HTC 10 Lifestyle: How it fares against the Galaxy S7
We look at the key highlights in the HTC 10 Lifestyle and where it stands in comparison to Samsung's flagship Galaxy S7
Every phone maker comes with a smartphone which showcases its best features. HTC 10 is the latest smartphone from the Taiwanese manufacturer which fits that description. Not only has HTC let go of the ‘One’ moniker, it has also tweaked the looks and made several under-the-hood changes that makes it one of the most powerful and good-looking smartphones in the market right now. However, the variant listed on the India website is called HTC 10 Lifestyle, and it runs a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and will have only 32GB of storage. The rest of the features are the same.
Design
The phone’s brushed metal exterior gives it the look and aura of a high-end flagship. But, the phone weighs 161g and is 9mm thick, which is far from sleek or light. Even the Galaxy S7 which has a glass back and metal frame weighs 152g and is 7.9mm thick. The all-metal exterior makes the HTC 10 more robust, but in terms of looks, the Galaxy S7 is way ahead.
Processor
The HTC 10 Lifestyle is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM. It is a mid-range processor and was used in Vivo V3 Max, which is priced at ₹ 23,980. HTC isn’t the only player that has opted for an inferior processor instead of the Snapdragon 820 processor to cut cost. Samsung used its proprietary Exynos 8890 octa-core chipset in the Galaxy S7 in the units sold in India.
USB type C
The smartphone comes with USB type-C standard which supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology. It allows faster power transfer which means the phone will take less time to charge compared to smartphones based on USB 3.0. The other benefit of USB type-C is that it allows faster file transfer as well. Most importantly, users don’t have to worry about the orientation of the USB cable as both the sides look the same. Though Samsung Galaxy S7 doesn’t have a USB type C, it allows fast charging through a proprietary technology.
Display
The HTC 10 Lifestyle has a 5.2-inch LCD display with a screen resolution of 2560x1440p. There is a layer of Corning’s newest Gorilla Glass 4 to protect it from scratches. The Galaxy S7 has a slightly smaller 5.1-inch AMOLED screen but the screen resolution is the same. This means the Galaxy S7 has higher pixel density (577ppi) compared to the HTC 10’s 565ppi. Also, an AMOLED screen handles black levels better and offers brighter picture quality; hence, Galaxy S7 has a sharper and brighter looking screen of the two.
Software and UI
The HTC 10 Lifestyle runs Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with HTC’s proprietary Sense UI over it. Its key highlights are news and social media aggregator Blinkfeed, Pocket mode and Sensor Hub for activity tracking. Sense UI looks more sophisticated and polished, but when it comes to features and customisation, Samsung’s TouchWiz has a clear advantage. Not only has Samsung redesigned the interface, but it has also reduced the number of pre-loaded apps. This means less clutter, and less stress on resources.
While the operator-linked phones would cost less, the unlocked version of HTC 10 will cost $699 in the US, booking for which has started. The date of availability and price for HTC 10 Lifestyle are yet to be announced in India. Though HTC hasn’t said anything on which variant will be launched first the fact that HTC 10 Lifestyle is listed ahead of HTC 10 is an indication that the former might be launched first. Last year HTC skipped One M 9 and came out with One M 9+ in India. The smartphone comes in gold, grey and silver shades. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 costs ₹ 48,899.
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