Selfies have become a cornerstone of popular culture with everyone from teenagers to the President of the United States taking them. The HTC Desire Eye will not only have a high quality rear camera but also a 13 MP front facing cameras. HTC wants to target teens who are always taking selfies, but they also want to ensure reports who are livestreaming can have high quality video or to make sure anyone who uses can be seen clearly.
The screen is 5.2-inch 1080p, but shouldn’t be too large to use with just one hand. The phone also is IPX7 rating for water resistance, so you don’t have to worry about your phone getting a little wet. The phone sports a Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage that can be expanded with a microSD card slot, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 2,400mAh battery. The phone will launch in the United States in coral red with a white face and submarine blue with a white face and a darker blue back panel.
The HTC Desire EYE will be an AT&T exclusive at first, which we still don’t understand why phone companies make exclusive phones. It slows sells for the phone and prevents a large market of people from getting their hands on the phone that only appeals to a small market.
HTC also introduce what appears to be a GoPro competitor that’s meant for people who do less adventurous things. The HTC RE is a small periscope shaped camera that’s being positioned as a way for soccer moms to record their childs soccer game without being stuck behind a large cell phone screen. The camera shoots video in 1080p or 720p 4x slow-motion, or quickly to snap a photo with its 16-megapixel camera with a 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor, a 146-degree f/2.8 wide-angle lens.
In terms of specs, the RE camera measures just 96.7mm x 26.5mm, easy to hold in your palm, and weighs just 65.5 grams. It has an 820mAh battery good for up to 1 hour and 40 minutes of continuous FHD shooting or 1,200 photos. You’ll find 8GB of microSD card storage built-in, though there’s a microSD hatch on the bottom for adding up to 128GB microSD cards. The large expandable space is useful if the battery life was expanding because no one will fill up a full 128GB card in the time frame of a little under 2 hours.
The HTC RE retails for $199, now more expensive than the cheap GoPro Hero, and you will be able to find the camera at major retailers like BestBuy. The RE works with all Android phones via an app and also supports iOS allowing you to transfer the photos straight to your smart phone quickly. The RE is waterproof, and will offer lanyards, bike mounts and more once it goes on sell.
Tell us in the comments below what you think about the HTC Desire EYE and HTC RE. Do you think you would want either or are they signs of a last ditch attempt from a company that is struggling to stay relevant.