HTC Desire Eye: Australian Price, Release Date

HTC’s market-beating selfie phone, the Desire Eye, is finally coming out in Australia. It’s a little pricey for a Desire model, but it’s got the tech to back it up.

Let’s cast our minds back a bit: what is the HTC Desire Eye?

Well, it’s packing a 5.2-inch full HD 1080p display on the surface, while underneath you’re looking at 2GB of RAM and the powerful 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor from Qualcomm.

Elsewhere, you get 16GB of storage expandable up to 128GB via microSD, HTC BoomSound speakers, and a 2400mAh (non-removable) battery to keep it all going.

Now onto the cameras. You get a 13-megapixel BSI sensor in the rear-facing camera, wth a constant f/2.0, 28mm wide-angle lens and dual LED flash. Meanwhile, around the front, you also get a 13-megapixel camera with a 22mm, constant f/2.2 lens, as well as the dual-LED flash. That means you’ll never take a crap selfie again with the Eye.

Speaking of the ‘Eye’ name, you’ll understand it from the second you see it. Sans a glowing red-light behind the massive eye-like lens in the top of the device, it’s basically HAL 9000.

To give justice to its robot-like look, HTC has put some insanely clever software behind those big camera sensors to make it a great user experience beyond the hardware.

The camera can now be activated via HTC’s Motion Launch functionality first debuted in HTC Sense 6, and a quick swipe on the camera screen will see you seamlessly flip from front-facing to rear-facing camera.

In the same vein as its Zoe camera software, the HTC Desire Eye captures a small amount of video with your images so you can choose to animate or adjust your moments it accordingly.

There’s a new variety of ways to capture a selfie too so that you aren’t fumbling with a button on-screen while also trying to look suave. The Auto-Selfie feature detects smiles after one to two seconds, and the camera then automatically captures the photo. Similarly, there’s Voice Capture, which allows you to say “Capture” to snap an image. Alternatively, you can just say “Cheese”, which is a nifty little touch.

So what’s all this going to run you in the finance department?

Well, JB Hi-Fi is who you need to go and see about getting one for yourself, and it’s going to set you back $799. You’ll be able to pick it up from 20 November.


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