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HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8: Stylish build or selfie snapping skills

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8

HTC started the year with a bang with the HTC One M8, a stylish superphone that still compares well to the competition, but after that it stayed fairly quiet and has arguably only released one handset of any real note since.

 

We’re talking of course about the HTC Desire Eye, a phone which compromises on build but delivers similarly high end specs and a class leading selfie camera. So how do these two phones compare? Read on to find out.

 

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8 – Build

 

The HTC One M8 is a stunning phone, with a gently curved aluminium frame that looks great and allows it to fit snugly in your hand. There’s hardly any plastic to the thing, just metal and glass. It’s not slim though at 146.4 x 70.6 x 9.4mm and nor is it particularly light at 160g.

 HTC One M8 - Design

 

The HTC Desire Eye doesn't look as premium or stylish. The shape is broadly similar, but it’s made of plastic rather than metal, though it rocks a rather eye catching two tone colour scheme at least and it’s solidly built. At 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5mm and 154g it’s also slightly slimmer and lighter than the HTC One M8 and unlike its older sibling it’s IPX7 certified water resistant.

 

HTC Desire Eye - Design

 

Of the two though we’d still pick the HTC One M8 every time when it comes to design and build, as even now it’s still one of the best looking phones around.

 

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8 - Display


The HTC One M8 has a 5.0 inch 1080 x 1920 display with a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch, while the HTC Desire Eye has a 5.2 inch 1080 x 1920 screen with a pixel density of 424 pixels per inch. So it’s a little larger and a little less sharp, but otherwise there’s little to choose between the two, with both delivering crisp visuals and good contrast. Neither phone has one of the best screens around but they’re both fairly impressive.

 

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8 - Power


The HTC One M8 has a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 2GB of RAM and so does the HTC Desire Eye so they’re exactly as powerful as each other, especially considering that they also both run Android overlaid with HTC’s Sense interface.

 

There’s nothing to choose here then but rest assured that both phones are very powerful, though neither of them quite have top tier specs.

 

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8 - Camera


HTC One M8 - Camera

 

This is where the real differences come in. The HTC One M8 has a 4 UltraPixel camera with a separate depth sensor, it has a dual-LED flash, can shoot video in 1080p at 60fps and has a 5 megapixel secondary camera. It’s not one of the best camera phones around but it’s not bad at all and is particularly impressive in low light.

 

The HTC Desire Eye on the other hand has a 13 megapixel main camera with a dual-LED flash. There’s no separate depth sensor and as the pixels are smaller it’s not as good in low light as the HTC One M8, but it performs better in daylight and images come out with slightly more detail. Although it's not quite as good at recording video, as it’s capped at 1080p at 30fps.

 HTC Desire Eye - Camera

 

However the HTC Desire Eye also has a 13 megapixel front-facing camera which again has a dual-LED flash. That makes it one of the best front-facing phone cameras available and in turn makes it ideal for video calls and selfies, especially as it has a wide-angle lens and a bunch of selfie centric modes.

 

 

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8 – Battery life, memory and connectivity


The HTC One M8 has a 2600 mAh battery quoted for up to 496 hours of standby time or 20 hours of talk time, while the HTC Desire Eye has a marginally smaller 2400 mAh battery which should be able to last for up to 538 hours on standby or 20 hours of talk time, so its battery life is actually marginally better overall.

 

Both phones come with 16GB of storage along with a microSD card slot which supports cards of up to 128GB and both phones support Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC, while the HTC One M8 also has an infrared blaster.

 

HTC Desire Eye vs HTC One M8 – Conclusion


The main differences between the HTC One M8 and the HTC Desire Eye are the build and the cameras. On the build front the HTC One M8 is the clear winner, with its metal styling trumping the HTC Desire Eye’s plastic construction, though the Desire Eye is water resistant which the One M8 isn’t.

 

When it comes to camera it’s the HTC Desire Eye which is the winner, but not by much, it’s debatable whether the superior low light performance of the HTC One M8 or the greater detail of the HTC Desire Eye is preferable, but the respective qualities of their front-facing cameras is less open to debate and the Desire Eye wins there.

 

Otherwise they’re much the same, with the same amount of power, the same storage, similar size batteries and similar screens, thought the one on the HTC Desire Eye is ever so slightly bigger.

 

Finally there’s the price. Shop around and you can get the HTC One M8 for around £400, though many places charge closer to £500. The price of the HTC Desire Eye hasn’t yet been confirmed, but it’s likely to be a little cheaper, probably coming in at around £350-£400.

 

So they’re a well matched pair and it really comes down to whether you’d rather have a good selfie camera or a premium build.

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