Technology

HTC Desire Eye: More than meets the eye

YOU GOT TECH - Abe Olandres - The Philippine Star

February 23, 2015 | 12:00am

One can find a unit or two being sold in the gray market (mostly online sellers) for around P22,000, in white, red and blue color variants. At that price tag, the HTC Desire Eye is a pretty good catch.

Announced back in October 2014, the HTC Desire Eye takes its cue from the flagship One series but adopted the Desire line moniker which used to be representative of their mid-range category.

However, nothing in the build quality and the hardware specification of the the Desire Eye points to it being a mid-range handset. And while we can’t really say that the Desire Eye is an upgrade to the HTC One (M8), it’s like a reincarnation of the M8 in another body.

The Desire Eye separates itself from the One series with a bolder design, bright and colorful palette with a matte polycarbonate material that is reminiscent of the HTC One X and HTC One S from many years back.

I am still very impressed with HTC in the design department. They’ve been producing re- ally beautiful handsets and the Desire Eye is no exception. HTC breaks the general perception that polycarbonate (read: plastic) materials are not as sexy and elegant as glass or metal alloy. The Desire Eye is a testament to that.

The Desire Eye has a very simple yet very clean design. The flat front and back panels have a matte ceramic finish that’s very much similar to the One X. The rounded corners are subtle with a slightly curved edge that offers gentle comfort despite its rather large form factor. Holding the unit almost gives the same feeling as that of the iPhone 6 Plus, only lighter and less slippery.

The ceramic white finish of the front and back panel sandwiches the bright red polycarbonate band around the sides. The color combination is loud and striking yet subtle and not over the top, unlike that of the Lumia series.

The power button, dedicated camera shutter and volume controls are on the right side while the microSD and nano-SIM card slots are found on the left side, both of which are protected by waterproof flap covers.

At the top is the 3.5mm audio port while the micro USB port is found in the bottom. The unibody design gives it a compact and slim profile, providing it the IPX7 water resistance that HTC claims. This is actually a first for any HTC handset.

The fascia is made up of a large slab of glass sandwiched by plastic borders at the top and bot- tom. A small ridge breaks the line where glass and polycarbonate meet. This is where the BoomSound speakers are inconspicuously placed, both at the top and bottom corner. Just like the HTC One, the speakers on the Desire Eye are as effective since they are front-facing although we noticed that the sound is not as loud as its predecessors boasted.

Running on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat, the Desire Eye comes with a custom HTC Sense UI 6.0 which looks simpler and optimized but with BlinkFeed still in place and set as a secondary home screen you can pull out by swiping from the left.

The Desire Eye’s claim to fame is its dual 13-megapixel camera – an exactly identical sensor both at the rear and front of the handset.

Obviously, this is where the handset got its name – with the large camera lens looking like a cyclops.

Both take great stills and video although low- light performance is not that impressive. HTC is aiming to attract customers with selfie-obsession tendencies and the Desire Eye sure looks like it’s got the snapper to do that task right.

The Desire Eye performs as fast as the HTC One M8, noting the fact that they both have simi- lar hardware configuration. The full HD display on a 5.2-inch screen looks brilliant, vivid and rich with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protecting it.

In the connectivity department, the handset has everything from LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, Radio, GPS. The Desire Eye also supports wire- less connection with the HTC Mini+.

I have always been a fan of HTC’s design ethos – simple yet sexy, bold yet subtle and with a unique twist on the execution.

The Desire Eye, like many other HTC smart- phones before it, is a thing of beauty. It is a well- rounded, well-equipped handset that puts every- thing else in place.

Too bad the brand moved out of the Philip- pines not too long ago due to declining sales and very little marketing support.

Nevertheless, one can find a unit or two being sold in the gray market (mostly online sellers) for around P22,000, available in white, red and blue color variants. At that price tag, the HTC Desire Eye is a pretty good catch.

HTC Desire Eye specs:

5.2-inch IPS LCD display @ 1920 x 1080, 424ppi

Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Snapdragon 801 quad-core CPU

Adreno 330 GPU

2GB RAM

16GB internal memory

Up to 128GB via microSD

LTE 150Mbps WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band

WiFi Direct, DLNA

Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, apt-X GPS with aGPS support

NFC