Last week when HTC released the new HTC One M8 EYE in the Asian markets, there were a lot of raised eyebrows – why did they come out with a 13MP version of their popular HTC One M8 with pretty much all of the internal specs? Was this a replacement for the aging One M8? When will we see the European and U.S. versions? Well, it looks like an HTC Product Manager, speaking to our source, answered these questions when he indicated that the HTC One M8 EYE was designed with specific markets in mind – especially India. He also stated that it will not be coming to Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The only new device planned this quarter was the HTC Desire Eye, with 13MP cameras front and rear.
Some other interesting notes are that he said that HTC believes in the UltraPixel technology and they have no plans to change to regular megapixels, although they certainly plan to improve the UltraPixel experience. The HTC Desire Eye uses the conventional 13-megapixel layout and offers it on BOTH the front and the back of the devices giving the user a terrific Video Chatting experience as well as a fantastic selfie! He also reiterated that the Desire series is mid-range and the Desire Eye was not here to replace the HTC One M8 – HTC still sees the One M8 as their “holiday season flagship.”
The HTC Desire Eye comes with a 5.2-inch Full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels with 423 pixels-per-inch (PPI)…just slightly larger than the 5-inch found on the original HTC One M8. It uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. The One M8 also has a 32GB model, but BOTH devices have a microSD card slot to add an additional 128GB of storage – plenty for photos, videos, music and all of those great selfies.
The camera area is wild on the Desire Eye with a 13MP auto-focus, dual-LED flash on both the main camera and the front-facing camera…no UltraPixels or Duo Camera on this device. The 2400mAh battery is slightly lower than the 2600mAh found on the One M8. Measuring 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5mm, it is slightly larger (though thinner) than the One M8 and weighs slightly less at 154 grams. It will be an AT&T exclusive and run about $420 off-contract.
Please hook up with us on our Google+ Page and let us know is you would like to see the HTC One M8 EYE make its way to the U.S. carriers…I think it would sell, what do you think? As always, we would love to hear from you.