HTC’s Next Smartphone Targeted To Selfie Enthusiasts

Taking selfies continue to be the "in" thing to do these days, and it appears that this trend will not be going away soon. Mobile phone manufacturers are certainly aware of this, and most of them are competing against each other in order to offer a device that will appeal most to selfie-cionados. HTC, the Taiwan-based phone maker, is no exception. As a matter of fact, the company's next smartphone, the Desire Eye, will be positioned by HTC as a true selfie phone. 

The Desire Eye will be one of the first smartphones offered by HTC that features a 13-megapixel front-facing camera. This resolution easily matches that of the device's rear camera, because if you want to build a smartphone for selfie addicts, why not equip it with two high-resolution cameras on both its sides? The HTC Desire Eye smartphone will also come with a new set of imaging features and tools, as well as the usual Sense experience. 

HTC's selfie phone is no means the first device to feature twin 13-megapixel camera on both sides. In fact, a clone phone called the THL W11 Monkey King holds that distinction. The Desire Eye, however, will be the first from a major phone maker brand that will be widely distributed. AT&T is planning to launch it exclusively in the United States sometime in October this year. And because HTC is positioning the device as one of the company's flagship offerings, the Desire Eye will likely be released in Europe and Asia in the next few months.

Now for a closer look at this selfie smartphone. The Desire Eye weighs 154 grams, measures 8.5 millimeters in thickness, and comes with a 5.2-inch 1080p resolution display screen. Design-wise, the device has rounded edges and sides that bubble out a bit, although its back is comfortably flat. The unibody is a two-tone, polycarbonate type, which users may find familiar (the same unibody design is used on the HTC Desire 820 handset). Adventurous users may be delighted to know that the Desire Eye has a waterproof rating of IPX7, which means that the device can be submerged underwater at a depth of one meter for up to half an hour. 

As mentioned earlier, the Desire Eye comes with a new set of imaging features and tools. Collectively called the Eye Experience, these features and tools will be made available on future HTC devices not long from now. While not groundbreaking, the features of the Eye Experience will certainly help users be more creative in capturing selfies and images. One nifty feature uses a face-tracking technique for video conference calls that can detect up to four faces, and then display each face separately in individual frames. If users were video chatting on Skype with multiple participants on the other line, they would see individual frames for each participant, not just a group of people bunched up in one wide frame. 

Then there is the crop-me-in mode, which selfie enthusiasts should find interesting. This feature lets users take a selfie shot, and then copy and paste that shot into a rear-camera shot. Other features include Split Capture, which allows users to take a rear picture simultaneously with a selfie and then put both shots side by side in a split-pane view; Face Fusion, which merges two faces; Live Makeup for, yup, instant makeup; and Photo Booth, which generates photo booth-style frames for your selfies and shots. The Eye Experience will be coming to other HTC devices soon, including the M7/M8, E8, Butterfly 2, One mini/One mini 2, One max, Desire 813, and Desire 820. 

Hardware-wise, the Desire Eye will feature a 2.3 GigaHertz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset, 16 gigabytes of internal storage, 2 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), BoomSound, and a 2,400 mAh battery.