In NYC on Wednesday , HTC made three big announcements at its ‘Double Exposure’ event, where the company claimed that it is "redefining mobile imaging". The first announcement is the new Desire EYE, its new mid-tier flagship phone, with 13 MP cameras on both the front and back.
The second announcement is the RE viewfinder-less hand-held 16 MP camera.
The HTC Desire Eye is a 5.2-inch smartphone with specs very similar to the flagship One M8, only in a spiffy flat polycarbonate body — and with a 13-megapixel camera not just on the rear of the phone, but on the front as well. Yes, it's the selfie phone. In the U.S., it'll be available on AT&T.
New camera software on the Desire Eye will be coming to HTC's other high-end devices in software updates in the coming months.
The HTC RE camera (which we'll also refer to as the Re camera) is a little handheld camera very much the size and shape of an asthma inhaler (but much better designed, of course). It's got a 16-megapixel Sony DSC sensor and a 146-degree field of view, tethers to Android or iOS phones or can shoot on its own. It's just the start of the RE line and the beginning of HTC's exploration of products beyond the traditional mobile world.
HTC Desire EYE
The Desire EYE is the latest handset in HTC’s mid-range desire line. However, unlike previous Desires, the EYE sports some top-end internal hardware, making it comparable in many ways to the One M8 and E8.
This new phone has front and rear 13 MP cameras, with dual-LED flashes on both. Obviously, HTC is targeting the selfie crowd, though HTC was sure to let us know that they don’t want to emphasize that the EYE is a selfie phone because of the negative "self-obsessed" connotations that the term has. The rear camera is 28 mm wide and has an f/2.0 aperture, and the front camera is a wider 22 mm with an f/2.2 lens. There is also a hardware shutter button.
In order to leverage the dual cameras, HTC has also upgraded its camera software with new modes and features, what it's calling the HTC EYE Experience. Some of the features that have been added are improved video calling that uses face tracking to keep you in the frame even if you are moving around while talking. There is also a split-capture mode that can simultaneously take stills or videos from both cameras into one image or video. HTC is also adding voice commands to trigger the shutter to help make taking selfies easier. HTC also announced that the new EYE Experience camera features will be coming to other HTC phones, including the ONE M8.
Despite the great camera hardware, the EYE is still a Desire product, so don’t expect to find any metal here. It’s an all-plastic device, but it is an IPX7 waterproof phone, which is a first for HTC.
As mentioned before, despite it being a mid-tier phone, the Desire EYE does have some high-end specifications, such as being powered by a 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AB SoC. It has a 5.2” Full HD IPS display, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage (and a microSD slot) and a 2,400 mAh battery. It also has front facing Boomsound speakers, with the same hardware amplifiers as the One M8. All-in-all, these are some pretty kick-ass specs for a mid-tier device. One compromise (other than the plastic construction) to bring the costs down is that the EYE does not support wireless AC. Still, based on our brief time with it, the EYE is a really nice phone.
The HTC Desire EYE will be an AT&T exclusive in the US, and pricing and availability were not announced at the event.
RE Camera
The RE is HTC’s attempt to take on the growing small handheld camera market, although HTC was keen to express that it isn't going after the GoPro category – the RE is not a camera for extreme sports. The example that HTC used is that too often at an important event, be it a concert or a family gathering, you spend more time looking at your phone’s screen while taking pictures and video than actually experiencing the moment, and the RE seeks to address this.
It does not have a viewfinder, but it has a very wide lens, so you can be sure that what you want to capture is in frame without being able to see it. Of course, if you do need to see what you are shooting, you can remote control it with your iOS or Android phone and use that as a viewfinder.
The 16 MP RE turns on when you pick it up since it has a capacitive sensor in its body, and you have to tap the button on the back to take a still picture or hold it down to take a Full HD (1080p) video. It is also capable of shooting 80 FPS slow-motion video and taking time-lapse video, too. While the RE doesn't have any livestreaming functionality out of the box, HTC announced that livestreaming with the RE will be coming in the future via a partnership with YouTube.
The RE has an 810 mAh battery and captures 1.5 hours of video or 1200 stills, and there's a microSD slot for image storage. An 8 GB card comes in the box. It will be $199 and come in multiple colors when it goes on sale in the U.S., with availability directly from HTC and leading retailers and carriers, including Best Buy, Amazon and Verizon.
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