HTC Unveils Sprint-Exclusive Bolt with Snapdragon 810, IP57 Certification, and No Headphone Jack

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 11 Nov 2016

HTC Bolt

After plenty of leaks, HTC today unveiled its new Sprint-exclusive handset, the HTC Bolt. The Bolt is a weird amalgamation of last year’s internals and this year technology. It is the first phone on Sprint’s network to support its LTE Plus network for higher download/upload speeds.

The Bolt features a unibody aluminum design that is reminiscent of the One A9. It does feature IP57 certification that makes it dust and water resistant. On the front, the handset houses a 5.5-inch Quad HD Super-LCD3 display that is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5. Below the display is the capacitive navigation buttons and a physical home button with an integrated fingerprint scanner. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the Bolt is that it features Qualcomm’s last year fiery hot Snapdragon 810 chipset clocked at 2GHz. Considering how widely this chipset was criticized, it is surprising to see HTC use it inside a handset launched in late 2016.

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Other specs of the handset include 32GB storage, 3GB RAM, a microSD card slot, USB Type-C port, NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, and GPS. It does lack a 3.5mm audio jack. To make up for it, HTC has bundled USB Type-C earphones with the handset.

The handset also features a 16MP shooter at its rear with OIS, PDAF, LaserAF, and a f/2.0 aperture lens. At the front, there is an 8MP shooter. All this is powered by a 3200mAh battery that supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology.

On the software front, the Bolt is HTC’s first handset to launch with Android 7.0 Nougat on board. It will also come with Google Duo pre-installed. The handset is already available in Sprint stores from today for monthly $25 installments over a period of 24 months. It will be available in Glacial Silver and Gunmetal colors. Like with other HTC handsets, the Bolt is covered under the company’s Uh Oh protection plan.