HTC Desire Eye hands-on: First look

HTC Desire Eye hardware

The HTC Desire Eye has a unique face - the 13MP front-facing camera takes up nearly the entire bezel above the screen. The sheer size indicates just how important the front-camera is here - you're no longer peering down a tiny pinhole.

HTC Desire Eye

The dual-LED flash feels equally strange above the screen, it's as if someone took the top part of the phone and twisted it 180° around. But it too sends the message that selfies are as important as general photos, the motto of the Desire Eye.

A close-up of both cameras

The phone has three microphones - one at the bottom for calls as usual and then one for each camera. Selfies are not the only focus of the Desire Eye, videos of your handsome mug are equally important.

It doesn't look like it in the photos (you can barely tell in person too) but there are front-facing stereo speakers, HTC's trademark BoomSound setup, on the front around the screen. HTC's newfound focus on photography doesn't mean the company is backing away from their music-centric image.

Still, with a large camera and two speakers on the front the phone is rather large. It measures 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5mm, that's taller than the 5.5" LG G3 and nearly as wide and thick too. At 154g it's heavier than the LG flagship as well. Here's how it stacks up against the HTC One (M8) for Windows.

The design of the HTC Desire Eye divides the body into three segments. It's clearly seen in the blue version - the front is white, there's a light blue trim around the phone and a dark blue back. The other version we got to see is white on the front and back with a bright red in between.

We like the front and middle plastic, it's Nokia-style polycarbonate that are great to touch. The back quickly becomes a smudgy mess though - taking some points off the overall feel.

Both color versions

The camera setup on the back is less crowded since there's plenty of room and little else besides the HTC logo. The lens is in the upper left corner, the dual-LED flash below it and there's a microphone a bit to the side.

The Desire Eye is IPX7-rated but you can't tell just by looking at it. The audio jack and even the microUSB port are left uncovered, meaning nothing will get in your way when charging the phone or connecting it to a PC.

microUSB 2.0 port and microphone on the bottom • 3.5mm audio jack on top

A small giveaway is the hardware shutter key on the right side of the phone - touchscreens don't work underwater so water-resistant phones often have hardware keys to let you snap underwater images. On the same side is the volume rocker and the Power key.

The opposite side houses the two card slots - nanoSIM and microSD. The phone comes with 16GB of built-in storage and you can add up to 128GB more with a memory card.

Two card slots on the left • Hardware buttons - including a shutter key - on the right

With all this talk about cameras, we almost forgot about screen - and given how good it is we really shouldn't have. It's HTC's first 5.2" screen and at 1080p resolution it has 423ppi pixel density, which in practice looks as good as the 441ppi screen of the HTC One (M8).

See a quick video walkthrough of the HTC Desire Eye and its key features below.