Review: HTC Desire Eye

Introduction and design

It's pretty clear from the outset that HTC is targeting the Desire Eye at the selfie-loving young 'uns that might not have the means for an HTC One M8 or an iPhone 6. The front-facing 13MP camera is given top billing as HTC proclaims this the ultimate selfie phone.

HTC is no stranger to pioneering mobile photography. The Taiwanese company came up with UltraPixels for the original HTC One and then the Duo depth sensor for the One M8. There's a clearly identifiable trend with selfies, so it's no surprise HTC wants to grab a piece of the action.

Other manufactures have tried similar tricks. Samsung and Sony brought out the Galaxy Grand Prime and Xperia C3 earlier this year each marketed on the strength of their selfies. But HTC has gone one better and is determined to prove it.

Photography may be what HTC uses to lure you in but even though this is a Desire phone, it still boasts some pretty impressive components. There's a full HD 5.2-inch screen, a Snapdragon 801 processor with 2GB of RAM and of course the 13MP cameras with dual LED flash. These kinds of specs make me question where the phone sits in HTC's line up, as on paper they put it square with the HTC One E8.

What I'm trying to say is that this is a good deal for the £350 ($550, AU$640) HTC is asking for. In the UK, you'll be able to pick up the Desire Eye for £29 on a two year, £38 per month contract with all you can eat data and all you can eat minutes.

The starkest difference between the Desire and One ranges are the design materials employed. The Desire Eye doesn't boast a premium metal chassis.

Instead, it's built with a polycarbonate unibody that gives it both colour and, more importantly, IPX7 waterproofing, meaning the Desire Eye is water resistant up to 1 metre for up to 30 minutes, just don't use it while it's submerged.

Just because it's not metal, doesn't mean there's not as much quality in the craftsmanship of the Desire Eye. The polycarbonate body is matte and soft to the touch and feels really sturdy.

Also, with a 5.2-inch screen, the Desire Eye is a big phone. It's larger than both the HTC One (4.7-inches) and the HTC One M8 (5-inches) and therefore won't appeal to everyone. Overall dimensions for the phone are 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5mm and the bezels, whilst not enormous, are noticeable.

Using the HTC Desire Eye with just one hand is very tricky and I couldn't reach my thumb across to the other side of the screen while typing. The silver lining to that problem is that because the Desire Eye has a solid, waterproof chassis, I didn't feel any need to add extra bulk with a shell or case for the phone.

The screen itself is a beauty though. Having a Full HD display on a phone is old news now, but I was particularly struck by the brightness of HTC's screen.

The top and bottom of the phone are free from any buttons as they're all located along the right edge of the phone. There's the volume rocker, power switch and a dedicated shutter button for the camera.

All you'll find above and below are the 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB charging port.

On the left side of the handset are the two slots for the NanoSIM and the microSD card. As I mentioned, both of these are covered with flaps to maintain the waterproofing. They're tricky to get off, but better that than non-waterproofing in my opinion.

Even though it's really nice, there are two tiny problems with the construction. The flaps covering the SIM and microSD are the first. The second issue is that the lovely matte casing isn't very grippable. On three separate occasions the phone slipped out of my hand.

Although as a side note, the inclusion of a microSD card slot is a big plus – the Desire Eye only comes with a 16GB configuration, 7GB of which is already used by the preinstalled software.

The back of the HTC Desire Eye is clean and uninterrupted. The company has put the camera lens in the top left-hand corner, rather than centrally like on the One M8. The same isn't true on the front of the phone – HTC has put the front-facing 13MP sensor right in the middle of the top bezel.

The "Eye" moniker is fitting, this phone is constantly looking at you. Next to the lens is a small notification light that flashes when you've got an email or message. It also indicates when the phone is fully charged.

Despite the giant lens, HTC has kept its front-facing BoomSound speakers which, it's fair to say, have become a really popular feature. They're located between the black bezel and the white chassis above and below the screen.

I'll delve more into the performance of these speakers later on but suffice to say it's good to see that HTC hasn't overlooked it. My only concern is that having them sunk into the chassis means there's a possiblity for dust and grime to accumulate there.

The HTC Desire Eye comes in a choice of two different colours, either the red and white of our review model or a navy/light blue blend. Both look nice although I have to admit that the white and red configuration is the one that stands out to me. HTC uses a double shot moulding process that seamlessly integrates the two colours into the one unibody design.

The Taiwanese company has constructed a really nice piece of consumer technology here. The size of the device is a subjective issue, but the build quality and durability are excellent. Even for a phone that isn't meant as a flagship device, I really feel it stands out when it comes to design.

Key features and media

Front-facing camera

Let's jump right into it. This phone's centrepiece is the front-facing 13MP camera that promises you the best selfies on the market.

Except, well, it doesn't. Not quite. There are several features that HTC has debuted with this phone, which I'll deal with in depth later. Right here though, I want to talk about the camera's performance.

It's sufficient, but really not the groundbreaking feature HTC wants it to be. We picked up the early signs during our initial hands-on test of the phone. It's not as good in low light as the iPhone 6 or the HTC One M8. The extra megapixels pick up greater detail but the colour isn't as well balanced and leans towards a whiter, washed out appearance.

This can be alleviated somewhat in darker situations with the dual-LED flash that HTC has added to the front of the device. It's an addition that sets the Eye apart as few other smartphones – the Acer Liquid E3 is an exception – can offer a front flash.

Video calling is handled at 1080p Full HD quality and I found the Desire Eye was always accurate with its face-tracking ability. Even as I moved about the room, it kept my face in focus.

Other features, like split selfies are well integrated and add value to the device. But since HTC is planning to bring them to other phones in its line-up in the future, the uniqueness is kind of lost here. More on that later, though.

Waterproof unibody

HTC uses a double shot injection moulding process to build the polycarbonate casing for the Desire Eye. The process means there are no gaps or seams for water and grime to get stuck in and the Eye really shines for it. Everyone I showed the phone made a positive comment about its construction.

It's not impervious though. My review handset now boasts a small scar next to the power switch from one of the times it slipped out of my hands. Something I have yet to tell HTC about, actually.

While the One M8 and LG G3 were rightly praised for their gleaming aluminium bodies, I often felt the need to wrap them up in some kind of case to protect them. That meant I rarely appreciated exactly how well made they are. Not so with the Desire Eye, it feels capable and sturdy and I think that's one of its strongest features.

Sense 6.0

HTC's Sense UI really helps to differentiate it from its Android brethren. It runs smoothly and brings with it several unique apps and widgets that vary in terms of usefulness. Some are great, like BlinkFeed and Zoe, which is now a separate app that lets you create "stories" around your photos and videos.

Some are not so good: it's unlikely you'll use stocks unless you're a trader by profession while HTC News requires you to set up an HTC account in order to view a news feed about the company. Frankly, you'd have to be a pretty massive HTC fan to bother with it.

There are several themes and wallpapers to take advantage of and, while it's nice, there are plenty of downloadable alternatives on the Google Play store. But enough of that here, click over to the next section to read more about the HTC Desire Eye's interface.

Media

The HTC Desire Eye isn't going to let you down when it comes to media. The rounded edges and matte design give it a comfortable feel when you're holding it in landscape to watch a video. And audio is well served by both the BoomSound front-facing speakers and the 2.5v amplifier inside the headphone jack.

The biggest constraint you're going to get with media is the 16GB storage inside the Desire Eye. And even that can be worked around because HTC has added a microSD slot that'll boost the storage by up to 128GB.

If you're going to watch video on a smartphone, then a 5.2-inch, Full HD display with a 424 pixel density isn't a bad way to do it. The Desire Eye will go up to an impressive level of brightness, although you can expect that to take a chunk out of the battery.

The phone arrives with Google's Play services which means you can download or stream music and video to the device from the competitively-priced online store. Every now and then you get sales and reductions to take advantage of as well.

One small annoyance is the lack of a pre-installed video player that'll let you watch your native files. Since the HTC Desire Eye runs Android, you can attach it to your PC and drag and drop over any video files you fancy. But all you get when you boot up the phone is Google Play Movies which tries to force you into streaming.

I gave up trying to find my standalone media through the app and downloaded MXPlayer from Google Play instead. It's a small point, but one that needs to be made – why isn't there a standard video player installed already?

HTC's music player, by contrast, is a solid offering and will catalogue your music and display the album art where available. There's also a cool visualiser and the ability to download lyrics to your songs as well. These are fringe benefits of course, but they can come in handy if you want to practice your karaoke.

The actual audio is crisp and nicely balanced. And even though the Beats partnership is long gone, there's good range across the spectrum including the bass. HTC has yet to add active noise cancellation to its handsets and it's not been added to the Desire Eye.

The size of the Eye might not be optimal for tapping out messages, but it's great if you like to use your smartphone for gaming. I'd like to see HTC shrink the bezels slightly on future handsets but it wasn't long before I was sunk into Modern Combat 4, Real Racing 3 and Sonic the Hedgehog. The first two test out graphical power whilst the third is all about speed.

I didn't have any problems (besides battery drain) while gaming on the Desire Eye and the extra screen size is great for squeezing in more of the action. Additionally, the handset kept cool even during extensive sessions.

I've found that previous HTC handsets, especially the original HTC One, tended to get quite toasty when put under a lot of strain. That's not the case here and, as I mentioned before, it's also really comfortable to hold for long periods.

Interface and performance

The HTC Sense interface has set the brand aside from other Android handsets for some time now and the company has worked continuously to improve it. The Desire Eye comes with Sense 6.0 overlayed onto Android 4.4 KitKat.

Although HTC has said it will be delivering Android 5.0 Lollipop to its flagship handsets within the next 90 days, there's been no mention of the Desire range.

Sense is anchored on the HTC BlinkFeed news aggregator app. You can disable it if you want but I've consistently found it to be a really useful feature. It exists as a homescreen all its own and delivers tiled news content based around your own curated interests. You can throw in Twitter, Facebook and other updates as well if you fancy.

It'll also sync nicely with your calendar, so you can see at a glance if you've got any important commitments each day.

Swiping away from BlinkFeed gives you the traditional homescreen app layout and the option to add widgets and group apps together into folders. There's still the app drawer, which you can get to by hitting the small grid icon between the four anchored apps.

Swiping down from any point gives you the notification panel and the option to quickly access the settings or dismiss the notifications altogether. It's a simple interface to get to know and anyone familiar with Android won't be put off by it.

But if you prefer the stock Android experience of the Nexus 5, then HTC's offering might be a touch overbearing for you.

Performance

There's a quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU inside the HTC Desire Eye, giving it more muscle than you might think for a mid-tier handset. Although the chip has been surpassed by the Snapdragon 805, many of 2014's flagship handsets, including the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2, shipped with the 801.

The speed is clocked at 2.27GHz and HTC has also matched the 2GB of RAM in its current flagship, the One M8. It means the Desire Eye has plenty of speed when running multiple apps and games.

I ran the Geekbench 3 benchmarking test and the Eye returned a 2713 multi-core score and a 954 single-core score. This puts it on a par with the likes of the Sony Xperia Z2 and the LG G3 which scored 2765 and 2561 on the multi-core test respectively.

In real world terms, the phone coped really well with demanding 3D games like Modern Combat 4 or Real Racing 3. It relies on an Adreno 330 GPU for gaming and other visualisations and in this case, having a larger screen really improves the experience.

There's not much that this phone won't be able to handle. I had all the connectivity switched on, multiple tabs opened in the browser and music playing and it still kept the speed up. The only thing to keep in mind is that with only 16GB of storage, you're apt to run out of space quickly.

Battery life and the essentials

The battery on board the phone is a 2,400mAh non-removable lithium ion one and, as ever, screen size is going to play a big part in battery life. However, HTC has done what it can to give you options to preserve the battery life.

You can view the battery usage details through the settings tabs and choose whether or not to engage power saver mode to optimise battery life. There's also a sleep mode option that'll turn off the data connection during extended inactivity.

If you're getting dangerously low then you can use the extreme power saving mode. It'll shut down all but the bare essentials – calling, messaging and emails – in order to conserve power.

To get an idea of the Eye's battery credentials I turned on everything I could (Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi), threw the brightness to full and played a 90 minute HD video, the usual TechRadar test. It dropped the battery down from 100% to 73% which, all things considered, isn't too shabby.

It's worth pointing out as well that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 801 processor features integrated Quick Charge technology that, the company says, results in 75% faster battery charging than those without said technology. And while the Desire Eye's battery performance wasn't anything special, I did notice that it charged up nice and quickly.

I used the Eye for a few days to check out how it performed with general usage. I count that as regular messaging, a few phone calls, some downloads, game playing and music playback. And, like most decent smartphones, it comfortably lasted an entire day but not much more than that.

The essentials

Calling

The 5.2-inch size makes the HTC Desire Eye an interesting proposition when it comes to the essentials. It's not too big that you'll feel stupid holding it up to your ear, but if you have small hands you're going to struggle to reach across the on-screen keyboard.

Making calls on the Desire Eye is as you would expect from a noted manufacturer like HTC. The company's been making phones for the last fifteen years or so and knows how to do it. I found call clarity and volume were both fine, even when talking with plenty of background noise. None of my recipients reported any issues on their end either.

Signal strength never posed a problem and HTC is well versed in presenting a clean, simple contact database. You can import from your SIM or an email account and the phone will pull in profile pictures for incoming calls if you've synced your numbers with your Facebook account.

I frequently put my calls on speakerphone when chatting to people at home so I can do it while cooking or tidying things away. In this case, the BoomSound speakers gave my calls plenty of volume and I was assured the microphone was picking up my voice even when across the room.

Messaging

HTC's keyboard gets the job done although, as I mentioned before, the size of the Desire Eye can make typing one-handed tricky. The word prediction is, for the most part, accurate. Once or twice it seemed to stagger over applying the caps lock for certain words. Predicted text appears in a small banner above the keyboard showing multiple suggestions.

It doesn't have the swipe-to-text feature that you'll find on other manufacturer's keyboards but thanks to Google Play you can download SwiftKey to sort you out.

I only had one spot of trouble with messaging on the Desire Eye when, one evening, it wasn't able to send messages through even though I had signal. I reset the phone and the problem persisted, although a full shutdown and restart seemed to sort the problem out.

Browsing

Like pretty much every other Android handset out there, the Desire Eye comes with two browsers – a standard HTC one and Google's Chrome. Both are equally adept and surfing the web, letting you tab pages, save bookmarks, browse incognito and view your history.

It comes down to personal preference but I like the look of Chrome and the option to carry my bookmarks over from my desktop browser. With both browsers you can pinch to zoom and rotate the page to view it in landscape. It's an obvious benefit of having a larger screen that you can see more of the website. You can also set the Desire Eye to automatically favour mobile or desktop pages depending on your preference.

What would be easiest though is if we could save the space and just have a single browser installed. One day, perhaps.

Camera

HTC is making the Desire Eye all about the camera. The company has dropped the 4MP "Ultrapixel" route it took with the One M7 and One M8 and opted for a 13MP snapper instead. Two, in fact.

Both the front and the back cameras are supported by a two-tone dual-LED flash and are capable of shooting 1080p video at 30fps. The front-facing camera has a slightly wider lens so you can have group video calling as well.

HTC's face-tracking software does a good job of keeping everyone in focus, although I'm not sure how often you're really going to use a smartphone for a team video conference.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the front-facing camera just isn't quite as good as HTC wants it to be. It picks up a lot of light and the result is a whitening of the images that's noticeable when looking at skin tone. Then again, in low-light situations without the flash the camera struggles and isn't as good as the HTC One M8.

Obviously the increase in pixels does have an effect and the front camera on the Eye will pick up plenty of detail. Although amusingly, it comes with an adjustable "beautification scale" that will smooth out the imperfections the camera has picked up in your skin.

To be clear, the quality of the front-facing camera is a big step up from the 5MP cameras we're used to seeing on phones and tablets, but just isn't enough to beat out the flagship models. I do just want to mention the dedicated shutter button, though. On most Android handsets you can use the volume rocker as a makeshift shutter button, but it's always a pleasure to have a proper one built in.

The rear-facing camera is a solid enough performer, but it still won't best the very top phones. The sensor produces an image that's ever-so-slightly darker with a better contrast.

If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of the camera then HTC has given you the means to do so. There are several ways to adjust the ISO and white balance, as well as applying filters and post-snap crops and edits.

There's no Duo sensor here like there was on the M8 so you can't re-focus the picture after you've taken it. HTC has also left out its Zoe mode that combines a high-res burst mode with a 3-second video snippet.

You can shoot a 360 degree panorama or use the photo booth mode which acts as a surrogate burst mode for Zoe. Perhaps the most interesting feature though is the dual-capture mode that shoots simultaneously from the front and back cameras – splitting the screen in two.

HTC's promotional video showed this in use on a mountain bike ride – capturing both the direction of travel and the commentary from the rider. It's a pretty neat feature that shouldn't by any stretch be a reason to buy the phone, but you'll have fun creating things with it.

That's about the best way to sum up the cameras on the Desire Eye. The features are fun to play with, but don't buy the phone on the strength of the camera alone. Click over the page to see some examples of pictures taken with the Desire Eye.

Camera examples

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Comparisons

Nokia Lumia 735

Nokia might have been consumed by Microsoft, but the Lumia brand has always been known for its strong built-in cameras. The Lumia 735 – one of the last to bear the Nokia name – has a powerful 5MP front-facing camera to try and lure in the same selfie crowd as the HTC Desire Eye.

Like every Lumia, it comes in a range of colours and feels like it can withstand plenty of knocks. When it comes to performance though, the Lumia 735 gets pasted by the Desire Eye. The processor on board the Lumia is a Snapdragon 400 backed by 1GB of RAM and the 4.7-inch display is a mere 1,280 x 800 resolution. If it's performance you're after, definitely go for the Desire Eye.

If, however, you're just after the best selfie device, the Lumia 735 puts forward a good case. There's a 5MP front-facing sensor with a single LED flash and decent colour reproduction. Nokia's Lumia Selfie app lets you add in filters, should you wish. In terms of contrast, it's on a par with the Eye – although HTC's handset can lay claim to capturing more detail.

• Read our full Nokia Lumia 735 review

Acer Liquid E3

Acer's not known for making smartphones, and it shows with this model as soon as you try and make a call. Call quality leaves a lot to be desired even though the rest of the phone isn't too bad – especially given its £128 ($210, AU$237) price.

Acer is keen to make much of the camera features of the Liquid E3. It's got a rear-facing 13MP camera and a front-facing 2MP one aided by an LED flash. There aren't many settings to play with though and although the output is decent, pictures are still a long way from the quality of a top-end Samsung, Sony or indeed HTC handset.

For selfie fans there's face detection and a self timer, but in practice the Liquid E3 struggles with balancing light. There doesn't appear to be a manual way to engage the forward-facing flash either. So unless you're really after a budget selfie phone for your next purchase, the HTC Desire Eye remains the better choice between the two.

• Read our full Acer Liquid E3 review

Huawei Ascend P7

Huawei's Ascend P7 is perhaps more of a threat to the Desire Eye than either of the two previous handsets. It's got a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, Full HD 5-inch display, 2GB of RAM, microSD slot, a front-facing 8MP camera and a favourable €449 (around £370, $625, AU$690) price point.

Selfies on the Ascend P7 aren't bad to begin with, but then Huawei has added plenty of features to play with including the beauty slider scale. Like the Desire Eye it promises to remove the imperfections in your face but ends up looking a bit ridiculous. There's also a front-facing panorama option to squeeze even more people into your selfie.

Huawei has clad it all into a well designed package that is smaller and thinner than the Desire Eye, although it doesn't feel quite as robust. What's more, the Emotion UI that Huawei uses isn't as good as HTC's Sense overlay.

Gun to my head, I'd pick the Desire Eye over the Ascend P7 but it's still a worthwhile handset given the price.

• Read our full Huawei Ascend P7 review

Verdict

I liked the Desire Eye. Which surprised me. At first I thought it'd be too plasticy and too big – and I think there's still something in the second reason. A 5.2-inch smartphone is going to be too big for some, no matter how well it's made.

But trust me, it's very well made. In fact, HTC's got the promotion of this device all wrong. It shouldn't be about the 13MP cameras, which aren't better than you'll find elsewhere, but about the build quality.

We liked

HTC has always nailed design. The metallic premium casing of the One series was very well received and I'd be surprised if the Desire Eye doesn't get a similar reaction. The construction of the phone's chassis is excellent. It feels comfortable in the hand, it's durable and waterproof and it looks really good.

Then there are the specs. Suffice to say there's a lot more power here than we've ever seen from the Desire range before. It's on a par with some of the flagships from earlier this year certainly makes a case for surpassing those from last year. We're looking at the HTC One in particular.

HTC Sense is also a good way to differentiate the company's phones from the other Android offerings and some features, like BlinkFeed and the battery saver, are really useful.

We disliked

For a phone sold on the strength of its cameras, they're really not all that great. The rear-facing camera doesn't offer a knockout feature like OIS and the lens is easily obscured by your finger. The front-facing camera meanwhile chooses a wide angle over better low-light performance. They're not bad cameras, by any means, but they're definitely not the reason to buy the phone.

Storage seems like a bit of a weak point to pull the Desire Eye up on, considering it offers a microSD slot – but I'd still liked to have seen a 32GB option.

Likewise, it seems like I'm labouring the point a bit, but this is quite a large phone. Not just the screen, either. It's got a bulky chassis that, while excellently designed, isn't going to play nice with skinny jean pockets and small handbags.

Final verdict

Rather than pushing the camera features, HTC should have focused on the fact they've crafted a handset with great build quality and specifications approaching most flagship phones.

The front-facing camera doesn't cope as well in low light as the HTC One M8 or the iPhone 6. But then the polycarbonate casing looks good, the phone won't break if you drop it in a sink full of water and it's not as expensive as the flagships.

It's difficult to know exactly where to put the Desire Eye because of this. It's certainly one of the best "mid tier" handsets I've ever seen. Don't believe the marketing HTC is pushing on you, but do consider it if you want a good all-rounder at a reasonable price.

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