HTC's phones have been a little hit-or-miss through the last few years, but the company's early 2016 flagship, the HTC 10, unquestionably falls on the right side of that dichotomy. Well, at least on a critical level; the phone doesn't exactly appear to be breaking any sales records. Let's see how the 10 sizes up next to a handset that just might sell okay, the Apple iPhone 7.
Size
The HTC 10 isn't a huge phone, but it still has some stature next to the iPhone 7. HTC's handset comes out 6 percent taller and 7 percent wider.
Weight
The iPhone also hits the scales at 14 percent lighter.
Build
Of the many, many flagships with aluminum unibody designs, you could argue these two are the best-looking.
Water resistance
The iPhone can soak in water (up to 1 m/3.3 ft) without going kaput.
Colors
Remember back when smartphones were all black? Yeah, things are different now.
Display size
If you want a bigger iPhone than this, you can go with the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus. But looking at only these two, the HTC 10's screen is 22 percent bigger.
Display resolution
The HTC 10 has a very nice QHD display that's 73 percent sharper than the iPhone's.
But don't get too carried away with numbers like this: Apple puts plenty of TLC into details like white balance, color accuracy, brightness and saturation to help iPhones transcend pixel density arms races.
Display type
The HTC 10 is the rare Android phone with an IPS display.
3D Touch
You don't get any pressure-sensitive display shortcuts on the HTC 10.
Camera megapixels
The HTC 10 had one of the two best smartphone cameras of early 2016, but it's possible the iPhone's will overtake it. Stay tuned.
Camera aperture (rear)
Aperture, which can help out with low-lit photography, is tied up.
OIS
Both phones' rear cameras have Optical Image Stabilization onboard, but the HTC 10 does one better by putting OIS in its front-facing shooter.
Dual rear camera
This is one of the features Apple is using to tempt you to pay more for the bigger iPhone 7 Plus. This standard iPhone 7 misses out on the former's dual/telephoto camera.
Battery
The HTC 10 has a 53 percent bigger battery, and it did test pretty well in our review. But it would be far too simplistic to take this as an indication of actual battery life: The HTC 10's higher-res display, for example, is going to suck up more power. We'll have some hard numbers to compare before long, in our iPhone review.
Fast charging
No matter what the iPhone's battery life looks like, it won't charge nearly as quickly as the HTC 10 (and just about every recent Android flagship) will.
Wireless charging
Unlike Samsung's recent high-end Galaxies, neither of these have wireless charging tech.
Processor
The iPhone's A10 Fusion chip benchmarks notably higher than the HTC 10's Qualcomm processor, but you're unlikely to run across much that truly taxes either phone.
RAM
The HTC 10 doubles the RAM of this 4.7-inch iPhone 7.
Storage
Apple finally strolled into the modern era and dropped the absurd 16 GB minimum storage option from this year's iPhones.
MicroSD
The HTC 10 has a more flexible approach to storage, letting you pop in a microSD to complement its internal memory.
Hi-Fi audio
If you use a pair of wired headphones with the HTC 10, and have sufficiently high-res music files, you can get one of the best audio experiences of any smartphones – courtesy of its built-in 24-bit DAC and headphone amp.
The iPhone has a DAC too, but it's only used for speaker audio.
Headphone jack
Apple dropped the 3.5-mm headphone jack from its phones this year, continuing a long history of outraging people (and perhaps pushing things forward) by putting hardware features on the chopping block.
Fingerprint sensor
Both phones have fingerprint sensor home buttons.
Capacitive home button
Both home buttons are non-moving capacitive types, but they feel very different. HTC's is more like capacitive buttons that have been on Android phones for years, using a standard vibration for feedback. Apple's is closer to the Force Touch trackpads on its latest MacBooks: using the company's "Taptic Engine" to give it a real "click" feel.
Mobile payments
Both phones support the two platforms' respective NFC payment services: Apple Pay and Android Pay.
Software
It's iOS 10 vs. Android Marshmallow. The 10 has HTC's Sense UI laid on top of Google's software, but we find it to be one of the subtler and more tasteful of Android overlays.
Release
The HTC 10 launched over four months ago, while the iPhone just hit store shelves.
Starting price (full retail)
Pricing is similar, though you can currently snag the HTC 10 for a discounted US$599 straight from HTC's US online store.
For a closer look at each phone, you can hit up our reviews of the iPhone 7 and HTC 10.
Correction: The original version of this comparison listed 3 GB of RAM listed for the iPhone 7, instead of its actual 2 GB. We regret the error.
