HTC Desire Eye review: Undercover flagship

Controls

The area above the display of HTC Desire Eye is quite busy. It is home of the 13MP front-facing camera, its two-tone flash, and a small microphone pinhole. The ambient light and proximity sensors are by the camera's side.

One of the BoomSound stereo speakers is located under a tiny strip above the display too. The same goes for the earpiece.

The area above the display

The second stereo speaker sits below the display. There's an HTC logo above it.

A look below the display of HTC Desire Eye

On the left side of the device, you will find the microSD card slot and its nano-SIM counterpart. Both of them are tightly sealed.

The left side of the device

The volume rocker, the power/lock key, and the dedicated camera button are located on the right side of the device. Like we mentioned already, the side power/lock key helps the one-handed operation of the device a great deal.

A trio of buttons on the right side

The 3.5mm audio jack sits uncovered on top. The same goes for the microUSB port on the bottom. Another microphone pinhole sits there as well.

The top and bottom of the smartphone

The main 13MP camera and its dual-LED flash are located at the top left corner of the device's back. A microphone pinhole and an HTC logo complete the setup. A small AT&T globe for the US carrier version is also sitting there.

The back of the device

HTC Desire Eye battery life

HTC Desire Eye is powered by a 2,400mAh battery. According to the official stats it should be enough for about a day's worth of 3G calls and 22 days on stand-by. Naturally, we've ran our battery test and the results are in.

The Desire Eye is indeed capable of lasting 19 hours on a call. Its browser and video playback endurances are also commendable, and the standby performance is above average.

The HTC Desire Eye posted 70 hour endurance rating, meaning you can use the smartphone for about three days and do an hour each of calling, web browsing, and watching videos each day.

Make note, that our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but it is calculated in the total endurance rating.

It's a surprising result since it matches what we got from the HTC One (M8) despite the smaller capacity battery and the bigger screen, which the Desire Eye touts.

Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.

Connectivity

HTC Desire Eye packs a solid set of connectivity features, mostly matching the One (M8). You still get quad-band GSM, 3G, and LTE support.

The local wireless connectivity has Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac and DLNA support (both client and server, for images, videos and music) and stereo Bluetooth 4.0 with the higher-quality aptX codec.

HTC has conveniently designed a special options screen, when you connect the Desire Eye to a PC. The long list of options includes Portable Wi-Fi hotspot, settings, USB and Bluetooth tethering (the phone becomes a modem).

NFC connectivity with Android Beam is available too. There's a microSD card slot too supporting up to 128GB of storage.

USB On The Go and TV Out functionality are also available.

Perhaps the only thing that's missing compared to the HTC One (M8) equipment is the IR port, which, with the right app, can be used to remotely control various home appliances. Depending on the individual preference however, that may not be such a huge loss.