It seems every significant brand is now looking at phones under the magic sweet spot of $599 yet throwing in so much more value.
And it is a realisation by these makers that less than 10% of phones sold are in the >$1000 price bracket and that recent technology advances in screens, memory and processors means that the sub-$600 "premium" class is now a possibility and the new volume battle ground.
Thomas Dexmier, HTC Australia and New Zealand head of Sales and Marketing, said, “Every aspect of the HTC One X10 is premium, except the price. Not only does it look sleek and stylish, it delivers on performance and convenience at a price that’s among the best value in the market today. The handset has been carefully crafted to achieve the perfect balance between an elegant and rich design that will satisfy the style needs of our consumers, providing top of the range performance at a mid-range price point."
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HCT ONE x10 – Australian website.
- Screen: 5.5”, 1920 x 1080, super LCD (HTC term), 401ppi, Gorilla Glass (unspecified), 72.1% screen-to-body ratio. This is pretty much standard fare for this bracket.
- Processor: Mediatek MT6755 Helio P10 Octa-core (4x1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 and 4x1.0 GHz Cortex-A53), Mali-T860MP2. The stigma of a non-Qualcomm chip is long gone and Mediatek are offering comparable processors to the Qualcomm 6XX. On the minus side, it is a 28nm chip released in 2014 – a long way from the 10nm chips used in 2017 flagships for speed, low heat and power use.
- RAM/Storage/microSD: 3GB RAM, 32GB storage and 2TB OTG and microSD support.
- Comms: Wi-Fi N dual band (not the latest AC MU-MIMO standard so expect slower Wi-Fi speeds), Bluetooth 4.2 LE, Wi-Di, DLNA, NFC, GPS, fingerprint sensor.
- Audio: 3.5mm jack, single speaker, HTC BoomSound tuned, dual mic with noise cancellation.
- Rear Camera: 16MP, 1.0μm pixels, f/2.0 aperture, 26.0 mm focal length (80° wide angle), auto-focus, dual LED flash, 1080 @30fps. HTC pioneered big pixels (1.4μm or greater) for low light photography. These specs indicate good natural light performance but with f/2.0 and 1.0μm pixels it will struggle in low light. No mention of HDR.
- Front camera: 8MP, 1.12μm pixels, fixed focus, f/2.2 aperture, 23.0 mm focal length (86° wide angle). A standard camera for the price – no mention of screen flash and fixed focus means getting the camera just the right distance from you face.
- LTE Cat 6 (300/50Mbps): 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38 and 40 – fine for Australia but won’t cover 42 when rolled out by Optus and NBN.
- Battery: 4000mAh, micro-USB 2.0 – claimed 2 day use and 5V/2A fast charge (but that seems difficult given it does not have fast charge multi-volt/amp listings.
- Warranty: 1 year.
- Price: $549 outright from JB Hi-Fi or $5 per month over 24 months on the Vodaphone Red $40 plan.
Informed iTWire readers will comment that there is nothing special about the specifications, but what they often forget is that we are comparing it with mid-range, not flagship phones and as such these specifications are relatively standard for that paradigm.
