Locally speaking, the HTC brand may have NOT yet breached the pantheon where the best smartphone manufacturers we rely on and love reside, but its latest flagship could very well be its gateway to greater popularity.

Unveiled last week, the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer’s 2016 flagship product HTC 10 is the spiritual successor to the One M9 and One A9 models, with an aesthetic that unifies some elements of both its predecessors.

The HTC 10 embodies a different approach to the brand’s design where bold contours are carved out of solid metal. The phone has a lot of substance paired with its beautiful form, and is deceptively durable to boot.

Subjected to in excess of 168 hours of extreme temperature tests ranging from a teeth chattering -20’C to a stroke inducing 60’C, the flagship phone endured. It also passed over 10,000 drop, bend, scratch and corrosion tests. If the HTC 10 had a personality, it would have been a grade A masochist.

Having a smartphone you can rely on in frigid tundras or the Sahara desert (while you die of frostbite or heatstroke) is lovely and all, but you’re not likely to expose yourself to such climates unless, for one, you’re there to quite literally capture the moment. This is where the 10’s camera comes into play.

Boasted as arguably the best smartphone camera currently available on the market, the phone possesses the world’s first optically stabilized, larger aperture f/1.8 lenses on both the front and rear cameras. Combine this with the new larger sensors, 12 million of the brand’s new generation UltraPixels (1.55um per pixel), faster laser autofocus powering the main camera and a wide angle lens and screen flash on the front camera and you’ve got a device that executes photography with crisp sharpness and high resolution.

The world class camera is probably one of the biggest selling points of the 10 considering the front camera is particularly good in relation to its peers, making it perfect for “selfie” enthusiasts or the narcissist in all of us.

The feature is also fast enough to operate in burst mode thanks to the camera’s ability to launch within a mere 0.6 seconds coupled with the 2nd generation laser autofocus that allows for quicker and clearer shots. All the settings are also conveniently located at your fingertips with Pro Mode still offering advanced options for more experienced photographers, including RAW format functionality.

Of course, the merits of the HTC 10 is on more than just its camera, so you can browse through more info on its specs and other features here.