HTC RE and Desire Eye: Just the basics

RE Orange
HTC’s announced its first action camera, the HTC RE, as well as a mid-range Desire handset, the Eye. Here’s what you need to know.
The HTC RE is an action camera (think GoPro, Contour, et al) with a very unique shape. It looks like a tiny periscope, or possibly an asthma inhaler, but it’s neither of those things.

Available in multiple colours, because why not?
Available in multiple colours, because why not?

Instead, it’s a 1080P-capable video camera with a 16MP sensor and a 146-degree wide angle lens. It’s waterproof, rated IP57 for dust and water ingress, which should see it capable of surviving up to 1 metre underwater for up to 30 minutes.
As with most action cameras, you can buy mounting accessories. This is the head mount, ideal for point of view shots, as well as capturing people looking at you oddly because you've got a camera on your forehead.
As with most action cameras, you can buy mounting accessories. This is the head mount, ideal for point of view shots, as well as capturing people looking at you oddly because you’ve got a camera on your forehead.

Storage on the HTC RE is via microSD with an included 8GB card in the box, but it’ll take up to 128GB cards if you’ve got them.
Battery life for the HTC RE is rated as good for one hour and forty minutes of video recording, or up to 1,200 photos, but there’s no display on the HTC RE camera for you to review footage.
Instead, it’ll pair with an iOS or Android device for file sharing and remote viewfinder capabilities.
One neat touch with the HTC RE is that there’s also no power button. A grip sensor works out when it’s been picked up, and then a single button takes photos with a tap or video with a longer press.
HTC’s still a phone company at heart, however, so it’s also announced a new entry in the Desire range. The HTC Desire EYE is an Android handset with a plastic finish that looks vaguely iPhone 5c-ish, with very solid candy tones.
Warning May contain traces of Blinkfeed.
Warning: May contain traces of Blinkfeed.

The Desire EYE runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz with 16GB of onboard storage (plus microSD) and 2GB of RAM. It’s IPX7 rated, so should survive a dunk of up to a metre for 30 minutes, although being a touchscreen phone, you can’t actually use it underwater.
The EYE branding comes from its dual 13MP cameras, pitched rather obviously at the selfie generation. The display is a 5.2 inch 1080p LCD. It’s also the first smartphone to run HTC’s new “HTC Eye Experience” software, which promised multi-head tracking for video calling as well as dual picture in picture shooting.
The latter isn’t a unique feature to HTC, and to be honest I’ve never been thrilled by it on other phones, but it’s there if you want it. HTC reckons HTC Eye Experience will also be rolled out for the HTC One (M7), HTC One (M8), HTC One E8, HTC One mini, HTC One mini 2, HTC One max, HTC Desire 816, HTC Desire 820 and HTC Butterfly 2 “in coming months”. It’ll also join the iOS version of HTC Zoe in that regard, which is also still “coming soon”.
HTC hasn’t announced pricing for the RE or Desire EYE, but expects the Desire EYE to go on sale in Australia in October. The RE starts shipping in the US in late October for $199, with other markets to follow. I’m expecting to get some hands-on time with both the RE and the Desire EYE, so stay tuned for further thoughts.
Alex Kidman travelled to New York as a guest of HTC

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