The HTC Bolt, arguably something of an offbeat device meant to fill the niche of “Would-be HTC 10 buyers who were looking for something a little different” while also sporting incredible LTE speeds, is available now in the United States on Sprint. Early rumors pointed the Sprint version dusting off the old Evo name used for flagship HTC products on the Now Network, but a Tweet from a prominent HTC leaker flips this assumption on its head. With the US version having gotten the HTC Bolt moniker, word is that the international version, namely the one hitting the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, at least, will be called the HTC 10 Evo.
The leak comes from a source that has proven trustworthy in the past. That source is the Twitter profile of LlabTooFeR, the developer of the Maximus HD ROM for a range of HTC devices and somewhat surprisingly, not an HTC employee, though their Twitter follow list does include a few of those, as well as members of a good number of tech news sites, and even famed leaker Evan Blass, also known as evleaks. While LlabTooFeR may be quite trustworthy as far as leakers go, this decision from HTC, if it’s true, could be called a real head-scratcher, or perhaps even outright dubious; the plan is to use a flagship device lineage name from the US to drum up familiarity and popularity abroad for a device that’s actually hovering on the outskirts of flagship territory while sporting a price tag not too far off at all from their current actual flagship.
The HTC Bolt, or the HTC 10 Evo if you prefer, is a remix of the HTC 10 with a few of the minor complaints some users had addressed, and new network tech enabled to make the device really fly on Sprint’s network. The device’s fingerprint sensor, for example, doubles as a home button. Some fixes have been applied to the camera arrangement and workings, as well, and the whole package runs on top of Android 7.0 (Nougat), the latest version that can be found outside of Google’s Pixel and developer previews for the Nexus lineup. Strangely, HTC went with the older Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 in this phone, which drags the whole experience down just a bit. Regardless, it’s sure to be a great device for the right crowd, but taking the name from Sprint-exclusive devices for an international release while also releasing the phone in most market sans its main benefit – the uber-fast network capabilities it has on Sprint – is another head-scratcher.