The Android HTC Desire Eye is a new smartphone made for taking selfies, but what exactly makes a phone a “selfie phone”? To HTC, it means a great front-facing camera, a quality screen, and fun software options that let users play with their photos.
From the Outside
“The display has a full-HD (1920-by-1080-pixel) resolution, which is the highest we’ve so far seen on the mid-range Desire series,” according to CNET. When taken into account with the 5.2-inch display screen, this means the Android HTC Desire Eye has a pixel density of 424 pixels per inch. This is good news for users looking for an affordable way to view media in great quality, since the screen used to check whether the selfie is good or not is just as important as taking the picture itself.
Of course, the most important feature on this phone is the camera. Or, rather, cameras. With selfies in mind, HTC upgraded the front-facing camera to an unforeseen 13 megapixels—the same size as the back-facing camera on both the Eye itself and the Samsung Galaxy S4. The front-facing camera has a built-in flash to shed as much light as possible on the focus of the picture, though CNET reports that “although the front camera has 13 megapixels, images still suffer from noise and blur, particularly in low light.” Still, 13 is a much bigger number than users can expect to find on other phones of similar or better quality.
HTC has also released a variety of software options to make editing photos more fun, including the face-merge feature, which takes the likeness of two people in the photo (or the likeness of a single person and a picture of someone found online) and merges the faces together to create a fun “what if we had a kid?” scenario for the user and their friends. This feature and more are all loaded up on the phone and ready to go as soon as the first picture is taken.
Powering the Inside
The phone comes with 2 GB of RAM and a 2.3-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. It only comes with 16 GB of internal storage, which means about 12 GB are left for the user after initial installations and space taken up by the OS. Storage is expandable up to 128 GB with a microSD card, according to PhoneArena.
The speakers are built into the front of the phone, which means the sound will project directly at the user as opposed to looping around from the back. Although the speakers are smaller than the speakers in the HTC One M8, they do come with a good bit of clarity. This, paired with the quality display, is a combination that is sure to excite media lovers.
HTC truly has made a great selfie phone with the Android HTC Desire Eye, and at a mid-range price to boot. The Verge reports that the phone will sell for $149.99 with a contract but $550 without, which is right where a mid-range phone is expected to land. The quality screen and the strong front-facing camera are great selling points, but are they enough to get the phone into your selfie-taking hands this holiday season?
Image courtesy of Flickr
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