HTC Desire Eye

Available now
9th October 2014

The "Desire" name has been applied to many HTC handsets over the years, from the original flagship Android device to the current range of midrange and budget smartphones. The HTC Desire Eye is the latest addition to the range, and pushes it into uncharted territory with a device that challenges the class-leading HTC One M8 in terms of capabilities, but comes with some unique features of its own.

This is quite a high-end device and the immediately obvious feature is that it has a 13 megapixel camera on both the front and the back of the phone. We've seen "selfie" phones like this before, but the Desire Eye takes it to a new level. Another obvious feature is the large 5.2" 1080 x 1920 pixel display on the front, bigger than the One M8 but with the same resolution.

Inside is a 2.4GHz quad-core CPU with 2GB of RAM, very similar to what is in the HTC One M8, along with 16GB of flash storage plus a microSD slot. In almost all features the Desire Eye is as good as the One M8 or is better, except that the One M8 does come with a gorgeous (but expensive) metal case where the Desire Eye is somewhat simpler. The design is unfussy and elegant, and one very subtle feature with the Desire Eye are the front-facing speakers which are discretely hidden around the display bezel.

Even though the One M8 has been a successful device, the trick dual 4 megapixel camera on the back is seen as both over complicated and lacking when it comes to its pixel count. To some extent the cheaper HTC One E8 resolves the camera issue by packing a 13 megapixel primary camera and simpler case design, so conceptually the Desire Eye is probably more closely related to the One E8 than the One M8.

The camera comes with all sorts of clever editing tricks that can be done automatically rather then firing up Photoshop, and many of these features will be rolled out to other recent HTC smartphones via a software update. Both cameras can take 1080p video and have a dual LED flash.

This is an LTE capable device with NFC, it is also water resistant to IPX7 standards. The Desire Eye measures 152 x 74 x 8.5mm, weighs 154 grams and has a 2400 mAh battery. On top of that it comes with all the usual features that you would expect to find in a reasonably high-end smartphone.

Initial reports say that the HTC Desire Eye will be available on AT&T in the US next month with other regions following. No guidance was given on price, but we would expect it to be a similar price point to the HTC One M8 at launch.