The HTC 10 Review
by Joshua Ho on September 19, 2016 8:00 AM ESTVideo Performance
Now that we've discussed how the HTC 10 does on still images we can go over how well it does for video recording. There have been a lot of cases where a smartphone can take great images but the video quality is often appalling and pretty much an afterthrought. In order to try and see how the HTC 10 does we can start by looking at the kind of encode settings that the HTC 10 uses.
| HTC 10 Video Encode Settings | ||||
| Video | Audio | |||
| 1080p30 | 20 Mbps H.264 Baseline | 192 Kbps, 48 KHz AAC 24 bit, 96 KHz FLAC |
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| 4K30 | 56 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 192 Kbps, 48 KHz AAC 24 bit, 96 KHz FLAC |
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| 720p120 | 24 Mbps H.264 Baseline | 192 Kbps, 48 KHz AAC | ||
Right off the bat things are a little concerning here. For some reason HTC is using AVC Baseline for encode in 1080p30 and 1080p60 is absent altogether. I'm not sure why this is but really neither of those things should be the case. 720p120 also uses AVC Baseline which really shouldn't be the case. Interestingly enough, HTC has also included the ability to record video with FLAC audio which results in an mkv file output instead of an mp4 but as far as I can tell nothing else seems to change as far as video encode settings go.
| 1080p30 Video |
In 1080p30 video HTC manages to pull off an interesting trick, which is that their video is actually properly stabilized instead of whatever is going on with the Galaxy S7 and G5. I would say that the color is also a little more accurate from what I saw at the time of recording but without a proper ColorChecker chart I can't really prove this assertion. At this point the HTC 10 and OnePlus 3 both have strange issues with artifacting around the sky that makes me wonder whether the Snapdragon 820 has some sort of issue with the encode blocks leading to such poor quality. Audio quality with FLAC is just clearly superior here though.
| 4K30 Video |
In 4K30 the HTC 10 unfortunately loses the software stabilization so the result is basically just as shaky as the Galaxy S7 and by extension the Note7. Even using AVC High profile I can still see strange artifacts in the sky which is really strange. Audio capture continues to be better as far as suppressing wind noise goes than Galaxy S7, likely due to the use of dual level microphones similar to what we saw in the One M7. I would say color rendition is more accurate here as well but this is a subjective observation. The iPhones 6s continues to be one of the best phones for 4K30 capture almost entirely because it actually has the ISP throughput to process 4K video properly.
| Slow Motion Video |
In 720p120 the HTC 10 really starts to show its weakness. I suspect we're dealing with some kind of sensor limitation here because 4K30 is possible but for some reason 720p240 isn't. Color rendition is mildly cooler here as well relative to the Galaxy S7 but detail isn't great here and obviously it isn't going to be able to capture motion as well as anything with 240 FPS capture. The iPhone 6s would obviously beat it here by virtue of its 1080p120 capture.
Overall, video capture is somewhat disappointing on the HTC 10. It definitely isn't unusable and the FLAC audio is a compelling addition along with proper 1080p30 video stabilization, but things like poor slow motion capture and some strange artifacting and poor encode profiles mar the experience. Relative to something like the Galaxy S7 I would say that 1080p30 and 4K30 capture are clearly superior, but 720p120 and the utter lack of 1080p60 video means that depending upon what you use the camera for the HTC 10 can end up falling short of the competition. 720p240, 1080p60 for next year as well as AVC High Profile across the board would be great to see and would resolve a lot of the issues here.
Looking at the camera overall, I think the HTC 10 is very much the equal of the Galaxy S7 as far as camera goes. The Galaxy S7 and Note7 have incredible user experience due to the sheer speed of capture and focus, but the image quality, oil painting-esque processing, and somewhat off color rendition in a lot of cases means that the HTC 10 can give you a better result if you can tap to focus properly and possibly adjust the exposure metering. It definitely could use some work to clean up the details and loose ends, but HTC has finally shipped a camera that they can be proud of and lives up to the promise of the marketing and specs.
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asfletch - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
Preach! Removable battery is big reason why I narrowed my choices recently to Note 4 or LG G5/V10, and only the fear of bootlooping (again a longevity issue, seems to happen to many people after several months of ownershup) put me off the LGs. I will only buy sealed-battery phones in future if I absolutely have to, and I would love to know how hard it'd be to change their batteries.Impulses - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
1. Agreed... But I can easily imagine logistical reasons why AT isn't allowed to open (and potentially destroy) review samples or personally bought devices, so we'll probably have to find this info elsewhere. I'm glad my N5 was easy to open even tho I never thought I'd keep it for 3 years.2. This is subjective, how hard is it to occasionally do some cleanup? Yeah, I know people actually toss phones over things as simple as full storage but c'mon, this is AT. I can see how a couple of comments about SD removal would be useful, tho I rarely took mine out when I had phones with them (specially after USB OTG and faster Wi-Fi came of age), phone has never been my primary camera either tho.
3. This is actually way too much of a moving target, and Samsung has actually been amongst the best at keeping non-carrier hobbled flagship models updated. HTC has probably been more consistent if you go farther back than the last 2-3 years tho... AT's forte has never been on the software side anyway.
4. Even more of a moving target with different carriers imposing different policies... And probably less relevant to the mass market. I don't think having a rooted Android device is nearly as attractive as it used to be, various drivers issue tend to make user/dev ROMs a dice roll when you're talking about unsupported Android versions.
If you care that much about that stuff you'll either research it at a place like Xda or you'll just get a Nexus, IMO. FWIW I think HTC still has far more user friendly policy regarding bootloader unlock than Samsung does.
AT phone reviews have always seemed to straddle an enthusiast/mass market line... They dive deep into hardware but only so much as in how it directly affects the user, and I don't think any big time site will ever cover things like how easy it is to repair, mod, etc. Just the nature of the beast, it's post because of the manufacturer relationships but also logistics. There's places like iFixit, XDA, and forums for that...
Zoomer - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
The SD tray is similar to the nanoSIM tray. Use a paperclip. It's more of a install once and forget kind of thing. Just pop in a 128 or 256 fast SD and forget about it. Far easier to transfer files by connecting a USB cable, which incidentally charges it.sevenmack - Friday, September 30, 2016 - link
Additionally, on the matter of two MicroSD ports: Most people barely use the one they have, often using a 32gb or 64gb card that is plenty for them. Enthusiasts such as myself would love two MicroSD ports, but I would also rather have a 500gb MicroSD card that would work for all my needs.As for teardowns to see how easy it is to replace a battery: Again, most people (including many enthusiasts) would never bother doing that. They would just buy another phone when the two-year update period comes up. Besides, iFixit provides ample enough information on that.
Fidelator - Monday, September 26, 2016 - link
You should be hired for this site, your thoughts are above and beyondVagabondjonez - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - link
I definitely agree with you 👍eclectech - Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - link
I've had my HTC 10 for months but I learned a lot reading this review. Thanks to your review, I also disabled Chrome and Google Photos, once I found the APKs for HTC Internet and HTC Gallery.Gunbuster - Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - link
Let me just type this out: Six.Hundred.DollarsJust got a BLU R1 HD today. $60, the end of ridiculous phone prices is nearing the end. It's not sustainable. I'm a techie and this phone is good enough. What makes a $600+ phone 10 times better?
ACM.1899 - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
Most buyers aren't techie....most of them are 15-30 years old that want to play HD games, watch FHD videos, listen to hq music...they want the best (based on Media or Gsmarena) and don't care that much about the money...they go to a store and all they can see is SAMSUNG and APPLE or let's say huawei...huawei used to be cheap, but now?...not much.
i think the only factor that would make a phone 10 times better (for "ordinary" buyers) is that it lasts 10 times(or whatever time that compensate the money).
look at HTC HD2 ,recently i saw one that could run Android 7...but NOT that good or smooth or enough ram left to run something else and it's a 7 years old phone. and we know that those who flash a custom rom or even root their phone is nothing compared to "ordinary" buyers.
btw in some countries you're stuck with whatever your carriers sell you.
ACM.1899 - Thursday, September 22, 2016 - link
And let's not forget about "Capitalism"