HTC Desire EYE Review - Performance, Software and Connectivity Review
Performance, Software and Connectivity
The perfect phone for the selfie generation
Sections
- Page 1 HTC Desire EYE Review
- Page 2 Performance, Software and Connectivity Review
- Page 3 Camera Review
- Page 4 Battery Life and Verdict Review
HTC Desire EYE – Performance
We’re well acquainted with the Snapdragon 801 processor on the HTC Desire EYE. It’s been the chip of choice in most of this year’s flagship phones and it’s a solid performer. It’s not the latest Snapdragon in the range – that honour goes to the 805.
Nevertheless, with this processor and 2GB RAM the HTC Desire EYE has enough under the hood to run and play all the latest games at full pelt.
In benchmark scores it’s not far off the Samsung Galaxy S5, which comes with a faster 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801. The Ice Storm Unlimited score of 16,189 makes the Desire EYE a great phone for a blast of Android gaming, while the Geekbench score of 2717 means it powers through productivity apps, too.
HTC Desire EYE – Software
The HTC Desire EYE runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat with HTC Sense 6 layered over it. Sense is a slick interface. It’s fast, bright and easy to get to grips with.
BlinkFeed takes over one of your homepages. It gives you quick access to the content that you’re most interested in, a bit like Flipboard, but also can also bring in your social feeds. It’s simple to use and makes the Desire EYE look and feel a bit like a Windows Phone. Everything else is close to vanilla Android – no bad thing.
Sense is a better Android interface than any other manufacturer has managed. It’s snappier and less intrusive than Samsung’s TouchWiz, and streets ahead of the awkward layers that some Chinese manufacturers opt for.
HTC Desire EYE – Connectivity and Features
HTC hasn’t scrimped on the Desire EYE’s connectivity, even though it doesn’t cover quite as much as the HTC One M8. So you get 4G, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and dual-band Wi-Fi – but not the fastest 802.11ac standard. There’s also a microSD slot that accepts cards up to 128GB to support the 16GB of onboard storage. It comes with the usual sensors, such as accelerometer, gyroscope and compass.
What’s missing when comparing it to its more premium brother is an infrared blaster, so you can’t use the EYE as a remote, and there’s no barometer for tracking elevation in fitness apps.
These few omissions are unlikely to bother anyone too much.
How we test phones
We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
