Asus ZenFone 2 Laser: All Performance

The Asus ZenFone 2 Laser, is now available in the U.S. from $199 off contract. That’s cheap, rivaling the impressive Moto G in terms of price and specs. Not to be mistaken with the ZenFone 2, which was released internationally earlier this year, the Laser boasts improved camera functionality with laser autofocus and dual-SIM capability. Has Asus put forth a handset worth pocketing? Read on to find out.

Build & Design

Asus ZenFone 2 Laser looks like a standard Android smartphone.

Palming the ZenFone 2 Laser for the first time is an experience not unlike one you’re already familiar with. That is to say, the Laser isn’t exactly a revolution in smartphone design – but by now, we’ve all pretty much come to know what to expect of the standard handheld mobile. In that regard, Asus has done nothing remarkable aside from delivering a sleek-looking mobile device.

The ZenFone 2 Laser body is lightweight and slender, weighing an even 6 ounces with the battery installed. That’s a bit heavier than the 5.5-ounceMoto G, but a hair below phablets like the iPhone 6s Plus and Galaxy Note5 that top 6 ounces. It’s also not what anyone would ever call a brick.

Android-standard Back, Home and Menu capacitive navigation buttons adorn the bottom of the front face – however for some reason Asus has chosen not to make these backlit, which can make quick navigation in poorly lit environments a minor challenge. Along the upper end of the face is where you’ll find the phone’s front-facing camera, notification LED, and receiver.

The edges of the smartphone are ultra-thin, measuring just 3.9mm. Its profile deepens around its curved back, reaching 10.8mm in thickness. This curved design is explained as a purposeful choice for effective ergonomic handling, but adding to that a height of 6 inches and width of 3.04 inches makes it somewhat unwieldy for one-handers and requires the use of both hands to operate. This isn’t unusual for large screen phablets, though.

The Asus ZenFone 2 Laser has rear volume buttons.

Owing to its super thin design, there are no buttons or ports on either edges of the device, save for a small fingernail groove for easier removal of the back cover. The volume rocker is situated on the device’s back side, just below the rear camera, which could present a bit of a learning curve if you’re migrating from a smartphone with side-located volume controls. Smartly, the volume buttons have been recessed into the body, which prevents you from accidentally altering volume settings anytime you set the phone down on its back. The speaker grille is also located on the bottom end of the back side, which can result in significant muting when it’s laid on certain types of surfaces. The top edge of the smartphone is home to a 3.5mm audio jack and power button. Along the phone’s bottom edge is where you’ll find the micro USB port and microphone.

The ZenFone 2 Laser ships in five different colors – Osmium Black, Sheer Gold, Glacier Gray, Glamour Red or Ceramic White – and comes with 16GB of internal memory, with the option to expand up to 128GB by way of a microSD port located inside the battery/SIM compartment. There is also a 32GB version of the same phone available for $249 as of this writing.

Display & Speakers

The ZenFone 2 Laser has a fully laminated 5.5-inch screen and a 72 percent screen-to-body ratio, which basically makes the screen look bigger than it is by virtue of the fact there’s less physical real estate surrounding it. The display is a 1280 x 720P IPS HD (with 267 pixel-per-inch density), which Asus claims offers viewing angle capability of 178 degrees.

The Asus ZenFone 2 Laser has a removable back panel.

Colors are vibrant when streaming video or viewing images, and glare is relatively minimal. Manufacturer specs indicate the Laser can achieve 72 percent of the NTSC color gamut. Its 267 pixels per inch are well below the flagship rivals, which top 500, but in line with phones in its class. The bottom line here is that even budget smartphones have excellent displays, so users won’t be disappointed. Scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 4 adds additional display protection.

According to Asus, their proprietary TruVivid technology imbues the phone with not only added brightness, but also increased touch responsiveness. This is accomplished by shifting from a traditional four-layer display design to a two-layer design that brings the display closer to your eyes and fingertips – but it’s also nothing revolutionary, as this is something that Apple has also accomplished, most recently with the iPad Mini 4.

As we mentioned before, the smartphone’s speaker grille is positioned on the bottom of the back panel, which revealed itself as a problematic design decision after we discovered a substantial muting effect occurs when you set the unit down on any surface that doesn’t reflect sound back – such as your lap or your palm. Speaker volume is also poor, even when cranked to 100 percent, and volume performance was not improved when listening via earbuds.

Performance

The ZenFone 2 Laser is powered by a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor (1.2GHz quad-core), which is a shift from previous ZenFones that came equipped with Intel chips. This is not the most powerful Qualcomm money can buy, and Geekbench 3 benchmark test results prove this out: the phone’s single-core score is 649, which is significantly lower than Android flagships like the new Moto X Pure Edition and Galaxy S6 edge+, which topped 1,200. Its multi-core score is 2491, which is about half the score of the best of the bunch.

Asus ZenFone 2 Laser 2 Geekbench 3 Multi-Core score.

Asus ZenFone 2 Laser Geekbench 3 Single-Core score.

None of this means that it’s necessarily a poorly performing handset incapable of multi-tasking or functioning well on a daily basis. In fact, the 2015 Moto G scored 498 and 1494, respectively, and we praised that handset. The difference really comes down to how far you can strain your smartphone with intensive apps, and you can simply push the flagships further. You’ll be hard pressed to find more than a minor difference comparing day-to-day usage.  

It includes a 450 MHz Adreno 306 graphics processor and 2GB of RAM. The ZenFone 2 Laser does offer expandable storage support up to 128GB via microSD, which is a definite plus. The smartphone is also set up for dual SIM and dual standby, a popular feature among travelers who want to ensure they’ve got adequate coverage wherever they roam. Both SIM slots support 2G, 3G, and 4G. The MicroSD slot and the dual SIM slots are accessed by removing the back cover and lifting the battery. The back takes a bit of finagling to remove, but is aided by the presence of a fingernail groove for better leverage.

Software

Asus ZenFone 2 Laser ZenUI looks familiar, but has too much bloatware.

The ZenFone 2 Laser comes preloaded with Android 5.0 Lollipop and Asus’s proprietary ZenUI touch interface. ZenUI includes a number of apps and widgets, customizable live wallpapers, colorful themes that you can download for free, and various scroll effects that can be personalized to accommodate your tastes. One neat feature lets you double-tap the screen to wake it or put it to sleep again, but beyond that there’s not much remarkable about the UI. ZenMotion lets you launch apps by assigning specific touchscreen gestures, and SnapView adds increased privacy protection. It also includes a file transfer protocol called Share Link that allows you to send and receive even in the absence of an internet connection, and PC Link enables smartphone screen mirroring to your computer.

All of this essentially gives you a uniquely different (but not altogether unfamiliar or unpleasant) platform on which to operate your smartphone. The downside is that many of the inclusions can’t be uninstalled and are therefore fall into the undesirable “bloatware” category which, when added to a host of installed third-party apps, could serve to bog down system performance over the long haul.

The ZenFone 2 Laser supports all major carriers and comes with LTE Category 4 for maximum download speeds of 150Mbps. Other standards inclusions such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and 3-satellite GPS are also supported. Built-in sensors include proximity, compass and an accelerometer.

Battery

Among the shining features of the ZenFone 2 Laser is its removable 3,000 mAh battery, which performed exceedingly well in testing, especially for a phone in its class. It lasted 6 hours and 30 minutes on continuous Netflix streaming and still had 10 percent battery power remaining. Recent flagships just topped 7 hours on the same test. Battery heat was barely registrable by the end of said X-Files marathon streaming session.  In regular everyday usage, you can expect the battery to last at least a full day.

Possibly as a result of its ability to burn long and hard, the battery took an inordinately long time to recharge from zero: just over 3.5 hours when plugged into a wall socket via the included cable and adapter. This barely passes muster when compared against some of the faster charging batteries we’ve tested. 

Camera

One of the principal selling points of the ZenFone 2 Laser can be found right in its name. Equipped with a rear-facing 13MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture lens and LED flash, it uses a laser to perform near-instant autofocus (roughly 0.2 seconds), which is similar to the technology that comes with the LG G4.

The Asus ZenFone 2 Laser has robust camera controls.

The camera laser seems to perform better on close-up subjects and not so well on distant subjects, which depending on how you intend to use it may be a wasted bit of bonus tech.

Daylight performance of snapshots aren’t quite as impressive as those taken in low-light settings. To add balance to potentially washed-out images, the camera includes a Super HDR mode capable of capturing images with improved color contrast. Low light mode captures up to 400 percent brighter photos and proved to be among the better capabilities of the camera.

Diving into settings enables more camera-savvy users to adjust things like white balance, ISO, and exposure value. Also included is anti-shake enhancement, timer, and burst mode settings ranging from slow to turbo speed. There are a handful of different focus modes – including manual focus – and a built-in gallery of filters adds a nice touch you’d typically have to access through a third-party application. Some of the supported capabilities of the camera include depth of field, super resolution, GIF animation, panorama, live effects, and smart remove which eliminates moving objects from groups of five or more snapshots. The camera can also be set to launch automatically with a double-tap of the volume rocker button.

Video recording quality ranges from 640 x 480 to 1280 x 720 HD, and tops out at 1920 x 1080 Full HD. Oddly, there is an option to also shoot video in 1080p at 30fps, which is exactly the same as 1920 x 1080 Full HD. Video recording effects include slow-motion, time lapse, and stabilization, which just might come in handy if you ever encounter Bigfoot while on a family camping expedition.

The front camera is 5MP, also with an f/2.0-aperture lens. Selfie settings include standards like beautification mode and the aforementioned slow-mo for selfie video, time lapse, and GIF 

animation. An added feature for the selfie king or queen who’s seen it all is a selfie panorama mode, which is useful when snapping self-taken group photos.

Apple iPhone 6S It's a Big-big Deal Performance

It’s iPhone season, which means it is time for a new phone from Apple, with the iPhone 6s being this year’s offering.

Although this isn’t a complete redesign of last year’s iPhone 6, there are some improvements. It is the first model to debut running iOS 9, but the two most important new features are 3D Touch and Live Photos, which Apple hopes will help convince millions of people to upgrade to this new version. A faster processor and more RAM will help as well.

The iPhone 6s is available now, starting at $649 for a version with 16GB of storage.

The iPhone 6s is close to the same size as its predecessor, but not exactly.

Build & Design

The iPhone 6s is close to the same size as its predecessor, but not exactly. It’s 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 (138 x 67 x 7 mm) and 5 ounces (143 g), which makes it 0.01 inch thicker and half an ounce heavier. Those really looking for it will be able to tell that the new device weighs a smidgen more, but it certainly won’t affect day to day use.

After the release of last year’s iPhone models, there were scattered complaints from users that these devices were too flimsy and easy to bend. Apple used a stronger type of aluminum for the iPhone 6s and tweaked the design to make the casing sturdier. The unit we’re testing isn’t easily flexed, and comes across as sturdy as such a slim product can be.

The edges are all very curved, and the all-metal casing is quite slick, which makes the iPhone 6s comfortable to hold, but raises the possibility that it might be too easy to drop. A case that adds a rubberized texture might be appropriate.

Display

The standout feature of the iPhone 6s’ screen is 3D Touch, which is Apple’s way of indicating that it is pressure sensitive, with it able to detect if it is being touched, pushed on lightly, or pushed with more force. This feature is integrated into the iOS in a way that’s reminiscent of right clicking on something with a mouse — it can bring up a convenient menu of options.

The best example of how this works is in Mail: pressing lightly on a message brings up a preview of it, then pressing harder opens the message. In addition, icons for a number of apps on the homescreen can be pressed on to bring up an option menu. Pressing on the Camera icon gives the user the option to quickly take a selfie, take a regular photo, record a regular  video, or record a video in Slo-mo.

Although 3D Touch could come across as a gimmick, there are places where it feels genuinely useful.

Although 3D Touch could come across as a gimmick, there are places where it feels genuinely useful. Our favorite is tapping and holding on a link to a website to get a peek at the page that would open, with a harder press going ahead and opening the page. Drawing software will be able to take advantage of it too, but with just three levels of sensitivity its usefulness to real artists will be limited.

3D Touch is an definite improvement, if not a radical one, and it can make using this phone quicker and easier. But it’s not required, and can even be turned off.

Aside from this new feature, the screen on the iPhone 6s is identical it its predecessor: it is 4.7 inches and has a 1334 by 750 resolution, with a pixel density of 326 ppi. Each pixel is so small that text and images look clear and smooth. Some rival devices have gone for even higher pixel densities though, like the Samsung Galaxy S6 which is at 576 ppi. There’s reason to doubt whether having that many pixels per inch is actually an improvement, however.

A 4.7-inch display is a good compromise: it’s large enough that’s it’s not impractical for ebooks, casual games, and even video, but a screen this size isn’t so big that it makes the whole phone unwieldy. And using the on-screen keyboard is easier than on Apple’s old 4-inch displays, and it’s dramatically better than a 3.5-inch one. Those who want a somewhat larger iOS model can opt for the new 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus.

Buttons, Ports, and Speakers

In our tests, the iPhone 6S scanner worked 100% of the time, always recognizing fingerprints.

Apple has stuck with the same design standard since the first iPhone, so the Home button remains, and it continues to play a major role in controlling this latest device.

Like the last few Apple models, this button does double duty as a fingerprint scanner for the Touch ID security system. This gives users the benefits of secure access to their phone without the hassle of typing in a password every time they want to use it. In our tests, the scanner worked 100% of the time, always recognizing the fingerprints it was trained for and never giving false positives.

Some things never change, so the iPhone 6s has Apple’s proprietary Lightning charging/data port, and it doesn’t have a microSD memory card slot. That said, there are a number of flash drives that can be plugged into this device’s Lightning port, like the SanDisk iXpand and the Leef iBridge, to add additional storage capacity.

The volume up and down buttons are on the left side of this model, along with a mute switch.

There’s a single speaker on the bottom edge. This is capable of putting out a considerable amount of sound, loud enough for the device to be used in moderately noisy environments. But much of the volume is wasted because the speaker doesn’t  point toward the user.

Performance

The iPhone 6s has a 64-bit, 1.84 GHz, dual-core Apple A9 processor. This chip is capable of giving the device world class performance, even though many of its rivals have far more cores; Samsung uses an octa-core processor in its flagship models, for example.

According to the developer of Geekbench 3 benchmarking app, the iPhone 6s scored a 4330. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S6 pulled in a 4145, theHTC One (M9) had a 2926, and last year’s iPhone 6 had a 2878 score. The only model that outscored Apple’s was the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge with a 4406.

This is the first phone from Apple with 2GB of RAM; last year’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus had half that much.

Apple sells a version with 16GB of built in storage, one with 64GB, and one with 128GB.

iOS 9 Siri Suggestions

Software

This model debuted running iOS 9, which we covered in-depth in a separate review. Naturally, the iPhone 6s can take full advantage of all the new features designed for phones, like Siri Suggestions and the News app.

Unlike makers of other phones, Apple doesn’t allow its devices to be filled up with bloatware, like links to games and carrier-specific software that can’t be uninstalled. Which isn’t to say that this company isn’t a bit over enthusiastic about the number applications it thinks are necessary, with the app for communicating with an Apple Watch at the top of the list of items that should be optional rather than required on every device.

Camera

The hot new camera feature, available only with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, is Live Photos, in which images act like short videos. When snapping a picture, the camera records a second of video with sound before and after the still image. This makes pictures feel a bit Harry Potter, and can be a fun feature, and useful for photographing children and animals that won’t stand still. Taking real advantage of this feature requires practice, however.

The downside of Live Photos is that they require large amounts of storage capacity. A test image we took takes up 4.6 MB, while a regular picture taken with the iPhone 6s’ camera needs 2.2 MB. Also, the front facing camera can’t take Live Photos, so no moving selfies. 

In addition to this new feature, Apple significantly increased the resolution of the iPhone 6s’ rear-facing camera, going from 8 megapixels to 12 MP.  It’s doubtful anyone will be able to see any differences between pictures made with a new iPhone 6s and last year’s iPhone 6, but the increase in resolution does allow this device to record 4K video. Again, this takes up large amounts of storage, so anyone planning on on recording lots of high-resolution video should invest in the 64GB version of this phone.

The front camera also moved from 1.2 MP to 5 MP, so selfies look even better than they did before. Just as importantly, Apple has included a trick to turn the display on when taking pictures with this camera so selfies can be taken in low light conditions.  In our tests, this feature works surprisingly well, able to light up a dimly lit area just enough that faces can be seen.

The iPhone 6s does not have a large battery.

Battery Life

Apple has never made battery life a priority and the iPhone 6s is no exception.  On the Geekbench 3 battery benchmark, a demanding test that shows how long the device will last with heavy use, the iPhone 6s pulled in 5:16. On the same test, the Samsung Galaxy S6 lasted 6:49, but the HTC One (M8) lasted 4:59.

Apple favors slim devices over long battery lives. The company’s attitude seems to be “If the device will last a day of moderate use, that’s good enough.”

"A Machine Selfies for you" HTC Desire Eye

HTC’s crafted one of the best midrange phones on the market with its new Desire Eye, a playful device that’s just as, if not more technically advanced than its flagship One (M8). Its potent Snapdragon 801 chipset, gorgeous 5.2-inch 1080p display, and stylish water- and dust-resistant body would be big draws on their own, but are actually secondary to the Desire Eye’s most compelling feature – a big and powerful 13-megapixel front-facing camera. And that’s not to mention the above-average shooter on its back.

There are still enough flaws here to remind you why this is a midrange device in the first place, but the Desire Eye is a hard handset to ignore if you love snapping selfies. Let’s dig deeper into the AT&T exclusive, which is now available for $450 unlocked or $70 with a two-year contract.

Build and Design

The Desire Eye is entirely made of plastic outside of its front, which is fully coated in Gorilla Glass 3. It comes in several color schemes, with the rim always contrasting with the back, giving the phone a playful and youthful look. This kind of color may be off-putting to some, but since this is a midrange device, it’s understandable that HTC is willing be a little more outlandish here than it’d be with a hero device like the One.

That’s not to say the Desire Eye feels cheap, though. Like the One, it features a unibody construction, which is rare for a phone with this much plastic. The negative here is that this makes the phone’s battery impossible to remove, but the sturdiness of the build makes that sacrifice easier to swallow. That, and the fact that it allows the phone to be dunked underwater without harm for up to 30 minutes. It’s clear that HTC went into this with the idea of making a plastic phone that’s more aesthetically pleasing than pragmatic, and it’s mostly succeeded in that regard.

Still, you’ll need big hands for this to feel fully comfortable. With a 5.2-inch display, dimensions of 151 x 74 x 8.5 mm (9.97 x 2.91 x 0.33 in), and a weight of 154 grams (5.43 oz.), you likely won’t be able to use the device with one hand. We can’t knock HTC too hard for this given that almost every phone feels supersized nowadays, but a phone made for taking selfies should be more accessible.

HTC Desire Eye back

The front of the phone, just above the screen, includes the front-facing 13-megapixel camera, the phone’s titular “eye” and most immediately striking feature. It also has a dual-LED flash with a set of the usual sensors. As with most recent HTC phones, there’s an unfortunately huge bezel below the display, which features the infamous HTC logo bar. The capacitive Back, Home, and Tasks keys take up space on the actual display on top of that – a design choice dictated by Android, sure, but a nuisance on this particular device nonetheless.  Other 5.2-inch phones like the Moto X has been less wasteful with their real estate, so it’s becoming harder to justify HTC’s insistence on chewing up so much room around its displays.

The back side includes the phone’s second eye, the 13-megapixel rear camera, along with another dual-LED flash and a secondary microphone for reducing ambient noise. One noteworthy design plus here is that both cameras have been physically fused with the front and back, which further protects them from possible damage caused by dragging the phone across a table or other hard surfaces.

The top of the phone includes a 3.5 mm audio jack, while the bottom houses the microUSB slot and primary microphone. The left side features covered microSD and nanoSIM card slots, while the right includes the Power key, volume rocker, and a dedicated camera key, which turns the camera on from standby in impressive time. These keys are a little too shallow to press, but they never become too much of an annoyance in practice.

Display

HTC Desire Eye top

The Desire Eye comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD IPS display, resulting in a respectable pixel density of 424 ppi. The panel is very much similar to that of the One (M8), so it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that it’s generally excellent. It’s consistently sharp and exceptionally bright, with lively colors and enduring quality in direct sunlight. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call this a flagship-level screen, which is refreshing to see in a phone of this price.

If there’s any shortcoming here, it’s that darker colors could stand to be a bit fuller.  This is an IPS screen, not an OLED one, so while whites here are wonderfully bright and clean, black tones are rather light, sometimes looking closer to grey than anything else. Photos or video clips taken in darker rooms and games with darker designs will seem paler than they actually are, which doesn’t ruin things but could understandably be problem for perfectionists.

HTC Desire Eye Review: A Machine suitable for Selfies

QUICK TAKE

Come for the 13-megapixel selfies, stay for the high-end performance and display. In addition to its powerful (if imperfect) pair of cameras, the HTC Desire Eye is just an excellent value, providing near-flagship power at a midrange price.

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HTC Desire Eye

HTC’s crafted one of the best midrange phones on the market with its new Desire Eye, a playful device that’s just as, if not more technically advanced than its flagship One (M8). Its potent Snapdragon 801 chipset, gorgeous 5.2-inch 1080p display, and stylish water- and dust-resistant body would be big draws on their own, but are actually secondary to the Desire Eye’s most compelling feature – a big and powerful 13-megapixel front-facing camera. And that’s not to mention the above-average shooter on its back.

There are still enough flaws here to remind you why this is a midrange device in the first place, but the Desire Eye is a hard handset to ignore if you love snapping selfies. Let’s dig deeper into the AT&T exclusive, which is now available for $450 unlocked or $70 with a two-year contract.

Build and Design

The Desire Eye is entirely made of plastic outside of its front, which is fully coated in Gorilla Glass 3. It comes in several color schemes, with the rim always contrasting with the back, giving the phone a playful and youthful look. This kind of color may be off-putting to some, but since this is a midrange device, it’s understandable that HTC is willing be a little more outlandish here than it’d be with a hero device like the One.

That’s not to say the Desire Eye feels cheap, though. Like the One, it features a unibody construction, which is rare for a phone with this much plastic. The negative here is that this makes the phone’s battery impossible to remove, but the sturdiness of the build makes that sacrifice easier to swallow. That, and the fact that it allows the phone to be dunked underwater without harm for up to 30 minutes. It’s clear that HTC went into this with the idea of making a plastic phone that’s more aesthetically pleasing than pragmatic, and it’s mostly succeeded in that regard.

Still, you’ll need big hands for this to feel fully comfortable. With a 5.2-inch display, dimensions of 151 x 74 x 8.5 mm (9.97 x 2.91 x 0.33 in), and a weight of 154 grams (5.43 oz.), you likely won’t be able to use the device with one hand. We can’t knock HTC too hard for this given that almost every phone feels supersized nowadays, but a phone made for taking selfies should be more accessible.

HTC Desire Eye back

The front of the phone, just above the screen, includes the front-facing 13-megapixel camera, the phone’s titular “eye” and most immediately striking feature. It also has a dual-LED flash with a set of the usual sensors. As with most recent HTC phones, there’s an unfortunately huge bezel below the display, which features the infamous HTC logo bar. The capacitive Back, Home, and Tasks keys take up space on the actual display on top of that – a design choice dictated by Android, sure, but a nuisance on this particular device nonetheless.  Other 5.2-inch phones like the Moto X has been less wasteful with their real estate, so it’s becoming harder to justify HTC’s insistence on chewing up so much room around its displays.

The back side includes the phone’s second eye, the 13-megapixel rear camera, along with another dual-LED flash and a secondary microphone for reducing ambient noise. One noteworthy design plus here is that both cameras have been physically fused with the front and back, which further protects them from possible damage caused by dragging the phone across a table or other hard surfaces.

The top of the phone includes a 3.5 mm audio jack, while the bottom houses the microUSB slot and primary microphone. The left side features covered microSD and nanoSIM card slots, while the right includes the Power key, volume rocker, and a dedicated camera key, which turns the camera on from standby in impressive time. These keys are a little too shallow to press, but they never become too much of an annoyance in practice.

Display

HTC Desire Eye top

The Desire Eye comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD IPS display, resulting in a respectable pixel density of 424 ppi. The panel is very much similar to that of the One (M8), so it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that it’s generally excellent. It’s consistently sharp and exceptionally bright, with lively colors and enduring quality in direct sunlight. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call this a flagship-level screen, which is refreshing to see in a phone of this price.

If there’s any shortcoming here, it’s that darker colors could stand to be a bit fuller.  This is an IPS screen, not an OLED one, so while whites here are wonderfully bright and clean, black tones are rather light, sometimes looking closer to grey than anything else. Photos or video clips taken in darker rooms and games with darker designs will seem paler than they actually are, which doesn’t ruin things but could understandably be problem for perfectionists.

Performance

As mentioned above, the Desire Eye is equipped with Qualcomm’s frequently used Snapdragon 801 SoC, which comes with four Krait 400 cores running at 2.3 GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU. It also carries the standard 2 GB of RAM. In practice, such internals — combined with a 1080p display, Android 4.4.4 (KitKat), and HTC’s Sense UI 6.0 skin — help the phone run fast in just about any everyday situation. Scrolling through Sense yields very few moments of stuttering or glitching, apps consistently load fast, and graphically demanding games run without a hitch the vast majority of the time.

HTC Desire Eye bottom

The Snapdragon 801 is technically a last-generation chipset at this point, so it’s a bit slower than newer phones in benchmark testing, but the differences between it and its successors on a phone like this are barely noticeable in day-to-day use unless you set out to find them. One of the feasible benefits of performance increases becoming so marginal over the years is that you can get close to high-end speed at a less-than-high-end price, so it’s nice to see that HTC hasn’t been stingy with its midrange model here.

On the storage front, the Desire Eye comes with a meager 16 GB by default — but thankfully that can be expanded with microSD cards up to 128 GB, which is plenty of room for holding all your self-portraits.

Battery Life

The Desire Eye comes with a non-removable 2400 mAh battery that’s usually good for around a day and a half of life with normal use. This is one area where the Desire Eye is inferior to the One (M8) on the spec sheet, as that flagship had a slightly larger 2600 mAh pack. Nevertheless, the battery here is slightly above-average for a smartphone in this price range, and should get you through your average workday with few complaints. If you do find yourself running out of juice, however, HTC’s Sense software has a nifty extreme power saver mode that limits the phone to its most essential functions but squeezes a few more hours out of its dying breaths.

Software

HTC Desire Eye edge

HTC’s Sense UI 6.0 is back running the show here, and it’s pretty much identical to the skin we reviewed with the One (M8). It still alters the look of Android fairly significantly, but does a good job of not totally changing the feel of it. It can’t hold a candle to the smoothness of stock Android, but it’s competent enough, comes with a few useful features (like the BlinkFeed news reader), and never feels too much in the way. It is due for an update, however.

More annoying is what’s running underneath Sense. The Desire Eye comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat, which is stable enough, but now feels dated after the launch of Android 5.0 “Lollipop.” Lollipop is a major step forward for Google’s mobile OS in both looks and functionality, and while Sense may cover most of its visual changes up, it still feels wrong to have a new phone running old software. HTC hasn’t given any hints as to when the Desire Eye will get the upgrade either – though it has for the One (M8) and One (M7) — so it may be some time before Desire owners get up to speed.

Camera

The Desire Eye’s dual 13-megapixel cameras are its biggest hooks. The selfie cam in particular is probably the reason this phone even exists – there simply isn’t another front-facing camera that’s this beefed up. Both front shooters are equipped with a dual-LED flash and autofocus, but differ in certain optical characteristics, leading them to vary in actual photo quality.

HTC Desire Eye front camera

To be specific, the back camera has an f/2.0 aperture and a narrower viewing angle, while the front-facing camera offers a more closed aperture of f/2.2, but a wider viewing angle to fit more people into a selfie shot. HTC’s UI is identical for both cameras – just swipe a finger from left to right to change sides and off you go.

Despite having the same resolution as the front-facing camera, the rear unit takes better photographs on the whole. Its shots are more precisely exposed, include an above average level of detail, and maintain good white balance without oversaturating colors. More attention will go to its front-facing companion, but the main camera here is a wholesale upgrade over the “Ultrapixel” cams of the last two One phones, and that’s significant. It isn’t on the level of an iPhone orLumia, but it’s a reason to be excited for future HTC devices.  

The front-facing camera, meanwhile, is a little more disappointing in practice. Its photos tend to come out too grainy and off-color, with things going especially haywire in low-light settings. Having a dedicated flash helps, but it doesn’t free the cam from all focusing issues. It’d be underwhelming if this unit was on the back on the phone, in other words. Still, the high megapixel count means it can capture plenty of detail, the wide-angle lens does its job well, and the exposure and white balance of its shots are usually pretty precise. Ultimately, this camera is just too strong to be anything less than the best selfie machine on the market — even if it doesn’t blow the usual cameras out of the water the way its specs would suggest. Either way, getting this pair of cameras on a midrange phone like this is great value.

Conclusion

The Desire Eye packs flagship hardware packed into upper midrange body, providing the kind of display, performance, and battery life you’d normally get from a phone $100-200 more expensive. That alone makes this phone a winner (if you can live with a slightly outdated OS), but its dual 13-megapixel cameras are what really make it stand out. If you find yourself craving a better class of selfie, you won’t do much better than the Desire Eye.