There’s a new phone in town. It’s by HTC, it’s powered by Android, and it’s (apparently) the fastest phone ever to hit Sprint’s network. It’s called the Bolt, and right off the bat you may recognize it from HTC’s earlier handset, the 10. These devices share a very similar aluminum design with chamfered edges and minimalist look. But don’t let looks deceive you, as these handsets are very different in a number of important way.
Addressing the elephant in the room, Sprint touts the HTC Bolt as being the fastest smartphone on their network to date. This is due to the phone supporting Sprint’s LTE Plus Network and featuring compatibility with 3×20 MHz Carrier Aggregation thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X10 LTE modem. Exact data speeds aren’t shared, however Sprint says sharing and streaming content online is “vivid” with the Bolt (whatever that means).
It’s worth noting that these supposed excellent data speeds aren’t present across the country, but rather in Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio. It’s unclear when Sprint will expand their new LTE Plus Network to other areas of the US, but we’ll let you know when we hear more.
Getting into the specs of the handset, HTC’s Bolt features a 5.5-inch Quad-HD display (a full 0.3 inches bigger than the HTC 10’s screen) covered in Gorilla Glass 5, last year’s Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage via microSD card, a pill-shaped fingerprint reader on the front, and a 3200mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charging 2.0. Fortunately, the Bolt launches with Android 7.0 Nougat, so you’ll be getting the latest features from Google’s mobile OS with this handset.
Unfortunately with the Bolt, HTC is dropping the headphone jack. However, the company tries to make up for it by provi
ding users HTC BoomSound Adaptive Audio, a technology that “scans your ears and the ambient noise around you to adjust audio output to suit your personal hearing capabilities.” There’s also support for Hi-Res 24-bit audio, so at least you’re not getting run-of-the-mill sound quality. And while there aren’t any front-facing speakers, HTC does provide users with a pair of earbuds with a USB-C connector on the bottom (to eliminate the need for an adapter) that work with the new BoomSound tech HTC built into the Bolt. Of course, only real-world testing will determine if any of this technology is worth it in the end, so stay tuned.
Camera wise, HTC built a 16MP rear sensor into the Bolt, while the front-facing shooter measures in at 8MP. Starting with the rear camera, this sensor features optical image stabilization (OIS), phase detection auto focus, and 4K video capture with a 720p/120fps slow-mo capture. On the front, the selfie cam features auto HDR, a screen flash, and “Super-wide panorama mode” that’ll allow a group of people to fit into a single selfie.
In addition, the HTC Bolt is IP57 certified, meaning it can withstand water. HTC touts the device as the “first water-resistant aluminum unibody Android phone,” so I’m sure plenty of YouTubers will be doing water tests soon.
André Lönne, president of HTC America, had this to say about the new HTC Bolt.
“The HTC 10 released earlier this year was the most advanced smartphone we’ve ever built, so we knew we had to raise the bar even higher for Sprint’s most advanced ever network,” said André Lönne, president of HTC America. “For HTC Bolt, we took everything that was so great about the HTC 10 and made it even better. We took the award-winning design and made it water-resistant. We took the awesome audio and made it more personal. And, of course, we took the wireless speed and supercharged it with Sprint, turning HTC Bolt into a smartphone unlike any you’ve ever experienced.”
The HTC Bolt is available starting today from Sprint for $25/month for 24 months, and if you do the math, that totals out to $600. If you recall, the HTC 10 is similarly priced at $27.05/month for 24 months, totaling out to about $649.This leaves just a $49 gap between the Bolt and 10, so take this into consideration if you’re interested in picking up the Bolt as for just $50 more, you can have 2016-level specs, stereo speakers, a nice camera, and (most important of all) a headphone jack.
Silver and Gunmetal are the two colors the Bolt comes in, while you can click here to get the Bolt from Sprint.
As a final tidbit, Evan Blass (@evleaks) tweeted out a GIF of a Sprint ad featuring Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, who is now promoting the Bolt. Enjoy.
Sprint got Usain Bolt to promote the HTC Bolt. pic.twitter.com/kUu1iQffSN
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) November 11, 2016
- SOURCE: Sprint
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