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HTC 10- HTC’s First Phone with USB Type-C

With the HTC 10, HTC has packed a lot of features in a flagship phone as its tries to come back from disappointing sales from past models due to heavy competition.  While HTC has shifted focus with its "bet the company" Vive virtual reality headset strategy, smartphones are still a key piece of HTC's business.  HTC has also make a clean name break, getting rid of the past 'One', 'M' and 'A' nomenclatures used by the HTC One M8, HTC One M9, and HTC One A9, and simplified the name to just HTC 10.

Like the LG G5, the HTC 10 is one of the first waves of Android phones bringing USB Type-C and Power Delivery to more mainstream consumers.  However, unlike earlier USB Type-C Android phones like the LG Google Nexus 5X and the Huawei Google Nexus 6P, HTC decided to use Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 technology on the HTC 10.   The HTC 10 also supports USB Power Delivery but only charges at 10 Watts (5 Volts @ 2 Amps).

The HTC 10 is also the first Android phone with USB Type-C that supports USB 3.1 Gen (5 Gb/s) rather than USB 2.0 (480 Mb/s).

Starting with the HTC One A9, HTC stopped using MHL after using it on the HTC One M9 and previous models. The HTC 10 like the LG G5  supports DisplayPort over USB Type-C.

The HTC 10 also pushes the Hi-Res audio strategy being used by Sony on its recent Walkman digital music players and Xperia phones, in a way replacing a premium audio feature that HTC's enjoyed in the past with Beats Audio.

I purchased the HTC 10 in Taiwan, which is where HTC itself is based.

Opening up the HTC 10 box revealed a Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 power adapter, Hi-Res audio earbuds, and a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable.  Unlike the newer LeEco phones which removed the 3.5mm audio jack altogether in favor of USB Type-C, the HTC 10 retains the 3.5 mm jack.

The HTC 10's metal unibody feels really solid and certainly evokes a premium product feel and we look forward to doing a bunch of testing on this product.

Using the USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs with the Granite River Labs USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester, we generate the following test results for the HTC 10 for a quick view of the phone's support of power.

The USB Power Test App first negotiates a power contract emulating the Source to determine the Power Delivery Sink capabilities of the HTC 10. The USB Power Test App then reports out the voltage and current supported by the phone for each of the Source PDO's advertised to the phone.

Sink Cap.	Voltage (V)	Current (A)
5V	5.13	0.02
6V	5.11	2.22
7V	5.07	0.47
8V	5.11	2.27
9V	5.06	0.47
10V	5.1	2.22
11V	5.09	0.47
12V	5.11	2.25
13V	5.09	0.47
14V	5.11	2.21
15V	5.08	0.47
16V	5.11	2.24
17V	5.08	0.47
18V	5.11	2.25
19V	5.07	0.47
20V	5.1	2.25

The USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs also produces a voltage, current trace plot which graphically shows the voltage and current requested by the HTC 10 for each advertised Source PDO throughout the power negotiation.