HTC announces the speed-focused Bolt smartphone for Sprint

Dubbed “Sprint’s fastest smartphone ever,” HTC has launched the Bolt, an Android Nougat-based smartphone that is available today from Sprint for $600. “For HTC Bolt, we took everything that was so great about the HTC 10 and made it even better,” said André Lönne, president of HTC America.

“We took the award-winning design and made it water-resistant. We took the awesome audio and made it more personal. And, of course, we took the wireless speed and supercharged it with Sprint, turning HTC Bolt into a smartphone unlike any you’ve ever experienced.”

Like previous HTC devices, the Bolt utilizes premium glass and aluminum materials, resulting in a device with excellent build quality. However, even though it emphasizes speed, the Bolt actually slacks in a few key areas, especially for its price. In particular, it boasts 3GB RAM instead of the now-standard 4GB. Additionally, it utilizes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor rather than the Snapdragon 820, which can result in noticeably faster processing and gaming performance. Lastly, USB-C transfers are limited to USB 2.0 speeds, rather than USB 3.1. And for the millions who still use wired headphones, be advised that the Bolt does not have a standard 3.5mm headset jack, but rather uses USB-C and Bluetooth for audio experiences. In any case, the device is certainly capable, thanks to HTC’s optimized use of Android which, given their past devices, should provide smooth and snappy performance, despite its minor hardware shortcomings.

For additional information, refer to the photo gallery, press release, and spec sheet below. Gadget Unit hopes to receive a review unit for further evaluation.

Glacier Silver

Gunmetal

Press Release

Blazing Speed Meets Stunning Design With the New HTC Bolt™

Built for the Sprint LTE Plus Network, HTC Bolt is Sprint’s Fastest Smartphone Ever

SEATTLE – Nov. 11, 2016 – A blaze of lightning across the sky. A world-class sprinter dashing across the finish line. Stunning speed is thrilling, exhilarating and empowering – and like a lightning bolt or sprinter, speed was the inspiration for HTC, a leading innovator in mobile and virtual reality technology, to create HTC Bolt: the fastest Sprint smartphone. Built for the extraordinary Sprint LTE Plus network – with support for 3×20 MHz Carrier Aggregation1 thanks to the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X10 LTE modem – and available to purchase beginning today, HTC Bolt blazes with data speeds that leave the competition in the dust.

With HTC Bolt web browsing, file downloading, streaming video and music is smooth and vivid. Sharing photos and videos with friends seems to be almost instantaneous and online gaming races like never before.

Forged from glass and metal, HTC Bolt is a dramatic evolution of HTC’s “sculpted by light” design. It features a 5.5-inch Quad HD (2K) display and it is the first water-resistant aluminum unibody Android phone2, along with more precise contours and a flatter back for sharper contrast that catches light beautifully. Bold, chamfered edges are carved out of Gunmetal or Glacier Silver3 metal to make the 3.7mm side cut look and feel slimmer than ever in your hand. HTC Bolt also introduces HTC BoomSound® Adaptive Audio earphones that tailor sound to your ears’ unique structure for a truly personal audio experience.

“The HTC 10 released earlier this year was the most advanced smartphone we’ve ever built, so we knew we had to raise the bar even higher for Sprint’s most advanced ever network,” said André Lönne, president of HTC America. “For HTC Bolt, we took everything that was so great about the HTC 10 and made it even better. We took the award-winning design and made it water-resistant. We took the awesome audio and made it more personal. And, of course, we took the wireless speed and supercharged it with Sprint, turning HTC Bolt into a smartphone unlike any you’ve ever experienced.”

HTC BoomSound® Adaptive Audio tuned to you

HTC Bolt features HTC BoomSound Adaptive Audio, which scans your ears and the ambient noise around you to adjust audio output to suit your personal hearing capabilities. Just plug in the USB Type C headphones (included) and, almost instantly, you’ll experience music and movies with thundering bass and pitch-perfect treble that sound clearer than you believed possible. In addition, Hi-Res audio delivers 24-bit sounds as you would hear it in the movie theater, nightclub or concert hall.

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Sharper shots in a snap

Whether you’re in town or out hiking, incredible moments can happen when you least expect them, so HTC Bolt’s 16MP camera, supported by the Snapdragon processor, has OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) to reduce camera shake and capture sharp photographs and 4K video even in low light. With a quick camera launch time and an ultra-fast autofocus of 0.3s with Phase Detection Auto Focus, you’ll be sure to capture the perfect shot every time.

Selfies are great, too, with HTC Bolt. An 8MP front camera with Auto HDR means vivid details will bring out your smile and the environment behind you. Super-wide panorama mode lets you capture your whole family and an expansive background, and an integrated screen flash ensures shots look great in low light.

Power, convenience and customization

Running the latest Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, HTC Bolt offers all the powerful features you would expect from the latest flagship smartphone, including split-screen view, quicker multitasking, free unlimited photo storage with Google Photos™, and Google Duo™ video calling preloaded.

HTC Bolt’s built-in fingerprint sensor lets you unlock your phone at the touch of your finger – in as little as 0.2 seconds and lets you lock and unlock apps using Boost+. Even better, Boost+ also keeps your phone in top condition by cleaning up junk files and dynamically allocating resources like phone memory as required, ensuring your phone runs smoothly and efficiently.

HTC Freestyle Layout frees you from an on-screen grid and lets you customize your home screen. Drag icons, stickers and widgets anywhere, layer them, overlap them, group them and more. You can even link stickers to apps, or just get rid of on-screen icons entirely.

Power users can rejoice that all these features are supported by a powerful 3,200mAh battery, enough for up to a day or more use on a single charge. If you need to recharge quickly, HTC Bolt features Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 2.0 technology for fast charging4. Load up on photos, videos, movies and games with the HTC Bolt’s 3GB RAM and 32GB storage space5, expandable with optional SD cards for up to 2TB of space so your storage needs are covered now and far into the future.

Available today

HTC Bolt is now available at Sprint stores, www.sprint.com and 1(800) SPRINT1 for just $25 per month over 24 months with installment billing.6

Spec Sheet

  • SIZE: 153.59 x 77.3 x 3.7-8.09mm1
  • WEIGHT: 174g1
  • DISPLAY: 5.5 inch, Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixels, 534 pixels per inch) Super LCD 3 with curved-edge Gorilla Glass 5
  • WATER- & DUST-RESISTANT: IP57
  • PLATFORM2: Android™ 7 with HTC Sense™
  • PROCESSOR: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 810, Octa-core up to 2.0Ghz
  • MEMORY: Total storage:  32GB / RAM: 3GB / Expandable: microSD™ expansion supports additional memory cards up to 2TB with Flex Storage (optional cards not included)
  • CAMERA: Main Camera 16MP / Phase detection autofocus (PDAF) / BSI sensor / Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) / f/2.0 aperture / Dual LED flash / 4K video recording with Hi-Res Audio / Slow motion video recording at 720p / 120fps / Modes include Auto HDR, Panorama, Pro mode with manual control, long exposure and RAW format support, Hyperlapse, Zoe capture, Video Pic, face detection.
  • CAMERA: Front Camera 8MP / BSI sensor / Full HD 1080p video recording / Modes include Auto HDR, Auto Selfie, Voice Selfie, Live Make-Up, and Selfie Panorama
  • SOUND: HTC BoomSound™ Adaptive Audio / Hi-Res Audio certified / Hi-Res Audio stereo recording / Three microphones with noise cancelation
  • NETWORK3: 2G/2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz / 3G UMTS: 850/AWS/1900/2100 MHz / 4G LTE™ (up to 450Mbps): FDD: Bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 25, 26 / TDD: Band 41 with 3xCA / Support Cat 9 LTE: downloads up to 450Mbps, uploads up to 50Mbps
  • SIM: Nano SIM
  • SENSORS: Ambient light sensor / Proximity sensor / Motion G-sensor / Compass sensor / Gyro sensor / Magnetic sensor / Fingerprint sensor / Sensor Hub for activity tracking
  • LOCATION: GPS + GLONASS
  • CONNECTIVITY: USB 2.0 Type-C / Bluetooth® 4.1 / Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5GHz) / NFC / HTC Connect™ for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to compatible multi-room audio systems, TVs, portable speakers and home entertainment systems / Streaming media from the phone to compatible Chromecast, DLNA™, AirPlay™, Miracast™ devices
  • BATTERY4: Capacity: 3200mAh / Talk time on 3G/4G: up to 23 hours / Standby time on 3G/4G: up to 20 days / Power saving mode / Extreme power saving mode / Quick Charge 2.0
  • ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Motion Launch / Ice View case support (optional accessory) / Quiet ring on pick-up / Pocket mode / Flip to mute / Display color personalization

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