R
Ryan Rabea
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HTC isn’t doing too great right now. Last year, the company saw a 35% sales drop year-over-year, forcing its CEO to assure fans that the brand would never go away. This assurance is nice, I suppose, but a company’s main goal is to turn a profit and HTC hasn’t been able to do that for quite some time now. Many point to the underwhelming One M9 as a big reason for the brutal 2015. The phone looked basically identical to its predecessor, and that dastardly overheating Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 scared a lot of potential buyers away.
So can the HTC 10 turn around the company’s fortunes?
In the first ever Talk Android Podcast, our unanimous answer to that question was “no.” The phone is coming in way too late, and we don’t expect too much from HTC after the One M9, and the exorbitantly pricey One A9. But if they are going to prove us all wrong, here is what I think HTC needs to do.
Design overhaul
Easily the best part about buying an HTC phone, since the One M7, is the gorgeous design. While Samsung and LG were still tinkering with plastic, HTC was making gorgeous aluminum unibody phones. While HTC is still pumping out beauties, I would argue that the design has gone quite stale. The One M9 did almost nothing to differentiate itself from the One M8. Sure, the One M9 only has one camera on the back that is square not round, and there is that large IR blaster on the top, but besides that it is extremely difficult to distinguish between the two. Seriously, even HTC itself screwed up last year and posted a picture of the M8 on its twitter page and called it the M9. HTC has to differentiate.
I guess HTC must have heard that its devices were looking too similar to themselves, so with the release of the HTC One A9 the company decided to change up the design. The problem? The One A9 looks eerily similar to the iPhone. Yes I know many of you hardcore HTC fans will yell at me and claim that it was originally Apple who stole from HTC, a point that I will concede. The One M7 did have the metal unibody broken up by the antenna lines before the iPhone had them. That is something Apple certainly borrowed from HTC, but with the One M8 and the One M9 afterwards you could still clearly tell it was an HTC manufactured device with its own personality completely separate form the iPhone. With the One A9, in my opinion, it looks like HTC just tried to make an Android version of the iPhone. I am not saying the One A9 isn’t a great device I am just saying that it looks like HTC, to turn around its struggling business, isn’t leading with design anymore. It is merely following in the footsteps of other successful companies and I don’t believe that’s how you turn your company around. HTC used to be a leader here, and I think with the HTC 10 they need to reclaim that mantle.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen with the HTC 10. If recent leaks from Evan Blass are any indication, the phone is going heavily resemble the iPhone 6S. This is a darn shame, and I really hope the leaks aren’t true. I hope the HTC 10 absolutely wows me like the M7 did a few years ago. This looks like its just a pip dream, but hey one can have hope, right?
Better screen
I know many people are satisfied with a Full HD (1920×1080) display. There are pros to having a 1080p display such as better battery life. And on a screen that small do we really need Quad HD? In my opinion, on a company’s flagship phone, yes, yes we do need Quad HD. A company’s flagship is suppose to be the cream of the crop. There are literally thousands of phones out there to choose from, so companies have to give us the absolute best of the best to convince us to purchase their phone.
With the One M9, HTC didn’t do that. While LG gave us Quad HD a whole year before them with the G3, and Samsung half a year before them with the Galaxy Note 4, HTC played it safe and packed basically the same screen as the One M8 into the One M9. In a year where LG and Samsung came out swinging with build quality on par with that of HTC, incremental upgrades were not enough. The One M9 floundered in the face of the competition and got beat at its own game. This year HTC needs to give us a screen at least on par with the competition.
Top-notch camera
The One M9’s Camera just couldn’t compete with the G4 and Galaxy S6. In almost all metrics, their cameras blew away the One M9, and this year HTC faces even stiffer competition. If you head over to DxOMark’s mobile camera ranking page you will see Samsung’s newest addition to the Galaxy family is currently ranked as the best mobile phone camera that money can buy you right now. When they eventually get their hands on an LG G5, I expect that to be ranked up there pretty high also.
If rumors are correct then HTC is going to be delivering a “world First, world Class” camera experience. HTC has some tough acts to follow, and if they want to convince us to buy its latest offering, HTC really is going to have to deliver here and dethrone Samsung.
Water resistance
Since losing my Galaxy Note 3 to a dip in the sink while doing the dishes, I have a personal stake in phones coming with water resistance. To me, this just seems to me like a feature that should start to come standard on all flagships nowadays.What boggles my mind is that HTC used to waterproof devices, and they were even among the first manufactures to waterproof a device without the need for that silly little flap over the charging port. They did this all the way back in 2014 with the HTC Desire EYE. This phone was waterproof without the flap even before Sony started doing it, and HTC did this to a mid-range device.
HTC, why not do this on your newest flagship?
Biometric security features
While Samsung was on to its third flagship with a fingerprint scanner — Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S6 — the One M9 still did not have one. I understand a lot of people see these as an unnecessary feature, but again I think flagships that cost hundreds of dollars need to pack in the features to get consumers on board. At the very least, the HTC 10 needs to have a fingerprint scanner, but if HTC wants to wow people I think they should take it even further. I want to see the HTC 10 come with iris scanning technology.
I know I know, this probably seems like a gimmick, but in my humble opinion not only does it give users another layer of security, but I think it is something that can help sell the M10 based on wow factor alone. If HTC puts this technology into this upcoming phone, and advertises it heavily, I think it will really make people take notice. Imagine sitting with a group of your friends and unlocking your phone with your eye. They are going to be amazed, and ask what the heck kind of phone that is. I think this is a feature, that while it won’t alone be able to sell the phone, will get people talking about it.
A price point we can’t say no to
The One A9 is a respectable mid-range device, and hey it was even pretty good looking, (if you are in to that whole it looks like an iPhone thing) but the price was absolutely ridiculous. Why would I buy a mid-range One A9 when I can get Motorola’s all around better Moto X Pure for $100 less? The price point just didn’t make sense to me, especially when Motorola was redefining how cheap a full featured flagship phone could cost.
I understand HTC needs to turn a profit while at the same time packing in features that can take down the competition, but I am just hoping they can do so in an attractively priced package. We have seen Motorola and Google do it, and I am hoping HTC can to. If the HTC 10 can significantly undercut Samsung and LG’s latest offerings while also delivering specs that can match or best, I think it’s going to be hard for consumers to say turn away.
Closing
To be brutally honest, I do not have very high expectations for the next HTC flagship. I just feel like the One M9 was a half-hearted attempt at a phone, and the One A9 was just completely uninspired. Maybe HTC could prove me very wrong and this could be an incredible phone, and if they put in all the features I just listed above I really think they will.
Come comment on this article: What I need to see in the HTC 10
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