HTC's Desire series of smartphone run very decently on the android 2.3ghs. These mid-range devices catered the peaple who wanted the phone in the range of Rs 20000-30000, it gives competition to samsung and LG.
With the new HTC Desire 816, the company intends to rekindle interest in this segment and hopefully reverse its run of bad fortune. This phone has a large 5.5-inch screen - a crowd favourite - and the twin promises of great camera performance and great battery life. There is no doubt that this phone will be very popular if those promises are kept.
LOOK AND FEEL
HTC has adapted the design it developed for the One (M7), which means thinner bezels on the left and right, and more space on the top and bottom to accommodate dual front-firing speakers. The Desire 816 is more or less consistent with this tall, elongated design, but differentiates itself with a large 5.5-inch display. This makes it wider and taller than the rest of the new crop of HTC smartphones. Coupled with a thickness of 8mm and weight of 165g, the HTC Desire 816 is solid to hold. On the whole, this is a sturdily constructed smartphone.
One problem with the polycarbonate body is that it involves both glossy and matte textures. As a result, you'll have to deal with issues inherent to both types of finish. In our white variant, we noticed that the glossy back attracted loads of smudges while the matte edges and front were dust magnets.
FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS
On paper, the HTC Desire 816's specifications are on par with those of the Moto G (review) which retails at almost half the price. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.6GHz, it is evident that the HTC Desire 816 is not aiming for top-of-the-line specifications. We wish HTC had chosen at least the Snapdragon 600, which is more suitable for mid-range smartphones. Graphics are handled by an integrated Adreno 305 GPU. The phone has 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, of which only around 4GB is available for use. This is disappointing, but thankfully HTC allows expansion up to 128GB using a microSD card.
The HTC Desire 816 has a 13-megapixel rear camera with a flash, and can record 1080p videos. It also has a 5-megapixel front camera that can be used to capture even the pimples on your face with great clarity in the Selfie mode. The phone accepts two Nano-SIM cards, both of which can connect to 3G networks.
The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 720x1280, which means a pixel density of 267ppi. Many of the current crop of 5.5-inch smartphones have the same specifications. The screen is crisp enough, but is dull even at maximum brightness. This in turn amplifies reflections and affects sunlight legibility and viewing angles. We think the Samsung Note 3 Neo's (review) screen is marginally better.
Software
We are glad that HTC has decided to ship the Desire 816 with the latest version of Android - version 4.4.2 (Kitkat) - and the new HTC Sense 6 skin. It looks identical to the software running on the new HTC One (M8) (review). This skin has the same Blinkfeed news reader on the extreme left homescreen, and a vertically scrolling app drawer.
We are glad that HTC has decided to ship the Desire 816 with the latest version of Android - version 4.4.2 (Kitkat) - and the new HTC Sense 6 skin. It looks identical to the software running on the new HTC One (M8) (review). This skin has the same Blinkfeed news reader on the extreme left homescreen, and a vertically scrolling app drawer.
Blinkfeed trumps Samsung's Magazine app by a long shot. HTC also provides users with two other interfaces that can be used for specific purposes - Car Mode and Kid Mode. In the Car mode, there are a few often-used icons for easy access, and the Kid Mode lets parents lock down settings and available apps. HTC bundles the Polaris Office 5 suite and an app called Scribble, which allows users to take notes. The HTC Setup Mode is available whenever you want it, and is probably the best way to customise the phone.
Camera
Unlike the Ultrapixel camera on the HTC One series, the Desire 816 has a standard 13-megapixel camera and it is surprisingly good. We give full marks to HTC for advertising it right.Pictures shot in broad daylight are crystal clear, and have very little noise. There is very minimal loss of detail, though on closer inspection, we noticed different shades of green were slightly mismatched. The camera tries hard to latch on to any source of light in low-light shots and the captured images, after struggling with the focus, have a watercoloured effect to them. Then again, the results are definitely much better than what's possible with all the other phones in this price range. In fact, at times, it performs better in low light than some higher priced phones too. The only negative point is that recorded 1080p video loses some details.
Unlike the Ultrapixel camera on the HTC One series, the Desire 816 has a standard 13-megapixel camera and it is surprisingly good. We give full marks to HTC for advertising it right.Pictures shot in broad daylight are crystal clear, and have very little noise. There is very minimal loss of detail, though on closer inspection, we noticed different shades of green were slightly mismatched. The camera tries hard to latch on to any source of light in low-light shots and the captured images, after struggling with the focus, have a watercoloured effect to them. Then again, the results are definitely much better than what's possible with all the other phones in this price range. In fact, at times, it performs better in low light than some higher priced phones too. The only negative point is that recorded 1080p video loses some details.