

We all love us an underdog. But the story of HTC doesn't quitequalify it for the role. At the height of its power, the Androidpioneer was responsible for one out of four smartphones sold in theUnited States, and not by accident. But like so many other of thegiants of old—think Nokia, BlackBerry—the company's fortunes tooka turn for the worse. Rock bottom was last year in August, when theonce high-flying brand's stock was trading below cash reserves,meaning it was essentially worthless in the eyes of investors.



Things have gotten better since. But HTC is still an unwillingprisoner of the spiral of death, with every successive failed, oreven indecisive, quarter making a resurfacing next time around evenless likely. And despite the initial success of its new Vive virtualreality arm, one has to wonder just how much sweat and worry—butalso passion—went into the planning of its latest flagship phone,the HTC 10 , to ensure a success.



With the 10, HTC must proveto the world that its wares are worth the dough. And theirs have beena tough sale lately, largely because of objective shortcomings thatthe HTC 'style' of doing things—a style we've always been attractedto—wasn't enough to cover for. So the 10 needs to be rock-solid bothon the inside and outside, while also doing a splendid job getting usthrough a busy day of life acrobatics.



Let's see how it does.





Design

Design isn't just about looks. The HTC 10 proves it.





Display

Better than most.



