The flagship HTC 10 is now official and it looks amazing

While it has been leaked to the point that everyone who was anyone knew what it looked like, HTC’s project Perfume has now been officially revealed in a launch in London as the HTC 10.

The HTC 10 in all its glory

The successor to last year’s HTC M9 and its sibling the M9+ bears revamped aesthetics that make it look visually distinct from its predecessor though it doesn’t depart far from the One series’ design DNA with more pronounced chamfering across its backplate and glass that gently merges into the chamfered edges somewhat akin to the One A9.

The HTC 10 comes in three different hues with a beautifully machined unibody metal casing

That’s not all, it’s also slimmer, thinner and lighter than the M9+ at 9mm and 161g in weight. According to HTC, they’ve made the phone even tougher than before with enhanced survivability. It’s been rated to continue working from -20’C to a scorching 60’C and still keep ticking along nicely. They’ve also claimed that it survived over 1000 drop, scratch and corrosion tests which is more than what the average phone would go through in its lifetime.

The HTC 10s chamfering is more pronounced than its predecessor the M9 while being lighter, slimmer and packing way more punch

In terms of hardware, the HTC 10 sports a 5.2-inch Super LCD5 touchscreen with 1,440 x 2,560 pixels and 565ppi sheathed in Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Naturally, a fingerprint/home button takes up pride of place at the base of the display. Like the Nexus 6P, the HTC 10 uses a USB Type C port.

The 10 runs Android Marshmallow on a Snapdragon 820 2.15GHz processor and pairs this up with 4GB RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of expandable storage. HTC’s Sense user interface has also undergone a drastic colonic and has much less bloatware than before with a new look and feel that they’ve dubbed as ‘Freestyle layout’. This means you can plonk icons, stickers and widgets on whatever and wherever you want on your screen instead of being forced to pigeonhole them into a grid.

On the entertainment front, the 10 retains the One series’ famous front-facing BoomSound Hi-Fi speakers – one at the base of the phone and another just above the display on the front bezel. Appropriate, seeing as it supports Apple’s AirPlay streaming tech, the first Android phone to do so as well as being certified to play 24-bit Hi-Res audio both capturing it and playing it. Like the A9, it even sports a built-in DAC for superior audio quality.

Perfume – HTC 10 – Lifestyle Images.

What makes the 10 exceed expectations though is its cameras. The rear sports a 12-MP UltraPixel sensor with an f/1.8mm aperture, laser autofocus along with optical image stabilisation to take both snaps at 4K video. Firing it up takes just 0.6 seconds and it also supports RAW format too. The front of the 10 is where it knocks the ball out of the park as it has a 5-MP Ultrapixel sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and – impressively – optical image stabilisation. How good is the HTC 10’s camera performance? Well, imaging gurus DxoMark rated it as high as the impressive Samsung Galaxy Edge S7 at 88 points.

The rear camera on the HTC 10 comes with optical image stabilisation for judder free shots and 4K video

Keeping the whole thing running along is a slightly larger 3,000mAh battery that supports fast charging so that you can get a 50% charge in just 30 minutes. Here’s the clincher though, some regions may get a slightly different Snapdragon processor, the Snapdragon 652 instead of the 820 and, like before, storage sizes and colour availability may vary. The full monty includes a pair of top-shelf Hi-res audio headphones and a 3.0 Rapid charger to go with the phone though this won’t necessarily be the case with all regions. There’s also no word on price yet globally but the HTC 10 will come in Carbon Grey, Glacial Silver and Topaz Gold. We’ll let you know once we get more details from HTC. Till then, ogle the snaps and catch their intro video below.