In the news for manufacturing the Pixel and Pixel XL, HTC is back with its own new smartphone available on Friday for Sprint. The HTC Bolt is essentially a larger version of the HTC 10 announced earlier this year with some key enhancements, but slightly worse specs.
The HTC 10 — as well as the Pixel — is rated for IP53 dust and water resistance. With that only providing basic protection against “spraying” water, the Bolt is a significant improvement with IP57 and HTC claiming the title of the “first water-resistant aluminum unibody Android phone.”
In what might end up being a contentious decision, the Bolt has no 3.5mm audio jack. However, HTC makes this up by actually taking advantage of what audio over USB-C allows for with the incuded headphones. HTC BoomSound Adaptive Audio can scan your ears and ambient noise to adjust audio output to your “personal hearing capabilities.” Additionally, Hi-Res audio promises 24-bit sounds, but there are no front-facing speakers.
On the camera front, the 16MP sensor features Optical Image Stabilization and shoots 4K video with a 720p / 120fps slow motion mode. There is a respectable 8MP front-facer as well.
Design-wise, the Bolt is just a larger version of the company’s 2016 flagship. The rear has the same wide chamfer, but a flatter curvature and a repositioned dual-flash pill. Up front with the 5.5-inch Quad HD (534 PPI) LCD protected by curved-edge Gorilla Glass 5, there is the same fingerprint sensor and general design.
The specs of the Bolt are a slight regression, moving away from a Snapdragon 820 and 4GB of RAM to an older Snapdragon 810 and only 3GB. Storage is still 32GB with a microSD card slot for expansion on the left-hand side. The 3,200mAh battery is rated for up to a day of usage with charging via Quick Charge 2.0.
Fortunately, the Bolt is the first HTC device to run Android 7.0 Nougat underneath the Sense skin. With the Bolt branding, HTC and Sprint could not resist advertising the phone with the runner of the same name. The phone is available in Glacier Silver or Gunmetal starting today at Sprint stores for $25 per month over 24 month.
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