HTC 10 evo review: The sea dragon

Performance

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.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  5645
• OnePlus 3T
  4364
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  4333
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  4130
• ZTE Axon 7
  3990
• HTC 10
  3621
• HTC 10 Evo
  3354
• Oppo R9s
  3130
• Huawei nova plus
  3100
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  2621

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  1911
• OnePlus 3T
  1890
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  1815
• HTC 10
  1708
• ZTE Axon 7
  1702
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  1694
• HTC 10 Evo
  1109
• Oppo R9s
  845
• Huawei nova plus
  843
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  795

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.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  165097
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  155185
• HTC 10
  154031
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  151619
• ZTE Axon 7
  129926
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  129629
• HTC 10 Evo
  82841
• Oppo R9s
  66081
• Huawei nova plus
  64680
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  62818
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  62217

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  2690
• OnePlus 3T
  2678
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  2670
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  2434
• ZTE Axon 7
  2346
• HTC 10 Evo
  1913
• HTC 10
  1839
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  1222
• Huawei nova plus
  1215
• Oppo R9s
  1091
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  1031

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.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  48
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  47
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  31
• HTC 10
  28
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  27
• HTC 10 Evo
  16
• ZTE Axon 7
  12
• Huawei nova plus
  10
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  10
• Oppo R9s
  9.7
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  9.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  20
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  19
• ZTE Axon 7
  16
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  12
• HTC 10
  9.9
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  8.3
• HTC 10 Evo
  6.9
• Huawei nova plus
  3.7
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  3.7
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  3.4
• Oppo R9s
  3.4

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.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  49
• OnePlus 3T
  49
• HTC 10
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  44
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  38
• HTC 10 Evo
  27
• ZTE Axon 7
  15
• Oppo R9s
  10
• Huawei nova plus
  9.9
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  9.8
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  9.8

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  20
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  19
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  18
• HTC 10
  18
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  16
• ZTE Axon 7
  15
• HTC 10 Evo
  12
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  3.4
• Oppo R9s
  3.4
• Huawei nova plus
  3.4
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  3.4

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.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  36958
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  36322
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  36062
• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  32609
• ZTE Axon 7
  32243
• HTC 10
  28882
• HTC 10 Evo
  28736
• Huawei nova plus
  10524
• Oppo R9s
  10519
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  10445
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  10401

Basemark X (medium)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3T
  43333
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  42493
• HTC 10 Evo
  39283
• ZTE Axon 7
  38812
• HTC 10
  30680
• Huawei nova plus
  21352
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  21300
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  21164
• Oppo R9s
  21128

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Galaxy S7 edge (E8890, Nougat)
  680
• Lenovo Moto Z Droid
  648
• OnePlus 3T
  641
• ZTE Axon 7
  606
• Xiaomi Mi 5s Plus
  538
• HTC 10 Evo
  520
• Oppo R9s
  143
• Huawei nova plus
  138
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  138
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  137

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).