After watching Samsung and LG unveil their latest flagship smartphones, HTC is feeling very confident about its upcoming HTC One M10.
All eyes were on Samsung and LG at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, as both companies revealed their 2016 flagship smartphones. Samsung delivered the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, which put much of its focus on addressing the biggest criticisms it faced when it unveiled the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge at last year's show.
The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge were the beginning of a new design philosophy at Samsung, which matched its largest rival, Apple in delivering flagship smartphones built from premium materials like metal and glass. The Galaxy S6 Edge stole the show at MWC 2015 and was awarded top honors for "Best New Handset, Tablet, or Device."
While Samsung was highly praised for its new design elements, it was also highly criticized for abandoning key features it offered in previous Galaxy S flagship smartphones in its quest to compete with Apple, which include microSD expansion, removable battery, and waterproof case. The company was able to bring back two of those features, microSD expansion and IP68 certified dust and water resistant casing for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, in addition to high end specs like Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 820 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 12-megapixel rear camera with dual-pixel sensors.
LG matched Samsung in the specs and design departments with the LG G5 by including a metal and glass design but is also betting on standing apart from its rival by maintaining a user replaceable battery and packing in 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel cameras on the rear of the device, in addition to an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter.
The Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and LG G5 have scored early high marks in the camera department but former smartphone king, HTC doesn't seem too impressed and is confident that its upcoming HTC One M10 will topple the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and LG G5.
"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," said HTC CFO Chialin Chang in an interview with CNET.
While HTC wouldn't mention the HTC One M10 by name, it's been widely reported that the smartphone would address camera complaints from last year's flagship HTC One M9 by using an improved 12-megapixel UltraPixel camera on the rear of the device.
Recent reports have also suggested that HTC may try to undercut the starting price of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5, which both include 32 GB of internal storage, by offering consumers a less expensive 16 GB option HTC One M10. Potential HTC One M10 owners shouldn't worry about the low internal storage, as the smartphone will feature a microSD expansion slot to further increase its space.
HTC is rumored to make the HTC One M10 official at an event in April. As always, we'll keep you posted on any new details regarding the smartphone as they become available.
