phone of 2012, however at the same time I was quite concerned after reading about so many issues/problems that early adopters like me were facing.
Have a look below to find out about what I think of this cutting edge smartphone.
Background
My first steps in adroid world was with the marvelous Desire HD. In my opinion this was one of the most under-rated phone of 2010-11. This phone had mostly a love-hate relationship with the worldwide user demographic, mainly due to its polarizing design. My next android phone was arguably the best android smartphone till date- the samsung galaxy s2.
After knowing about the HTC One X, I could not stop thinking about the phone. I was sold on the design from the very first go. So after selling off my SGSII I waited for the X to launch with baited breath. Finally its here in my hands and I am very happy camper.
Packaging
The One X packaging is very minimalist and so-called eco-friendly if you ask HTC, but if you ask me, I simply think HTC have cheaped out on the packaging. The packaging does not do justice to the premium feel of the handset and is more akin to the packaging we get with 50 USD handsets.
Hardware & Build
I was very apprehensive about the build quality of the phone after reading so many threads regarding the disappointing build. Fortunately, the handset that I received has very good and solid build. The soft-touch mat back is absolutely a delight to hold and look at. The glossy sides are also good looking and dont look cheap but I would have preferred the more premium mat finish. The overall fit and finish is of a very high order. However, looking closely there are few rough edges that should not have been there. But at the end of the day the overall fit and finish gets a thumbs up in my book. Now if I have to nitpick, then a couple of things sticks out.
1) The simcard tray is not very easy to slot back into the body
2) The volume rocker lacks tactile feel
Apart from these there arent any niggles with the construction.
As expected the white is a magnet for smudges and dirt but its very easy to clean off using a moist cloth.
In my handset the build was very solid. In fact I would rate the build close to that of the Desire HD (which IMO had fantastic build). The build is lightyears ahead of the SGSII. Plz ignore all the people who says that the GNex and the SGSII have solid build and better than the build of the X. The X's build quality is in a totally different league. In my case there was no creaks, squeaks, flex etc whatsoever.
The Display
I have only one adjective for the display and that is mesmerizing. This is the bloody best display I have ever seen on a phone. The colors pop without looking overly saturated. Viewing angles are as wide as you can hope to get. The entire display has a painted on feel to it and is a good enough reason on its own to force a purchase decision. I have compared the display side by side with sgs2, DHD, iphone and a friend's note, and in my opinion the X's display has the best output. Compared to the One X display, the iphone display looks a little washed out as by default the iphone display is calibrated to be very neutral. The whites on the HTC One X is slightly warmer and if I have to guess, then I think the color temp of the X is around 6700-6800k whereas the iphone usually is around 6500k (ideal is 6500k). Compared to the AMOLED, AMOLED+ displays the whites are absolutely gorgeous. The AMOLEDs suffer from a very cool color temperature and as a result whites and neutral tones look more bluish/greenish.
On further testing I have found out that unlike the AMOLED+ display on the SGS2, the One X display does not change color temperature that appreciably with varying brightness levels.
Audio quality
The audio quality during call is very good and better than both the desire hd and sgs2, however the iphone has slightly better quality overall. The music quality through headphones is unfortunately not that great. The desire hd IMO has better music quality. However its night and day better than the pathetic output of the sgs2.
The speaker performance on my handset is ranging from good-very good. The speaker is loud enough most of the times and is louder than both DHD's and SGS2's speakers. However the iphone has a slightly louder output.
If I have to rate audio fidelity then IMO its iphone>One X> DHD> Note> SGS2.
Performance
The quad-core tegra 3 processor and the light-weight sense 4.0 means the UI performance is very fast. Theres hardly any lag anywhere. However the UI gradually slows down a little once multiple apps are installed and a lot of heavy multi-tasking is done. This is the best phone on the market for the hardcore multi-taskers. However I do feel that sense requires further polish and optimization. There are trivial bugs that should have been fixed before the mass release of the phone.
Most of the times the UI just flies and only very occasionally will there be a delay in the response. But on the hindsight, the delay is at par with the performance experienced with SGS2 and only because the X is so fast and fluid in everything else, that these small delays gets magnified. One must keep in mind that even with these little delays/lags, the phone is still the absolute fastest android phone till date. In fact it is the only android phone I have used that gives stiff competition to the iphone in terms of UI smoothness.
One thing I have found out that most of the glitches can be got rid off by enabling developer mode (usb debugging) and disabling HTC gestures. (At least this is applicable in my case)
Imaging
The camera as advertised is blazing fast to take pictures. The out of the box pics and videos quality is good and comparable to iphone and better than sgs2. However to extract the maximum out of the camera, you have play with the settings. I found that the best pics IMO came when sharpness was set to -1, exposure was set manually for the scene, and white balance on manual. Depending on how good you are at taking photos, your mileage will vary. But still at the end of the day this is one of the best cameras on a smartphone today.
Heat
In normal use I dint find the phone heating up to alarming levels as have been portrayed by many. In fact in normal use (calling, browsing, messaging, music etc), the phone never once exceeded 35 C in a room with ambient of around 25-26C. In a room with ambient of 32C the phone got upto only 38 C. These temps are what I used to get with the DHD, and better than that of the SGSII.
Now coming to intensive usage, I decided to play riptide Gp while downloading apps in the background through wifi, and the phone never reached more than 43 C. On the SGS2, while playing riptide Gp, the temp routinely used to exceed 48C.
So I would say that considering the X is packing a quadcore 1.5ghz chip, the heat generated is not intense and certainly in line with the sgs2 or may be slightly less.
Now obviously people with genuine hardware faults will see the phone overheating, but those are in minority and can happen with any phone.
A little update about the temperature. Today I was playing shadowgun and temple run at office. In the AC environment where the room temp was like 24-25C, the phone only got to a max temp of about 39 C. So what temps you are getting depends a lot on your ambient temps.
Battery Life
After fully charging the phone for the first time, I was able to get around 20 hrs or moderate to heavy usage with screen on time of around 4 hrs. This is quite decent battery life and I am expecting it to improve after a few charge-discharge cycles and the impending OTA update.
UPDATE: So I have had the phone for four days now and right now I am on my fourth charge-discharge cycle. One thing is very obvious is that the battery life significantly improves with or after the third charge-discharge cycle. After my third charge I managed to last the phone for more than a day with moderate use. The screen on time was 2.5 hrs or so. Also voice calls were for 1 hr.
Now after my fourth charge, I only lost 1% overnight when the phone was just lying idle. At the time of typing I am still left with 52% charge after a good 15 hrs. The screen on time is roughly 2hrs with 40 mins of calling and 1hr of temple run thrown in.
I dont know about the other owners but I am pretty satisfied with the battery performance so far.
UPDATE 2: Unfortunately my One X turned out to be not so perfect. It had a small gap between the metal frame surrounding the screen and the screen itself. In conditions with low ambient light one can see the backlight of the touch buttons bleeding through this gap. Got it replaced. The replacement took aprox 25 days. Very poor HTC!!
UPDATE 3: Got the replacement on 14/05/2012. Its of the HT24 batch. But unfortunately it has a more pronounced gap and backlight bleeding though this gap is more severe than my earlier unit. This one also has a spot on the screen and a couple of dead pixels. Have sent it back again and waiting for the replacement to arrive. Keeping fingers crossed that everything will be perfect this time around.
UPDATE 4: So finally got my third HOX after 25 days of waiting (Again!!) on 09/06/2012. Thankfully this time round the phone is largely fault free. Its a SH25E batch and I would say the build quality is really good, as in the phone is well put together and feels like a cohesive piece/unit. Now there are a couple of places where the finish of the poly shell and the metal rim surrounding the screen is a bit patchy but that is just nitpicking. However after a day one of the pixels got stuck on the blue color in the lower part of the screen. From what I can see its a partially stuck pixel, which fails to change color from blue on white and light grey backgrounds. It changes colors properly in black, red, blue, yellow etc as expected.
And since its very difficult to spot this unless specifically looking on a white-ish background, I am not too bothered by it.
The phone came preloaded with 1.29 and the screen protector on the phone simply said " One X" instead of " I am the One you have been waiting for". The rest of box and packing was the same as before. I although kinda liked the " I am the One you have been waiting for" bit. It was personal and different.
The battery life for me has been phenomenal on 1.29. I am getting almost two days of standby time with minimal usage. On heavy use I am managing a solid 16-17 hrs with around 3.5-4 hrs of screen on time. On moderate usage (read watching blu-ray rips), the battery lasts for around 25-27 hrs with almost 6 hrs of screen on time @ 50% brightness. These are what I consider really good battery life figures for what is a really high end smartphone. As usual your mileage may vary but overall One X has a very decent battery life for the underlying hardware it is blessed with.
Conclusion & Value For Money
The One X is a very handsome phone to look at. Arguably it is the best smartphone in the world currently at least in the aesthetics department. It is a beast of a phone and has the go to match the show. Performance is fluid and the features are great. The highlight of the phone apart from the stunning design is the display. For my hard earned money, this phone has the best display on a smartphone yet. It leaves the iphone 4s and galaxy S2 far behind in terms of the screen quality. The recently launched GS3 also falls short of the One X in terms of the display quality.
Coming to the direct comparison between GS3 and One X, I would pick the One X as the overall winner simply by virtue of packing the best display available today. Since with a touch phone you will interacting with the display all the time, any phone that carries a display that can make you go wow everytime you look at it, is a winner in my book.
The One X also plays the value card really well against the GS3 and is widely available at a street price of approx 34k (680 USD) compared to the ludicrous 38k (760 USD) for the 16GB GS3.
ONE X vs GS3
1. Looks - One X
2. Performance - Equal
3. Stills - One X
4. Video - GS3
5. Display - One X
6. Battery Life - Equal
7. Ugradability- GS3
8. VFM - One X
9. Feel Good Factor - One X
10. Audio - GS3
Overall for the One X I would give 9 out of 10. The phone has fantastic hardware, and good software, but there are issues in the sense skin that needs to be ironed out. If the One X launched without any glitches and bugs, it would have been a straight 10 out 10 for me.
Price as Tested: INR 35850 ( 720 USD)
Price Now: INR 34500 ( 680 USD)
The PICS
http://img401.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=20120609111055v.jpg

I pretty much agree with you you on most of the accounts, i do think the screen is slightly saturated, well greens do anyway lol
Speaker quality is pretty good and loud too. Not tried the head phones yet. I love the feel also, feels much better then the cheap plastic feel of the Samsung handsets. A note they should consider with this method of the plastic finish.

devvfata1ity said:
Audio quality
The audio quality during call is very good and better than both the desire hd and sgs2, however the iphone has slightly better quality overall. The music quality through headphones is unfortunately not that great. The desire hd IMO has better music quality. However its night and day better than the pathetic output of the sgs2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do iphone headphones with the mic work with the audio jack of the one x? My old galaxy s i9000m had a weird configuration of the mic/ground/left/right pins on the 3.5mm jack so I could only use specific headphones (or I had to hold down the mic button to listen to music properly ).
Thanks for sharing your opinion

Personally I find the screen a little over saturated for my tastes. Audio wise, aside from the hiss I've had on headphones with an inline mic I find the quality to be very good.

I didn't expect audio to be good and wasn't planning to use it for music anyway.
However I did test and I thought the quality was really poor.
I am amazed that manufacturers pay so little attention to audio. My £20 Sansa Clip+ absolutely blows my ~£480 One X out of the water in terms of audio quality.
'Authentic audio'

audio quality isn't the best nor is it loud enough. I remember when HTC phones were very loud but since the days of desire they have turned the volume down for some reason.
Viewing angles are brilliant best i have seen.
I bought the grey/black version but found i was cleaning the back quite frequently, smudge marks you know. So now i have bought the white version also, see if that fairs any better. This of course means i'm quite happy overall with one x.

toastyy said:
Do iphone headphones with the mic work with the audio jack of the one x? My old galaxy s i9000m had a weird configuration of the mic/ground/left/right pins on the 3.5mm jack so I could only use specific headphones (or I had to hold down the mic button to listen to music properly ).
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The iphone headset is working fine with my one X. I have tried different earphones with the One X (Bose, Shure, Sony, Creative, Kilpsch etc) and all were working as intended

riz157 said:
audio quality isn't the best nor is it loud enough. I remember when HTC phones were very loud but since the days of desire they have turned the volume down for some reason.
Viewing angles are brilliant best i have seen.
I bought the grey/black version but found i was cleaning the back quite frequently, smudge marks you know. So now i have bought the white version also, see if that fairs any better. This of course means i'm quite happy overall with one x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
let me know your conclusion mate, i'm still split about this too

I have been using Htc One X from past one week with Sensation XL and undermentioned are my views
Ringtone of Sensation XL is much much louder than Of One X..More over there is glitch sound which comes from the speaker while making any selection, incoming calls or typing..
Any one else who has this error of glitch sound coming from HTC One X.
Calling and no reception issue in both.
Sensation XL's SLCD looks more brighter than HTC One X..HOX has high contrast with sharpness.
No doubt HSXL is looks much more royal but HOX is slim & light. Using is with a white back case bought from ebay makes it look good.

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i took the above pic with HTC ONE X.
i found the picture quality to be so so compared to my 4s.
may be i didn't set it right?

toastyy said:
Do iphone headphones with the mic work with the audio jack of the one x? My old galaxy s i9000m had a weird configuration of the mic/ground/left/right pins on the 3.5mm jack so I could only use specific headphones (or I had to hold down the mic button to listen to music properly ).
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A Big Thank You!
looks like the Australian One XL "or at least the one i have... suffers from this issue"
but holding down the Mic button seemed to fix it.
I know this is not a great place to post this but when searching for One X washed sound this is the first thread to come up.
I will test with some more headsets later will start its own thread in relation to this issue
Also great review

OP updated with the final review

OP updated with pics

great review. the only thing plaguing current and future one x owners is the failure in production quality. ie. display and internal hardware issues.

sharp2G said:
great review. the only thing plaguing current and future one x owners is the failure in production quality. ie. display and internal hardware issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every phone has some issues at launch that get ironed out over time with subsequent batches. I can clearly remember that the SGS2 (arguably the best android phone till 2011) had a lot of teething issues at launch. There were camera issues as well as display issues. It took samsung almost four months to completely iron out the issues.
The one x is a fabulous piece of kit. Admittedly it has a few issues, some due to hardware but mostly software. Its quite good that HTC has actually released 3 updates since launch. Later batches are largely free from defects but then again a lot of initial launch devices were trouble-free too.
We have warranty and these issues shouldnt really stop anyone from enjoying the X.

I am in a dilemma between the s3 and HOX but after reading your review it made me realize that to get the ultimate performance of the HTC phone,one must need a lot of luck.
What I mean is that you had to replace the handset 3 times because of the bugs and that could be a real deal breaker for people like me.I for one expect the phone to provide its full features on its first buy and till now I haven't read any issues with the s3 so far.Maybe I haven't read much about the topic but so far,haven't read anything issues at all.
The HOX is though a beauty with brains.There is no doubt that the HOX is one of the best looking smart phones out in the market and with the features it packs,it sure is a great phone to buy.
The only thing stopping me from buying this is the battery life and this topic is quite subjective.Those who will root will experience a tremendous battery life.I don't plan on rooting it and having read many user reviews about the battery life of an unrooted,I'd say 7 hours with moderate usage is the average life.
So again its all about luck and I don't know how lucky I may turn out.Its either the S3 or HOX for sure but still don't know which one to get.

techmania7 said:
I am in a dilemma between the s3 and HOX but after reading your review it made me realize that to get the ultimate performance of the HTC phone,one must need a lot of luck.
What I mean is that you had to replace the handset 3 times because of the bugs and that could be a real deal breaker for people like me.I for one expect the phone to provide its full features on its first buy and till now I haven't read any issues with the s3 so far.Maybe I haven't read much about the topic but so far,haven't read anything issues at all.
The HOX is though a beauty with brains.There is no doubt that the HOX is one of the best looking smart phones out in the market and with the features it packs,it sure is a great phone to buy.
The only thing stopping me from buying this is the battery life and this topic is quite subjective.Those who will root will experience a tremendous battery life.I don't plan on rooting it and having read many user reviews about the battery life of an unrooted,I'd say 7 hours with moderate usage is the average life.
So again its all about luck and I don't know how lucky I may turn out.Its either the S3 or HOX for sure but still don't know which one to get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love the look of sense, which is why I I decided to switch from touchwiz to HTC, but like you I was and and still am sort of concerned about battery life. I'm not rooted and with my moderate / heavy use I get about 3 or a a little less than 3 hours of screen time. I am doing a few charge and discharge cycles t see if that will improve my battery life as recommended by a user on xda. I make it through the day without any problems, just have to charge it every night which is not problem because I just need a cell that can last me through my day and this device manages to do that so far.

sharp2G said:
I love the look of sense, which is why I I decided to switch from touchwiz to HTC, but like you I was and and still am sort of concerned about battery life. I'm not rooted and with my moderate / heavy use I get about 3 or a a little less than 3 hours of screen time. I am doing a few charge and discharge cycles t see if that will improve my battery life as recommended by a user on xda. I make it through the day without any problems, just have to charge it every night which is not problem because I just need a cell that can last me through my day and this device manages to do that so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use a lot of apps and message constantly?If so then I think the battery performs quite well and brace yourself for a noob question.What does on screen time actually mean?3 hours long enough or does the S3 perform better than that?

Excellent review and great reading! i agree totally with it (apart from i was lucky enough to have a completely fault free handset so didn't have to get it replaced lol!)

techmania7 said:
Do you use a lot of apps and message constantly?If so then I think the battery performs quite well and brace yourself for a noob question.What does on screen time actually mean?3 hours long enough or does the S3 perform better than that?
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Click to collapse
I use my phone mainly for texting, web browsing + youtube and reading the latest in the world of tech a.k.a. the pulse app. I don't however play a lot of games. Screen time means the total duration of time in which your screen is on for. I also use auto-brightness, disabled bloatware apps, and turned off auto-sync.

Anyone coming from the M8? Worth it?

I have the HTC One M8 since launch and love it. The looks, the smoothness, Sense UI. Best smartphone I ever had (came from a couple of Samsung, which were dissappointing).
The only thing failing is the battery but I already bought a new one and will be replacing it soon. But I'm debating if I should upgrade to the new HTC 10...I also thought about the Pixel but seems too expensive, only reviews will tell of course.
To anyone who went from the M8:
Is it worth it? Is it definitely faster and with better battery life? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Cheers

i came from an m8 and would definitely recommend it. it's much faster and the battery life is much better. also, given that it's unlocked (i had an att m8), the updates are more frequent.
things i don't really like about it, the headphone jack is on the top instead of the bottom. i also preferred the m8's method of turning the camera on (by double clicking on the volume) instead of the 10's method of swiping down on the screen since i seem to always be turning the camera on by accident.

Badelhas said:
I have the HTC One M8 since launch and love it. The looks, the smoothness, Sense UI. Best smartphone I ever had (came from a couple of Samsung, which were dissappointing).
The only thing failing is the battery but I already bought a new one and will be replacing it soon. But I'm debating if I should upgrade to the new HTC 10...I also thought about the Pixel but seems too expensive, only reviews will tell of course.
To anyone who went from the M8:
Is it worth it? Is it definitely faster and with better battery life? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Thanks in advance for your input.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from M7 and happy with battery live, fast charging, memory card slot, Android pay, finger print and other small things.
via [email protected]

vksf01 said:
i came from an m8 and would definitely recommend it. it's much faster and the battery life is much better. also, given that it's unlocked (i had an att m8), the updates are more frequent.
things i don't really like about it, the headphone jack is on the top instead of the bottom. i also preferred the m8's method of turning the camera on (by double clicking on the volume) instead of the 10's method of swiping down on the screen since i seem to always be turning the camera on by accident.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have the M8 since it was launched? Did you get to replace the battery? I've noticed that battery life is not the same has it was at the beginning but to be honest the worst moment was when we got the Android 5 Lollipop update. Other than that it's still blazing fast so I can't really imagine something much faster than this. Is the 10 that much faster?
The Google Pixel is going to be announced tomorrow so I might as well wait for the first reviews. Even though I would love fast software updates from Google (and that will last not 2 but 3 years) I doubt that the sound quality will be has good and it is on the M8 and the 10.
badzi0r said:
I came from M7 and happy with battery live, fast charging, memory card slot, Android pay, finger print and other small things.
via [email protected]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not really what I was looking for since, in my humble opinion, the M8 was already a big step up when compared to the M7. But thanks for your input.
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Did you have the M8 since it was launched? Did you get to replace the battery? I've noticed that battery life is not the same has it was at the beginning but to be honest the worst moment was when we got the Android 5 Lollipop update. Other than that it's still blazing fast so I can't really imagine something much faster than this. Is the 10 that much faster?
The Google Pixel is going to be announced tomorrow so I might as well wait for the first reviews. Even though I would love fast software updates from Google (and that will last not 2 but 3 years) I doubt that the sound quality will be has good and it is on the M8 and the 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I had the M8 since launch although ATT replaced it when they upgraded to lollipop because their update made my GPS go haywire (it couldn't be turned off and so drained my battery like crazy). the replacement m8 has worked fine. Both m8's didn't really have any issue with the battery. I still have my m8 which i'll use as a backup.
I'd also wait for the pixel phone reviews to see what they're like.

I ran M8 from launch day right up until the 10, and is absolutely worth it. The development is wonderful as well.
I do agree, however to see what the Pixel devices are like.

I honestly didn't think the 10 was a huge upgrade over the M8, but in certain key aspects, the 10 is a marked improvement. The battery on the 10 is similar to what I used to get when I first got the M8 on Kitkat, but my M8 was getting pretty worn down by the end. The camera of course is a huge upgrade, even in low light and optical stabilization is a fantastic thing to have. The software is not that much faster in my opinion. I had my M8 running really well and the 10 is similar, though scrolling is noticeably smoother especially in chrome. Game performance is also much better understandably. One thing I find really useful is the fingerprint scanner and side mounted power button, they both make the phone a lot easier to access if you use a lock of any sort. The display is interesting, I have the Tianma version and it had a prominent pink tinge at first, but it definitely has cleared up using my m8 and Nexus 5X as reference. The 10 is better calibrated than the M8 and the vivid mode does add a lot of punch for movies and games, max brightness is similar even if a lot of reviews have measured lower readings. Auto brightness still sucks.
As far as audio quality goes, I'll copy what I wrote earlier on Head-fi:
Owned the M8 since release day, just picked up the 10 about a month ago, currently working on a review, so here are some of my notes:
As far as SQ through the headphone jack goes, the quality is noticeably better with a very low noise floor even with my most sensitive iems, the Shure SE215, Westone UM 50 Pro and Oriveti Primacy, it's barely noticeable if at all. The M8 by comparison had a lot of hiss with those earphones.
Output impedance is definitely lower as it sounds more inline with my Oppo HA-2 than the M8 does with particular earphones.
Volume is pretty similar between both, I don't own anything particularly hard to drive and I'm more of a low level listener so hiss is usually a bigger issue to me.
Overall, I'm really liking the headphone out on the 10, it has HTC's usual quality AMP with plenty of voltage for high impedance gear and also plenty of current for low impedance monitors but this time, the discrete DAC is of much higher quality (Likely the Aqstic DAC), reproducing songs with a lot more dynamic range, everything sounds a lot cleaner.
As for speakers, it's a mixed bag as others have stated. I do think that the full range driver on the bottom/side of the phone is of slightly higher quality than the drivers used on the M8 but the top tweeter is pretty average.
The bottom speaker is mostly dominant with the front speaker complimenting certain sounds. The 10 does have the immediacy of sound that the M8 produces through this setup, where purely bottom/rear firing phones can sound more diffuse, but it lacks the sense of depth produced by the stereo setup.
The 10 has more extension in either direction, treble in particular is much crisper though the lower midrange has less body. Bass notes are punchier through the 10 though the midrange sounds somewhat skewed due to the uneven speaker output. More detail and clarity on the 10's speakers are great for videos and vocals in general.
I think the sound quality of the 10's speakers is ever so slightly better but the placement is of course inferior. The M8 has an extra notch of volume but distorts slightly at the top two notches, the 10 does not, so in that sense, the usable volume range is higher, but overall volume doesn't get quite as loud. You'll notice a lot of internet reviews use the music preset, the movie preset actually produces a lot more volume but soundstage effects can make vocals sound more hollow.
If you use the phone speakers to listen to music, definitely check out this video detailing some eQ settings though Poweramp, it does produce a much nicer sound than stock when used in conjunction with the Dolby music present. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQsxcoh3Uw)
Be sure to assign this eQ to speakers and the flat eQ preset to headphones so Poweramp will automatically switch between to two when headphones are plugged/un-plugged.
So in my testing, the 10 has small upgrades in most areas and large upgrades in a few. I would say it's like a very refined M8 which I already found to be a fantastic smartphone (I hated using the M9). The 10 has no real disadvantages compared to the M8 except the speakers and it's a little wider in dimension.

ryanjsoo said:
I honestly didn't think the 10 was a huge upgrade over the M8, but in certain key aspects, the 10 is a marked improvement. The battery on the 10 is similar to what I used to get when I first got the M8 on Kitkat, but my M8 was getting pretty worn down by the end. The camera of course is a huge upgrade, even in low light and optical stabilization is a fantastic thing to have. The software is not that much faster in my opinion. I had my M8 running really well and the 10 is similar, though scrolling is noticeably smoother especially in chrome. Game performance is also much better understandably. One thing I find really useful is the fingerprint scanner and side mounted power button, they both make the phone a lot easier to access if you use a lock of any sort. The display is interesting, I have the Tianma version and it had a prominent pink tinge at first, but it definitely has cleared up using my m8 and Nexus 5X as reference. The 10 is better calibrated than the M8 and the vivid mode does add a lot of punch for movies and games, max brightness is similar even if a lot of reviews have measured lower readings. Auto brightness still sucks.
As far as audio quality goes, I'll copy what I wrote earlier on Head-fi:
Owned the M8 since release day, just picked up the 10 about a month ago, currently working on a review, so here are some of my notes:
As far as SQ through the headphone jack goes, the quality is noticeably better with a very low noise floor even with my most sensitive iems, the Shure SE215, Westone UM 50 Pro and Oriveti Primacy, it's barely noticeable if at all. The M8 by comparison had a lot of hiss with those earphones.
Output impedance is definitely lower as it sounds more inline with my Oppo HA-2 than the M8 does with particular earphones.
Volume is pretty similar between both, I don't own anything particularly hard to drive and I'm more of a low level listener so hiss is usually a bigger issue to me.
Overall, I'm really liking the headphone out on the 10, it has HTC's usual quality AMP with plenty of voltage for high impedance gear and also plenty of current for low impedance monitors but this time, the discrete DAC is of much higher quality (Likely the Aqstic DAC), reproducing songs with a lot more dynamic range, everything sounds a lot cleaner.
As for speakers, it's a mixed bag as others have stated. I do think that the full range driver on the bottom/side of the phone is of slightly higher quality than the drivers used on the M8 but the top tweeter is pretty average.
The bottom speaker is mostly dominant with the front speaker complimenting certain sounds. The 10 does have the immediacy of sound that the M8 produces through this setup, where purely bottom/rear firing phones can sound more diffuse, but it lacks the sense of depth produced by the stereo setup.
The 10 has more extension in either direction, treble in particular is much crisper though the lower midrange has less body. Bass notes are punchier through the 10 though the midrange sounds somewhat skewed due to the uneven speaker output. More detail and clarity on the 10's speakers are great for videos and vocals in general.
I think the sound quality of the 10's speakers is ever so slightly better but the placement is of course inferior. The M8 has an extra notch of volume but distorts slightly at the top two notches, the 10 does not, so in that sense, the usable volume range is higher, but overall volume doesn't get quite as loud. You'll notice a lot of internet reviews use the music preset, the movie preset actually produces a lot more volume but soundstage effects can make vocals sound more hollow.
If you use the phone speakers to listen to music, definitely check out this video detailing some eQ settings though Poweramp, it does produce a much nicer sound than stock when used in conjunction with the Dolby music present. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEQsxcoh3Uw)
Be sure to assign this eQ to speakers and the flat eQ preset to headphones so Poweramp will automatically switch between to two when headphones are plugged/un-plugged.
So in my testing, the 10 has small upgrades in most areas and large upgrades in a few. I would say it's like a very refined M8 which I already found to be a fantastic smartphone (I hated using the M9). The 10 has no real disadvantages compared to the M8 except the speakers and it's a little wider in dimension.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I had already read your answer on Head-fi and you've been very helpful once again. I am actually very glad to know that speed and smoothness is not that different between the M8 and the 10 since I love this phone and was hoping to keep it a while longer, not letting the "upgrade bug" bite me
Indeed battery life on the M8 got worse after they updated it to Lollipop because before that I always got to bed with 30% at least, which stopped happening afterwards. Of course 2 years of heavy use also had its toll and I am hoping that replacing the battery with a new original one will help regaining some of the battery life I used to have but I dont really know if it will help. I actually love my M8 camera but I didn't try the HTC 10 so probably it´s because I haven't tried anything better. I also love the sound that come from the speakers (the guy that replaced my once faulty micro usb port cleaned the speakers grills and sound is once again very nice, just like it was when I bought it). I particularly love the sound when using headphones. I came from the Galaxy S3 and S4 and there's not even a comparison.
I believe I have very nice hearing but I only use the Xiaomi Piston 3 headphones, if you participate in the Head-Fi forums you surely know they have nice and balanced sound quality for the price (20 bucks) but I wanted to ask you another question, if you dont mind: would you recommend me a better in ear headphones, ones that cost less than, lets say, 60 bucks or so? Will I see significant better sound quality than my Xiaomi Piston 3?
Thanks again for your input
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Thanks, I had already read your answer on Head-fi and you've been very helpful once again. I am actually very glad to know that speed and smoothness is not that different between the M8 and the 10 since I love this phone and was hoping to keep it a while longer, not letting the "upgrade bug" bite me
Indeed battery life on the M8 got worse after they updated it to Lollipop because before that I always got to bed with 30% at least, which stopped happening afterwards. Of course 2 years of heavy use also had its toll and I am hoping that replacing the battery with a new original one will help regaining some of the battery life I used to have but I dont really know if it will help. I actually love my M8 camera but I didn't try the HTC 10 so probably it´s because I haven't tried anything better. I also love the sound that come from the speakers (the guy that replaced my once faulty micro usb port cleaned the speakers grills and sound is once again very nice, just like it was when I bought it). I particularly love the sound when using headphones. I came from the Galaxy S3 and S4 and there's not even a comparison.
I believe I have very nice hearing but I only use the Xiaomi Piston 3 headphones, if you participate in the Head-Fi forums you surely know they have nice and balanced sound quality for the price (20 bucks) but I wanted to ask you another question, if you dont mind: would you recommend me a better in ear headphones, ones that cost less than, lets say, 60 bucks or so? Will I see significant better sound quality than my Xiaomi Piston 3?
Thanks again for your input
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought that username looked familiar! I had the Pistons 3's for a while and they're very good for the price. They're warmer and bassier than neutral so I would look at the Shozy Zero for $60 on the dot. They have a similar warm sound, they're a really nice step up but you'll perhaps miss the remote. I found them to sound better than my Klipsch X10's which cost me over $100 and they're also lot better than the Shure SE215 in the sound department. There's heaps of reviews on the net, it's definitely a model to consider.

ryanjsoo said:
Thought that username looked familiar! I had the Pistons 3's for a while and they're very good for the price. They're warmer and bassier than neutral so I would look at the Shozy Zero for $60 on the dot. They have a similar warm sound, they're a really nice step up but you'll perhaps miss the remote. I found them to sound better than my Klipsch X10's which cost me over $100 and they're also lot better than the Shure SE215 in the sound department. There's heaps of reviews on the net, it's definitely a model to consider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I will read some reviews about them. Cheers

Ryan's review is spot on.
I came from the M8. In short, I upgraded because of the upgrade bug mainly. After a couple of months of usage, I can say that I could have stayed with the M8 longer. The major differences are (1) improved build quality (e.g. no dust under the lenses; no scratches), (2) much better camera, (3) finger-print scanner, (4) punchier audio jack output.
As you can see, the only two things that really make a difference are the camera and the fingerprint scanner. Otherwise, I generally feel I haven't gotten a new phone, if not for the visually different front side.
In the end, if you take lots of photos, it's probably justifiable to upgrade. If you don't take too many photos, then the upgrade bug is the only real reason to upgrade.
Cheers.
PS: I love the 10. It's easily the greatest phone I've ever held/seen. It's just that the M8 was so amazing in its own right that it's a small upgrade to the 10.

samisax said:
Ryan's review is spot on.
I came from the M8. In short, I upgraded because of the upgrade bug mainly. After a couple of months of usage, I can say that I could have stayed with the M8 longer. The major differences are (1) improved build quality (e.g. no dust under the lenses; no scratches), (2) much better camera, (3) finger-print scanner, (4) punchier audio jack output.
As you can see, the only two things that really make a difference are the camera and the fingerprint scanner. Otherwise, I generally feel I haven't gotten a new phone, if not for the visually different front side.
In the end, if you take lots of photos, it's probably justifiable to upgrade. If you don't take too many photos, then the upgrade bug is the only real reason to upgrade.
Cheers.
PS: I love the 10. It's easily the greatest phone I've ever held/seen. It's just that the M8 was so amazing in its own right that it's a small upgrade to the 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for another great input, very helpful to sustain my decision to keep this great smartphone
Cheers

I came from the M7, so I know I'm answering slightly out of place, but I did have a few M8 Dev phones I used and played with, but didn't use as a daily driver.
I paid full US Unlocked retail cash money, so it was a substantial investment upfront to get the M10, not just a monthly finance charge.
My honest opinion, it was totally worth it. I considered the nexus or one of the CM or blu type devices because of instant OS updates and unlocking. I'm SOOO glad I went with the HTC 10.
It offers me HTC Sense, and unlocking it thanks to sunshine (it's actually S off, not unlocking, but for ease of use we will call it unlocking) was easier than some of my nexus devices, literally.
Hardware and build quality is amazing, and the sense software and rom selections are too notch.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

I went through 2 M8s and loved them. Definitely one of the best devices I've ever used. The only reason I ended up upgrading to the 10 was because my second M8 got wet and the screen died. To me, it was worth upgrading rather than trying to repair it. There are some definite benefits of upgrading.
The phone is more comfortable to hold.
The all-glass front looks incredible and has resisted fingerprints and smudges much better than my M8 did.
The cameras are much better (although the "laser autofocus" does mess up from time to time, especially looking through a window)
The screen is larger and even more crisp. Colors are brighter.
Battery life is MUCH improved.
Quick-Charge 3.0 is like magic. It's seriously impressive how quickly this phone charges.
USB-C is "future proof" and a better connector. Not more finding the right orientation or loose connections with old cables.
I thought I'd hate the power button on the side, but I actually love it. It's a solid button and it makes taking screenshots (pwr+vol dn) easy with 1 hand.
The fingerprint scanner is a HUGE plus. I still keep a lockscreen password as a backup, but 99% of the time, it unlocks with a single finger press.
I don't know if you still have your M8 stock (if you're on XDA, I hope not ), but I had a big issue with my M8 when I first got it, with the "wipe after 10 failed unlock attempts" that was built into the OS. It ended up trying in my pocket and when I took my phone out, it was wiped. Installing a custom ROM fixed that for me. On the HTC 10, they changed it very wisely. After 5 failed finger print attempts it will lock you out for 30 seconds. To unlock in this window, you need to use your passcode/PIN. If you try and fail on the passcode, it will give you 3 more tries until locking you out from that too for 30 seconds. After 5th failed unlock attempt, it will then ask you to trace a pattern on the screen, before it will let you try again. If you don't follow the pattern pretty closely, it won't let you try again. This makes it virtually impossible to accidentally wipe your device, while still preserving the security feature. I'm not sure if this is a MM feature or an HTC feature but it's great and has saved me a few times already.
There are some cons about switching from the M8 to the 10 though....
No more IR blaster.
No more Barometer.
Headphone jack is moved to top of the phone.
Rear camera sticks out.
Speed / performance increase is not very noticable. The M8 is still a competitive phone.
Neutral is the boomsound speakers. The M8's front stereo speakers were definitely louder, but not significantly so. The front/down combo on the 10 works fine.
A negative of both the M8 and the 10 is the IP rating. IP53 just doesn't cut it. I learned first hand how intolerant to water the M8 is, and the 10 is no better. HTC needs to get next year's flagship up to IP68 or they're going to really struggle.

CharliesTheMan said:
I came from the M7, so I know I'm answering slightly out of place, but I did have a few M8 Dev phones I used and played with, but didn't use as a daily driver.
I paid full US Unlocked retail cash money, so it was a substantial investment upfront to get the M10, not just a monthly finance charge.
My honest opinion, it was totally worth it. I considered the nexus or one of the CM or blu type devices because of instant OS updates and unlocking. I'm SOOO glad I went with the HTC 10.
It offers me HTC Sense, and unlocking it thanks to sunshine (it's actually S off, not unlocking, but for ease of use we will call it unlocking) was easier than some of my nexus devices, literally.
Hardware and build quality is amazing, and the sense software and rom selections are too notch.
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using stock rom, tried several Google based and sense based and didn't like them, I actually think that the stock one is better, especially since Marshmallow.
drumz0rz said:
I went through 2 M8s and loved them. Definitely one of the best devices I've ever used. The only reason I ended up upgrading to the 10 was because my second M8 got wet and the screen died. To me, it was worth upgrading rather than trying to repair it. There are some definite benefits of upgrading.
The phone is more comfortable to hold.
The all-glass front looks incredible and has resisted fingerprints and smudges much better than my M8 did.
The cameras are much better (although the "laser autofocus" does mess up from time to time, especially looking through a window)
The screen is larger and even more crisp. Colors are brighter.
Battery life is MUCH improved.
Quick-Charge 3.0 is like magic. It's seriously impressive how quickly this phone charges.
USB-C is "future proof" and a better connector. Not more finding the right orientation or loose connections with old cables.
I thought I'd hate the power button on the side, but I actually love it. It's a solid button and it makes taking screenshots (pwr+vol dn) easy with 1 hand.
The fingerprint scanner is a HUGE plus. I still keep a lockscreen password as a backup, but 99% of the time, it unlocks with a single finger press.
I don't know if you still have your M8 stock (if you're on XDA, I hope not [emoji14] ), but I had a big issue with my M8 when I first got it, with the "wipe after 10 failed unlock attempts" that was built into the OS. It ended up trying in my pocket and when I took my phone out, it was wiped. Installing a custom ROM fixed that for me. On the HTC 10, they changed it very wisely. After 5 failed finger print attempts it will lock you out for 30 seconds. To unlock in this window, you need to use your passcode/PIN. If you try and fail on the passcode, it will give you 3 more tries until locking you out from that too for 30 seconds. After 5th failed unlock attempt, it will then ask you to trace a pattern on the screen, before it will let you try again. If you don't follow the pattern pretty closely, it won't let you try again. This makes it virtually impossible to accidentally wipe your device, while still preserving the security feature. I'm not sure if this is a MM feature or an HTC feature but it's great and has saved me a few times already.
There are some cons about switching from the M8 to the 10 though....
No more IR blaster.
No more Barometer.
Headphone jack is moved to top of the phone.
Rear camera sticks out.
Speed / performance increase is not very noticable. The M8 is still a competitive phone.
Neutral is the boomsound speakers. The M8's front stereo speakers were definitely louder, but not significantly so. The front/down combo on the 10 works fine.
A negative of both the M8 and the 10 is the IP rating. IP53 just doesn't cut it. I learned first hand how intolerant to water the M8 is, and the 10 is no better. HTC needs to get next year's flagship up to IP68 or they're going to really struggle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the time you took mentioning the advantages and disadvantages of making the upgrade. My only gripe currently is battery life, that's why I ordered a battery and will be replacing it. 2 years of heavy use takes its toll. Let's see how that goes.
I won a blackberry DTEK50 (it's the Alcatel idol 4 hardware rebranded with blackberry software on top of Android) and a UMi Max Smartphones on 2 Internet giveaways (in the same day, talk about luck, right?) , they haven't arrived yet but I believe none of them would be a proper upgrade over my M8 so I think I'm selling the DTEK50 and giving the UMi Max to my niece. Do you guys agree that the DTEK50 is more of a sidegrade as well?
Cheers

I wasnt planning on upgrading to the 10 but broke my m8 a couple weeks ago. Things i like right away; better camera (faster focus/snapping and quality) battery seems to last longer/charges faster, phone is quicker in general and audio from headphones is better (more on this last one below.) The USB C is nice (other than having to buy a few extra cables to keep around the house/car,) nice not having to align the direction when plugging in. Transferring data to/from computer is quicker.
One of the main reason i was interested in the 10 if for its audio, i use Sennheiser Momentum 2, over ears. Noticeable improvement of the M8 in back to back listening of the same songs. Momentum 2's are lower impedance (compared to most headphones in that price range) and the 10 get louder than i can comfortably listen to but even fully cranked, sound is clean. I'd be curious to see how well it could power a higher impedance headphone without a standalone amp. Also, noticed an improvement with my old M8 Harmon Kardon ear buds (new 10 doesnt come with any, which i didnt plan on using but found odd)
ROM support seems pretty good, still waiting for a daily driver AOSP style rom but VIPER has been issue free.
Down sides, the phone feels larger in the hands, not so much heavier/dimensionally but maybe weight is in different place? I know, that sounds odd but just how it feels holding it one handed. The power button on the side was easier to get used to, no longer phantom touching the top of the phone. I liked having the headphone jack next to the charging port on the bottom, made it easier to use both at the same time. No more IR blaster, which i didnt use often but still used on occasion.
Speaker audio seems quieter, not really liking the ear and bottom firing speaker vs dual fronts of the m8. If holding the phone in landscape and watching videos, your hand can easily muffle the sound depending on how its held. Dual front speakers seemed to direct the sound towards your head better. The sound range seems to come mostly from the bottom speaker, depending on how you holding the phone can change that.
Overall, pretty happy with the device. Waiting to see if I can get a second one on sale/contract for the wife. Scored my Sprint version from Bestbuy.com for $100 but havent had luck finding a second in stock at that price.

I came from the m8 too. The HTC10 is a brilliant phone with a few flaws.
The camera (or at the very least, the software) can be a little temperamental. The sound does not match up to the M8's boomsound at all. With that in mind, however, its better than pretty much every other phone without a similar set up.
You would also be moving from USB Micro to USB-C. A much needed improvment, but maybe stock up on cables, and make sure they support quick charge
As for things that I prefer over the m8, the black navigation bar at the bottom of the screen is gone, and replaced by hardware navigation. This is much better to me, as I always felt the onscreen navigation just wasted screen space really.
The finger print scanner is one of the best I have used on any phone, and using that to wake up and unlock the phone makes getting used to the moved power button a non-issue.
I did have issues with the headphone jack being on the top, but im just used to it now.
I have installed custom roms (you dont need to S-OFF to do this whatsoever, just unlock the bootloader using HTCDev) and this improves much. In a default stock condition though, its a pretty damn good phone. Certainly happy to be using it for the next two years.

I came from the M8, but am returning to it once I get it unlocked for use with my current carrier. Cameras (I never take pictures) were a non-issue for me, I could care less about them. For me, it is a software issue. I like Sense and the way it is/was implemented. With each iteration of HTC phones, Sense seems to be in a state of retreat, abdicating to standard Android apps. Many things that have been removed are the very items I liked. Vanilla Android is not for me. Soooooo, for me it's back to the M8 and a dilemma over what my next phone will be. Certainly not an HTC unless miracles occur.

silegeek said:
I came from the m8 too. The HTC10 is a brilliant phone with a few flaws.
The camera (or at the very least, the software) can be a little temperamental. The sound does not match up to the M8's boomsound at all. With that in mind, however, its better than pretty much every other phone without a similar set up.
You would also be moving from USB Micro to USB-C. A much needed improvment, but maybe stock up on cables, and make sure they support quick charge
As for things that I prefer over the m8, the black navigation bar at the bottom of the screen is gone, and replaced by hardware navigation. This is much better to me, as I always felt the onscreen navigation just wasted screen space really.
The finger print scanner is one of the best I have used on any phone, and using that to wake up and unlock the phone makes getting used to the moved power button a non-issue.
I did have issues with the headphone jack being on the top, but im just used to it now.
I have installed custom roms (you dont need to S-OFF to do this whatsoever, just unlock the bootloader using HTCDev) and this improves much. In a default stock condition though, its a pretty damn good phone. Certainly happy to be using it for the next two years.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KC013 said:
I came from the M8, but am returning to it once I get it unlocked for use with my current carrier. Cameras (I never take pictures) were a non-issue for me, I could care less about them. For me, it is a software issue. I like Sense and the way it is/was implemented. With each iteration of HTC phones, Sense seems to be in a state of retreat, abdicating to standard Android apps. Many things that have been removed are the very items I liked. Vanilla Android is not for me. Soooooo, for me it's back to the M8 and a dilemma over what my next phone will be. Certainly not an HTC unless miracles occur.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both for your answers I am more and more inclined to keep my M8, replacing the battery, of course.
Cheers!

I still have my M8 and to me, the 10 makes the M8 look generic. The screen is much better and much more beautiful, it is much faster and smoother and although the sound doesn't seem louder from the speakers, it is mainly because it is much clearer and sounds much better. Especially certain ringtones just sound much better. This lie I keep hearing that the M8 boomsound speakers are much better is aggravating lol. I mostly hear it in the same post where they are talking about the S7. The 10 is an absolutely perfect phone and the development is amazing. Viper 10 is the most perfect ROM I have ever experienced. I always thought I would hate hardware buttons but after going back to my M8 when flashing ROM's, the onscreen buttons are annoying. I liked my M8 and M9, was disappointed with the M9 luckily I was able to trade it in for the 10, but I absolutely love my 10. There is no doubt it is a worthy upgrade. Having it now, I would hate to have not ever experienced it. You would have to be very picky to have anything bad to say about it.

To who upgraded directly from the One M8: any regrets?

Hi guys.
The title says it all. I'm still holding to my almost 3 year old M8 but I'm afraid I'll regret it if I buy the HTC 10. Am I dead wrong?
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Hi guys.
The title says it all. I'm still holding to my almost 3 year old M8 but I'm afraid I'll regret it if I buy the HTC 10. Am I dead wrong?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't regret upgrading, the 10 is a solid device with everything done right in my opinion. Excellent camera, best sound, the Snapdragon 820 is solid, with good battery life, teamed up with rapid charging. It's a no brainer in my opinion

I miss the FM radio and IR remote, but otherwise I'm happy with my 10.

eckharttim said:
I don't regret upgrading, the 10 is a solid device with everything done right in my opinion. Excellent camera, best sound, the Snapdragon 820 is solid, with good battery life, teamed up with rapid charging. It's a no brainer in my opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your opinions. What about the stereo front speakers, do you miss them?
Magnum_Enforcer said:
I miss the FM radio and IR remote, but otherwise I'm happy with my 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Badelhas said:
Thanks for your opinions. What about the stereo front speakers, do you miss them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you still have two speakers, just not both front facing, but I think the 10 sounds better. I agree about the radio app, but there are other ways around that with apps so not an issue here.

What about the screen? Is it good or it's so and so only?
Cheers

Badelhas said:
What about the screen? Is it good or it's so and so only?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Compared to m8, screen of 10 is way superior, no contest there. Colors are more vibrant due to quad hd. Just think of it this way -htc 10 is the best overall and all around compared to other flagships of its year. When it comes to specific feature other brands may excel but the overall experience with 10 is better imo.

Ms_Trishlee said:
Compared to m8, screen of 10 is way superior, no contest there. Colors are more vibrant due to quad hd. Just think of it this way -htc 10 is the best overall and all around compared to other flagships of its year. When it comes to specific feature other brands may excel but the overall experience with 10 is better imo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read that it's difficult to read the screen in the sunlight but since the M8 is also not very good I probably won't notice any difference. The polarization issue worries me as well since I don't have a clue if my Ray-Ban classic aviators sunglasses are polarized or not.
Since there not a single physical store here in my town (or even my country, Portugal, from all I know) I don't have a way to test it.

No regrets here, have my 10 for a pretty long time now. Only miss the dual front facing speakers sometimes, the 10s are no match for the M8. But the 10 still sounds pretty good. Most impressive upgrade was the camera, best one HTC ever made. All in all, its the better phone, period.

Thank you all for your input. I guess I'll wait for the official announcement of the 11 and then decide but from the rumors I'll be buying the HTC 10
Cheers

I did the upgrade and I´m very happy with the 10. I´m a fan of HTC since the Qteck until now.
My advice? Don´t by HTC!!! Why? Because you live in Portugal and there is no assistance at all.
Conselho de amigo. Nunca tive problemas com esta marca (excepto com a bateria do HTC Diamond) e sempre os encomendei do Reino Unido.
Mas sem assistência de marca vou ter de mudar ..... infelizmente!

in term of holding in one hand M8 is better
no HTC 10 cant beat M8 in term of speakers
HTC 10 does not have anything that called "best". everything is decent.
Yes camera is better on HTC 10.
in term of speed sure HTC 10 will be faster but not a day and night. before I give my opinion, i also have Oneplus 3 in my hand. It blow my HTC 10 away.
I forgot what sot I had on my M8 but HTC 10 has a decent battery life.
If I were you I would wait for HTC U 11.

I'm really happy with the upgrade. The Camera is brilliant on the 10, honestly, it's no worse than the S7 quality wise, it just takes longer to focus. In addition, the screen on the 10 is brilliant, very well calibrated with great contrast for an LCD, not sure where all the criticism there is coming from.
Speed is great, audio through the headphone jack is some of the best I've heard from a phone, especially since there is no background hiss with my sensitive earphones. Fingerprint sensor is underrated, it makes things so much faster.
Speakers are ok, they're just as good in terms of quality but have a notch lower max volume. I personally really like the design and feel of the 10, it's probably the most solid phone I've ever held.
The only thing I regret is batterylife, I've gone from 4-5hrs screen-on on the M8 to around 2:30 to 3:30 on the 10. Quick Charge 3.0 does somewhat remedy this, I got a QC powerbank, but I would still prefer at least 4. Otherwise, fantastic phone, I would see no reason to upgrade to be honest, I didn't even need to upgrade from the M8 besides the camera and screen calibration.

10 is much better just for the hardware buttons instead of onscreen. Much wasted space. I used to think I liked the onscreen buttons but now it just looks useless and ridiculous. I could never go back to onscreen with no fingerprint sensor. I still love my M8 but when I use it I hate trying to unlock it with my fingerprint sensor, forgetting it doesn't have one. the wasted black bar with the HTC logo really makes it look like a design flaw. Other than FM radio and IR sensor, the 10 is much better in every way. I never thought the front facing speakers were all what people crack them up to be. The volume was still lower than other phones. And I actually compared them side by side before buying them, I actually thought the 10 was a tad louder with better clarity. The 10 is a perfect phone for me and get sick of people complaining about no waterproofing and no wireless charging. Both are just gimmicks for me, I never throw my phone in a toilet and if I did I have Uh Oh protection. And my 10 and M8 have had no problems getting wet, not like my Nexus phones did, they would malfunction just from sweating too much. I've owned quite a few HTC phones and have had no manufacturer defects or no reasons to ever use insurance or Uh Oh Protection. Both are well designed little tanks. All the HTC bashing I keep seeing is out of control. It is really messing up a great thing, HTC has been a great company I could never see me switching to Samjunk or iPhone. The 10 is a perfect phone for me but i will be disappointed if the U 11 doesn't build on that perfection and bust out with a new and improved HTC 10. The 10 charges so fast I do not need a wireless charger, plus most people cannot keep their phones out of their hands long enough to lay it down to charge anyway. Plus I would rather drop my phone next to a pool without shattering than drop it in a pool. Either way, Uh Oh protection has got our back.

I really don't get it when people say 10 has a bad or below average battery life compared to other flagships. I am getting an average of 6.5 to 7hrs screen on time on this phone, and this is pure stock android nougat

I came to the 10 straight from the m8. As others have mentioned, I do miss the IR blaster, but I kept my m8 so I just use it as a remote for the bedroom now.
Everything else is perfect, especially since virtually every developer that worked on stuff for the m8 migrated to the 10 as well.

Well after one year of debating with myself I just couldn't bear my distorting top speaker on the HTC one m8, which I otherwise still love, and finally ordered the HTC 10. Should get it Thursday.
I hope I don't regret it, I ordered the glacier silver since I've heard the nicks are not so noticeable. I'm coming from the gunmetal grey on the M8 and don't use a case, just a glass screen protector.
One question, please: I have the in ear headphones Xiaomi Piston 3.0. How do the bundled HTC Hi-res headphones compare? Are they any good?
Cheers

Badelhas said:
Well after one year of debating with myself I just couldn't bear my distorting top speaker on the HTC one m8, which I otherwise still love, and finally ordered the HTC 10. Should get it Thursday.
I hope I don't regret it, I ordered the glacier silver since I've heard the nicks are not so noticeable. I'm coming from the gunmetal grey on the M8 and don't use a case, just a glass screen protector.
One question, please: I have the in ear headphones Xiaomi Piston 3.0. How do the bundled HTC Hi-res headphones compare? Are they any good?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both sets, not an exact science but I prefer the HTC ones

Ms_Trishlee said:
I really don't get it when people say 10 has a bad or below average battery life compared to other flagships. I am getting an average of 6.5 to 7hrs screen on time on this phone, and this is pure stock android nougat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the complainants are gamers i suppose.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Ms_Trishlee said:
I really don't get it when people say 10 has a bad or below average battery life compared to other flagships. I am getting an average of 6.5 to 7hrs screen on time on this phone, and this is pure stock android nougat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
7h of SOT?! I never had more than 3,5h of SOT on any smartphone. On the M8 I had 3h normally but I have auto brightness, wifi, bluetooth and GPS on, and since I dont have Wifi at work I only use mobile data (LTE). Could that be the culprit or am I just having bad luck with the smartphones I´m getting?
Cheers

Is the HTC 10 still worth it?

So here where I live I can get an HTC 10 (used but in good condition) for around 160$ to 200$. Seems like good price for a 2016 flagship, with specs that's really pretty decent to this day.
However we all know specs don't mean much in used phones. I wanna know from your experience if you own one, the commons real life cons of this phone like: is it slow? Is the battery life bad and if so, can it be improved? Is the price that (160$-200$) actually a good price? Is the sound (headphones on and speakers) quality good? And so on....
What are the pros?
I would really like to know since I always wanted one but back then I didn't have the money to afford one.
Thanks in advance everyone!

Headphone quality is awesome. Speaker is on the low side. If I'm at the gym I can't hear my timer beeping. Also the sound quality on video recordings is amazing, so if you go out to any live shows and you try to record something, the sound will actually be good and not distorted at all.

No.
The battery dies after 2-3 year usage. Buying a HTC10 used is a really bad idea.

LG G7 One Review by HardwareCanucks.

TL;DW:
"It's like a dream come true": It has a great software experience, far superior compared to the one in the G7 ThinkQ. Apps open faster and it's more fluid in general.
LG still hasn't disclosed whether this phone will be released globally or not and at what price, although Canada is a confirmed market. One thing is certain: in the words of LG, this is a midrange device. Expect to be priced accordingly (400-700 USD)
Key differences between the G7 One and G7 ThinQ:
* The most important difference is that it runs stock android, since the phone is part of the Android One program. This means that it'll get 2 years of regular updates (Android 9.0 Pie update is confirmed for all Android One devices) plus 1 year extra of security updates.
* Another difference is its design and build. The G7 One features a black matte glass back that is much easier to grip as well as aluminum sides that match the rest of the body, instead of stainless steel sides like on the ThinQ.
* It only features the regular 16mpx f1.6 camera, not the wide angle one and the camera app doesen't have manual controls either. On the bright side, images have a lot less image processing in comparison.
* It has a Snapdragon 835, rather than the ThinQ's 845.
* It has 4 GB of RAM instead of 6 GB.
* It doesen't have wireless charging.
* This version is running Android 8.1, whereas the reviewer's ThinQ is still running 8.0.
Specs that stay the same way:
* 6.1 inch IPS display, 32bit HiFi Quad DAC, BoomBox speaker, fingerprint scanner, dedicated Google Assistant button, IP68 water and dust resistance, 3000 mAh battery, Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0.
What do you think about the G7 One? Would you buy it? Is it better or worse than the G7 ThinkQ?
~Aluminium X

Looks really good. A price from LG would be great!

maruchan78 said:
Looks really good. A price from LG would be great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i read somewhere that the phone is $799 unlocked CAD.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/10/09/lg-g7-one-fido-price/
I still feel like it's overprice.

imeem said:
i read somewhere that the phone is $799 unlocked CAD.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/10/09/lg-g7-one-fido-price/
I still feel like it's overprice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was considering buying it but I also feel it is overpriced. So I won't be getting it now.

imeem said:
i read somewhere that the phone is $799 unlocked CAD.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2018/10/09/lg-g7-one-fido-price/
I still feel like it's overprice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that's roughly 600 USD. Let's hope not.

Aluminium X said:
Wow, that's roughly 600 USD. Let's hope not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is.
https://www.rogers.com/web/totes/wireless/#/build-plan
Slide the tab to "no tab"

Well, I was interested until I saw the price.

Hi, i just got it from koodo here in Canada for 435$ total. I had a 125$ rebate cause I'm a long term customer, but that also implies that it's a 560$ phone. At that price I think we have a deal on our hands.

Mathegar said:
Hi, i just got it from koodo here in Canada for 435$ total. I had a 125$ rebate cause I'm a long term customer, but that also implies that it's a 560$ phone. At that price I think we have a deal on our hands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. That's less than 430 USD. It seems that currently price is flowing between 400-600 USD.
If it's not too much to ask, could you do a quick review about the phone? Namely about things that the reviewer didn't cover such as battery life, quad DAC, speaker performance, etc?

Aluminium X said:
Interesting. That's less than 430 USD. It seems that currently price is flowing between 400-600 USD.
If it's not too much to ask, could you do a quick review about the phone? Namely about things that the reviewer didn't cover such as battery life, quad DAC, speaker performance, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I've had the phone for about 2 weeks now. As for battery life, I cant complain. But I'm a light user. I'm getting a full 2 days of use between charges. Where I can provide some useful feed back is the speaker and dac. For the speaker, i would compare it to an ipad, maybe a little louder. It does fill a small room quite well if all you want to do is have background music. I'm an enthusiast "audiophile" so i wont be using it for this much, but its good to get the kids dancing and such. Obviously there is little to no base, but it does get surprisingly loud.
Ok, for the DAC, this surprised me. Its drives my 50 ohm HD558's with ease. The soundstage is broad and clear allowing you to listen to each instrument independently. There is lots of definition in lower frequencies. A really great listening experience. Its like having one of the DragonFly, or FIO, etc. USB DAC/AMPs built right into the phone. Plus, so far im only listening to 320kbs spotify downloads. It supports flack, etc. For someone who listens to lots of music, this is a very nice surprise. I was expecting some "bass boost bull****" but no, this is a legit DAC for listening to music the way it was recorded. For fun, I plugged in my HD6xx and its clearly not powerful enough to drive 300 ohms adequately. But no phone or normally priced ubs dac/amp can. So for the 435$ CAD i paid, i feel i got some great value here given the phone's performance as a music player.
Other thoughts, screen is great. Colors are good, viewing angles are great. Nice and bright. Back is a little slippy for my tastes. Camera app right now is bare bones, reds are over saturated but it works just fine. No "portrait" mode but thats coming apparently... If you want photography, get a DSLR. But if you XDA guys can get the google camera working on it... that would be nice Its plenty fast at opening and navigating apps.
Hope this helps.
o7

Mathegar said:
Hi,
I've had the phone for about 2 weeks now. As for battery life, I cant complain. But I'm a light user. I'm getting a full 2 days of use between charges. Where I can provide some useful feed back is the speaker and dac. For the speaker, i would compare it to an ipad, maybe a little louder. It does fill a small room quite well if all you want to do is have background music. I'm an enthusiast "audiophile" so i wont be using it for this much, but its good to get the kids dancing and such. Obviously there is little to no base, but it does get surprisingly loud.
Ok, for the DAC, this surprised me. Its drives my 50 ohm HD558's with ease. The soundstage is broad and clear allowing you to listen to each instrument independently. There is lots of definition in lower frequencies. A really great listening experience. Its like having one of the DragonFly, or FIO, etc. USB DAC/AMPs built right into the phone. Plus, so far im only listening to 320kbs spotify downloads. It supports flack, etc. For someone who listens to lots of music, this is a very nice surprise. I was expecting some "bass boost bull****" but no, this is a legit DAC for listening to music the way it was recorded. For fun, I plugged in my HD6xx and its clearly not powerful enough to drive 300 ohms adequately. But no phone or normally priced ubs dac/amp can. So for the 435$ CAD i paid, i feel i got some great value here given the phone's performance as a music player.
Other thoughts, screen is great. Colors are good, viewing angles are great. Nice and bright. Back is a little slippy for my tastes. Camera app right now is bare bones, reds are over saturated but it works just fine. No "portrait" mode but thats coming apparently... If you want photography, get a DSLR. But if you XDA guys can get the google camera working on it... that would be nice Its plenty fast at opening and navigating apps.
Hope this helps.
o7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input, really appreciated!

I'm really tempted by this phone. I can have it on a Koodo tab for 360$ which is a good deal.
I'm looking at the MIA2 as well, but this phone seams superior in almost every spec except the storage.
The only thing that makes me hesitate is that the xda forum is almost empty :/
I've had a weird experience with my LGG3 also (It was great for the 1st year and then it became really unstable, and network was always disconnecting), so i'm also a bit hesitant towards LG.
After multiple weeks how is the battery life ? and the camera ?

I get 24-hour battery life through my average use. A couple of phone calls, lots of browsing, some YouTube videos. Not sure of the SOT, but coming from my 3 year old Moto X2, which was never great at 2300 mAh, this LG 3000 is much better.

Can the bootloader be unlocked easily? LG phones typically don't make it easy for Canadians, not sure if Android One changes that for this phone.
Thanks!

goofball2k said:
Can the bootloader be unlocked easily? LG phones typically don't make it easy for Canadians, not sure if Android One changes that for this phone.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's possible