HTC 10 release rumored for April: Everything you need to know

After the HTC M9 struggled to take off in 2015, HTC is in desperate need of a hit.

HTC has been teasing its next smartphone for this year, believed to be called the HTC 10, according to Evleaks. While the company has been mum on the handset's specifics, the rumor-mill has been churning to give us an idea of what features the HTC 10 will have.

Specs and hardware

It's likely the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 will be included in the HTC 10, built in as standard as HTC has a healthy relationship with Qualcomm. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and LG G5 launched with the same chip, capable of supporting virtual reality headsets -- perfect for the HTC Vive.

The display of the HTC 10 is expected to be 5.15-inches, compared to the 5-inch screen of the HTC M9.

According to OnLeaks, a mobile leaker, the HTC 10 will come with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It's also expected that the phone will have a MicroSD card slot with support for the adoptable storage feature found in Android Marshmallow.

A real look at the phone was provided in March when photos of the HTC 10 were leaked, showing HTC has gotten rid of the BoomSound on the front of the device. It's not clear if HTC will still include the sound technology on the new smartphone, as the speakers have been moved to the bottom of the device.

The front of the device is relatively plain, and the headphone port has been awkwardly relocated to the top. Speaking of the headphone port, HTC is said to include high-audio DAC called "BoomSound Headphone."

The back of the device has beveled edges.

Camera

HTC has been hyping the camera on the HTC 10 as being "world first, world class, front and back." It hasn't talked specifics.

The photos leaked that the camera module is like the one you can find on the M7. You can also see that the flash is bigger. It's expected that the rear camera will be 12-megapixel and have laser autofocus, while the front camera is a 5-megapixel UltraPixel camera.

"We can confidently say that HTC will have a very, very compelling camera experience," HTC CFO Chialin Chang told our sister-site CNET at Mobile World Congress in February. "We're making this comment after we've seen what's going on in the market."

Software

HTC is expected to include its Sense UI on top of Android Marshmallow, including Blinkfeed to aggregate news and social media. HTC also throws in its own take on widgets, notifications, and multi-tasking.

If you've used an HTC handset in the past, the Sense UI isn't a surprising addition. Luckily for you stock Android lovers, HTC has done a better job enhancing Sense UI to not be as cumbersome. Additionally, we could see new Sense announcements with the handset.

One report says the HTC 10 will include support for the Vive VR headset, but it's not clear if this will actually be featured on the device. There's the chance of a pretty watered down VR experience.

Battery

If HTC chooses to stick with using a metal body, and that does seem to be the case based on leaks, then it looks like you'll miss out on wireless charging.

You will still get the Quick Charge 3.0 feature you get from the Snapdragon 820 chipset though. It's been suggested that the battery will be a 3000mAh battery that should give some good performance. OnLeaks and EvLeaks have tweeted out photos that suggest there will be a USB Type-C connection on board for charging.

Release Date

HTC hasn't provided word on when it plans to release the HTC 10, though leaks of the device may point to when it will be announced.

Press images of the HTC 10 leaked by EvLeaks have the date April 19 on the screen. Device makers often use the date the device will be announced in their press images. Of course, things could change.

HTC is finally getting rid of the "M" nomenclature, and opting for a simple number system instead.