HTC Desire Eye 4G $488 Save $100 @ JB Hi-Fi

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• 

  johnn on 12/06/2015 - 22:15

  +3

  Interesting phone. Very much designed for selfie-lovers with its front facing 13 MP camera.

  Reviews seem quite favourable too.

  GSMArena
  Trusted Reviews

• 

  SpaceNinja on 12/06/2015 - 22:59

  +15

  eyePhone

• 

  dadeadman on 12/06/2015 - 23:06

  13 mp front and back. Nice. Wonder how its speakers compare to M8 or M9.

  • 

    Ronnnie on 13/06/2015 - 00:57

    Same as m8 I believe

• 

  miq on 12/06/2015 - 23:51

  this thing is, to quote Darrell Eastlake, 'HUUUUUUUGE!'

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 13/06/2015 - 00:07

    -1

    'HUUUUUUUGE!'

    That's. What. She. Said.

  • 

    scrimshaw on 13/06/2015 - 00:15

    +1

    Yeap, this phone has some phat bezels — phat enough to make Kardashian's butt jealous.

    http://i.imgur.com/MXuI5nt.jpg

    • 

      WhyAmICommenting on 13/06/2015 - 00:19

      +2

      I feel so slim right now (LG G2 user)

• 

  jackary on 13/06/2015 - 01:21

  +1

  2400mAh Battery… Enough said…

  • 

    HN Professional on 13/06/2015 - 01:58

    +2

    <asks meekly>
    Is that bad or good?

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 13/06/2015 - 02:07

      +2

      Bad on paper.
      Actually seeing some people's experience with this phone, the battery life isn't too bad, probably optimised well. But yeah on paper it's slightly small.

      • 

        HN Professional on 13/06/2015 - 02:13

        Thanks, clse945111.

    • 

      scrimshaw on 13/06/2015 - 02:12

      +1

      It's smaller than similar phones in it's class, that's for sure.

      Xperia Z2 has 3200mah
      Xiaomi Mi4 has 3080mah
      LG G2 has a 3000mah
      HTC One M9 Plus has 2840
      Galaxy S5 has 2800mah

      and this has 2400mah.

      So you could say it's 'relatively small' but GSM arena battery endurance test seems to rate it higher than the LG G2. So the size of the battery is not all there is to the battery life, you'd also have to take into account the energy efficiency of the hardware.

      • 

        HN Professional on 13/06/2015 - 02:16

        Thanks, scrimshaw.

        Asked because I still have a dumb-phone and still procrastinatingly considering whether to get a smartphone. <…hunts around in vain for Huawei Y550 ^_^ )

      • 

        hollykryten on 13/06/2015 - 10:37

        I suppose it depends on how much power the phone draws. Some phones may be more power efficient than others while others aren't and require a higher mah battery.

      • 

        jackary on 13/06/2015 - 13:38

        Hi, I can't attest specifically for this phone but I did own the M8 for a brief while. The battery was very mediocre compared to the G2. In a video loop test, maybe.

      • 

        Ronnnie on 13/06/2015 - 23:52

        @hollykryten:
        Yeah if it like the m8 you should be able to get ~5 hours on screen time. Which is OK.

      • 

        billy_bob on 19/06/2015 - 01:52

        @HN Professional:
        I have a Y550 for sale, brand new in box, pm me.

    • 

      jackary on 13/06/2015 - 13:47

      Very bad on paper. But as clse954111 mentioned some pretty serious optimization goes on to make it passable. I really don't understand how that's good enough these days.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 13/06/2015 - 04:04

  The front camera is unique, but other than that isn't it just an overpriced Xperia z2 with 1GB less ram and a smaller battery?

  • 

    Ronnnie on 13/06/2015 - 23:14

    Nope, ones a Sony and ones a HTC. HTC have the best Android skin imo. I really miss sense, the elegant build quality and the great front facing speakers. It sucks that HTC can't make a phone with a great camera though.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 14/06/2015 - 03:11

      That's all customizable anyway, I'm more talking hardware-wise/physically.
      Nothing against it, though it seems like you're paying a fair damn bit for that front camera (~$50, plus the loss of 1GB RAM and slightly smaller battery), unless the insanely HD front camera is a must it's really not worth it.
      For this who take a fair few selfies and can benefit from the higher definition front camera, well it's a one-of-a-kind phone at this stage; nothing can even near compete.

      • 

        Ronnnie on 14/06/2015 - 05:37

        Where can one buy the Z2 locally $50 cheaper than this?

        Just because it has more ram, doesn't mean the Z2 will perform better. The software optimisations each manufacture put into their version of Android alters the performance. My newer Samsung phone for instance which uses a faster SoC and more ram is noticeably slower at performing the same tasks and introduced lag to the UI that wasn't on my old lower spec HTC.

        Now if you compare the M8 with the Desire Eye; the m8 actually uses a slightly faster processor, so you'd expect it to perform better… However the Desire Eye beats it comfortably in this speed test.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48tF14chcE

        Which shows specs are only one side of the equation.

        Now the M8 on the other hand has outperformed the newer Z3 in speed tests. However the Z3 does show there is benefit in having more Ram, but despite this it still ended up being slower.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48tF14chcE

        I think these types of tests typically push the phone's a lot harder than a typical user ever would. I doubt too many people leave that many apps open. Those tests show that there can be a significant difference in performance using similar hardware, or even shows lower spec devices can outperform better spec devices. Apple have shown this on countless occasions with their well optimised iPhones.

        So yeah there's a lot more to it, then just some customisations.

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 14/06/2015 - 09:02

        @Ronnnie: as said above, with android this is all customizable. You can flash a completely new ROM onto your phone if you wish. On top of this, those video's linked aren't really comparable to real-world situations as unwanted default apps weren't removed beforehand, as an average user would remove.

        I do understand where you're coming from though, the real world performance is more than just the numbers.. Though when the difference is simply 1GB of RAM while nothing else chances hardware wise, that's a clear plus. It usually only gets complicated when comparing various different mobile CPU chips from different manufacturers. As well as this, some phone manufacturers do an amazing job on the firmware side of things for optimizing performance and the Xperia does lack behind a bit with that, though in part that's due to Sony focusing on improved battery life rather than performance optimizations. Just as an example, I've been using my phone on and off a fair bit for the last 9 hours, it's currently on 73% battery and estimates I'll get another 1 day, 4 hours out of the charge. A total of ~35 hours. It does have a much larger battery, though even when you do the rough math the power saving optimizations show a little.
        Just a little note btw, extra RAM comes in handy when opening apps you've recently minimized. Your phone can cache far more ready for instantaneous maximizing when more RAM is available. Android has however become a lot smarter with managing closed apps and what to cache, so this usually (in real world use) isn't overly seen as much of a difference. Anyone who games on their mobile may see a difference though, in a situation where you have to minimize a game to send a few messages and check various social media for example.

        There's been multiple z2 deals for as low as $400 if you shop around enough. Everyday price is ~$450-470.
        (Not including IT Estate's $340 deal as they failed to deliver to all but one buyer on a total of 150+ orders)

        Just a side note, the Z2, M8 and Desire Eye all actually use the exact same processor. The z3 also uses the same though is clocked ever so slightly higher.

        To summarize, I can't say I've ever used a HTC enough to judge their UI, though I personally prefer more raw android anyway so it wouldn't fancy me. I personally see (hardware/physical wise) waterproof, 1GB extra ram and a larger battery as more of an incentive than a 20.7mp front camera. On top of this, I personally prefer the power saving optimizations over performance, even if a full day of battery life is insanely overkill.

        Just another side note (well, question), are the phones in the video linked both on the same version of Android? (I believe they are by the look of it)
        And secondly, with mentioning your personal experience, are they both the same version then too?

      • 

        [Deactivated] on 14/06/2015 - 10:25

        At this price point I'd personally spend a bit more to get the Z3 other than Z2 just for the better battery life, but that's just me. I guess one thing with Sony is still their UI, while it's not bad it's certainly not on par with Sense, but better than Touchwiz. I personally don't use third party ones cause many of them come with unbelievably amount of crap like Go launcher. 1 GB less ram does look worse on paper but I've never had any lack of ram issues with newer htc phones, cause new Sense is just smooth no matter what, while my Note 4 which has 3GB of ram is lagging the shit out and it's hard to bear with… But basically you can't go wrong with either the Z2 or desire eye, both are good phones that came out of currently struggling manufacturers. Oh and the desire eye is water resistant as well, in case you missed that.

• 

  hollykryten on 13/06/2015 - 10:36

  HTC makes very nice mobile phones. I have a HTC HD7 mobile phone i use and it's built pretty good.

  • 

    misterpotatomato on 13/06/2015 - 11:53

    -4

    Cool story

• 

  Gdsamp on 13/06/2015 - 12:11

  This or LG G3?
  Both available at JB at same price.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 13/06/2015 - 12:21

    If getting the G3 might as well spend < $400, just wait till another deal comes up. The aussie version G3 (2GB ram) isn't worth $488 at all. Smoothness wise though, this HTC will be smoother due to the UI, if that's what you want… And a good front selfie camera, obviously.

    • 

      Spending2Much on 13/06/2015 - 13:02

      All about the selfies!!

      • 

        zombie hunter on 13/06/2015 - 20:00

        it is always about me… selfies so this is phone to get :)

• 

  munishluther on 13/06/2015 - 18:26

  i have g3 which has plenty of issues,,thinking of going for this…

• 

  garage sale on 13/06/2015 - 21:51

  which 4 G does it cover 700 MHz ?

  • 

    TRENT86 on 14/06/2015 - 00:36

    Here are te Bands it supports

    4G - LTE:
    FDD bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 28 (2100/1800/2600/900/700 MHz)
    TDD bands 38, 39, 40, 41 (2600/1900/2300/2600 MHz)

• 

  yahu09 on 14/06/2015 - 00:36

  Thanks, just bought one online and will pick it up in local store.