Here comes the scary part: the Snapdragon 810 chipset is what could turn people away from the HTC 10 evo. There's probably only one good reason to pick this chip over others - its GPU is high class. Even so, it's obviously no match for the Snapdragon 820, a chip that has appeared in several phones that are cheaper than the 10 evo.
Raw performance isn't even the main issue - its consistency is terrible. Below are the best case results we got from the phone, but keep in mind those can drop by as much as 50% after a while when the phone really heats up.
Single and multi-core performance isn't bad - the big Cortex-A57 cores (four of them) and the smaller A53 cores (again, four of them) still have life in them. However, technology has left this 20nm chipset behind and phones with the 14nm Snapdragon 625 chipset are breathing down its neck. Those are the Asus Zenfone 3, the Huawei nova plus, the Oppo R9s and many others.
Multi-core performance is almost on par, but in single-core tests, the HTC 10 evo has a small advantage (the S625 has only little A53 cores, so no surprise here). This advantage will shrink if we let the HTC heat up.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Starting from a cool phone, the 10 evo offers slightly better overall performance than these phones. That's what AnTuTu thinks, anyway, we noticed occasional stutter in the UI animations when using the phone. And, again, this lead will literally melt away in minutes.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Analyst reports have shown that gaming sessions on mobile phones typically last around 10 minutes. Even so, the HTC makes the thermometer reading go up fast and a drop in framerate was noticeable while we were running benchmarks - much choppier at the end than at the start.
Higher is better
Higher is better
You may want to consider letting the Boost+ app limit the screen resolution. Even at QHD resolution, the Adreno 420 GPU wipes the floor with the weaker Adreno 505 found in the Snapdragon 625. At 1080p resolution, it's no contest.
Higher is better
Higher is better
You may have noticed that we haven't mentioned the Snapdragon 820 phones yet. There are several of them that are cheaper or on par with the HTC 10 evo. And you don't have to go the obvious route of OnePlus 3T, Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus or ZTE Axon 7. You can buy older, more established brands too - the Galaxy S7 edge and the Moto Z aren't far off the price of a 10 evo.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
We're quite disappointed at HTC over the chipset chosen for this phone. Our first contention is this - the HTC 10 evo costs too much. At this price, it should have had Snapdragon 820. Sure, Snapdragon 625 probably can't drive a QHD screen so it's out of the question. But at least it would have given the phone decent battery life.
That's the second thing - with Snapdragon 810 at its heart, the HTC 10 evo offers neither good battery life nor consistent performance. We almost think we would have preferred an S808 or a Helio-X20. That or a price tag that acknowledges the phones limitations, a Galaxy S7 edge is less than €50 more expensive and has even better waterproofing (let alone battery life).
Tip us
1.7m 126k
RSS
EV
Merch
Log in I forgot my password Sign up