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HTC has dropped the price of its flagship HTC 10 smartphone to $549 through Oct. 8, a $150 discount from its regular price of $699. The special offer is being made as part of the company’s “Green is Good” online contest, which includes prizes like HTC Vive virtual reality headsets, HTC 10 smartphones and HTC RE cameras.
The special pricing for the HTC 10 allows customers to buy the handset from HTC.com for use on the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon networks. An unlocked version of the handset can be used with AT&T or T-Mobile, while locked models are available for the T-Mobile, Sprint or Verizon networks.
The unlocked version of the HTC 10 can be purchased in Camellia Red, Topaz Gold or Carbon Gray colors, while the T-Mobile version is available in Black or Gray and the Sprint and Verizon versions are only available in Silver.
HTC is also offering special discounted pricing through Oct. 8 on other products, including $80 off its HTC Desire 626 and 626s smartphones, $100 off its UA Healthbox connected fitness system and $60 off the UA Band fitness band.
The offers are available while supplies last and are solely for U.S. customers. The offer for the $150 discount on the HTC 10 smartphone ends at 11:59 a.m. ET on Oct. 9.
The Green is Good online contest ends at 2:59 a.m. ET on Oct. 7. Only one entry per person is permitted.
The latest HTC 10 smartphone was unveiled in April and went on sale starting in May, according to earlier eWEEK reports.
The HTC 10 features a 5.2-inch, quad HD (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) touch-screen display that is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of memory, 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage, a microSD slot that accepts storage cards up to 2TB, a USB-C port and a biometric fingerprint scanner for security. The phone has a metal unibody design and runs on the Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.
The phone also comes with a damage and accident protection plan that includes one replacement at no charge within the first 12 months of ownership for a cracked screen or water damage.
Also included in the HTC 10 is a 12-megapixel UltraPixel 2 rear-facing camera that includes laser auto-focus, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), an F/1.8 lens aperture, a 26mm focal length, dual tone LED flash and a wide range of creativity features. The camera includes a Pro Mode that offers manual control and 12-bit RAW format support and 4K video recording capabilities.
The HTC 10’s front-facing camera is a 5-megapixel device with auto-focus, OIS, an F/1.8 lens aperture, a 23mm focal length, auto selfie and voice selfie features, and Full HD 1080p video recording. Both of the handset’s cameras are designed to provide improved low-light, high-resolution photos for users in a wide variety of conditions.
Re-engineered HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi edition speakers with separated tweeters and woofers and a dedicated amplifier on each speaker are also included, along with 24-bit, hi-res audio recording capabilities and a Personal Audio Profile system that creates a unique profile that is tuned to a user’s individual hearing needs.
The phone is powered by a 3,000mAh battery with quick charging that can provide a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes. Also included is Boost+, which makes the phone faster while consuming less power, according to HTC. Boost+ optimizes the phone’s memory, provides a game battery booster for game play, and automatically detects and shuts down apps that use excessive power to improve battery life by up to 30 percent.
An App Lock feature adds a layer of security by enabling users to lock any app as desired, while a new App Manager can give instant fixes for misbehaving apps. The 4G LTE smartphone, which is 5.7 inches long, 2.83 inches wide and 0.11 inches thick and weighs 5.67 ounces, also includes Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi and near-field communications (NFC) connectivity.
The HTC 10 is built to take on premium smartphones such as Apple’s iPhones, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 handsets, LG’s G5 smartphone and others.
In June, HTC moved its popular Vive VR product line into its own company-owned subsidiary as the main company continues to react to its tough financial performance in the first quarter of the year. The new subsidiary aims to support and promote the company’s VR ecosystem, while isolating it from the parent company’s financial woes.
HTC’s earnings were hit hard in the first quarter of 2016 as the smartphone and consumer mobile device company saw its revenue fall 64 percent from the same quarter in 2015, according to an eWEEK story in May. The company posted a loss of $80 million in Q1, compared to a net profit of $11 million for the same quarter in 2015. The company’s revenue fell to $454 million (14.8 billion New Taiwanese Dollars) from about $1.27 billion (41.5 billion NTD) in 2015.