HTC Desire 826 vs HTC Desire EYE: first look

HTC did what it should have a long time ago, and
moved its 4 MP UltraPixel snapper at the front,
placing a more orthodox 13 MP camera at the
rear of the newly-announced Desire 826 . We just
took it for a spin, comparing it with HTC's
original idea for a selfie-oriented handset, the
Desire Eye, and found quite a few differences.

Design

The phones sport a largely similar design
concept, with matte plastic unibodies that are
very comfortable to hold, and rounded corners
with a colored separation rim around the sides.
The Desire 826 is, naturally, the larger, harder to
handle phone, due to the increased screen
diagonal, but the difference is not that crummy,
since both are pretty big phones anyway, thanks
to the embedded BoomSound stereo speakers at
the front, requiring that you work them with both
hands pretty often. The Desire 826 is notably
heavier than the Eye, though.

Display

With a 5.5" 1080p display, the Desire 826 returns
a slightly lower pixel density than the 5.2" 1080p
panel of the Desire Eye, but still, both are at
400ppi+, which makes this advantage moot. The
displays are bright, with wide viewing angles and
pleasing colors, but we can't vouch for the 826's
outdoor visibility, as only only had the chance to
peruse it on the show floor at CES.
Processor and memory
Both phones are powered by Snapdragon silicon,
but while the Desire Eye opts for the more
powerful 801 version, the Desire 826 aims to
futureproof itself with the 64-bit octa-core
Snapdragon 615, which, frankly, is the better
choice here - it makes the phone cheaper to
craft, and corresponds with Android 5.0's native
64-bit kernel. Both sport 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB
of storage, with a microSD card for expansion.
Interface
The latest HTC Sense UI is what you will find on
the two Desires, but the Desire 826 will ship with
Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, while the Eye
is waiting on its Lollipop update still. The imagery
runs smooth, and features all bells and whistles
you've come to expect from HTC's overlay, plus
extra features in the camera app targeted at the
improved selfie snappers at the front.

Camera

With a 13 MP rear and 13 MP front cameras, the
Eye might seem like the better choice for selfie
aficionados, but our own front camera test
showed that it is actually a middle-of-the-road
performer in that respect, save for the resolved
detail. The Desire 826 has a 13 MP camera on
the back, and a 4 MP UltraPixel shooter at the
front and center, which might arguably be a
better performer, on account of its larger pixel
size and improved low-light performance.

Battery

With a slightly larger, 2600 mAh juicer, compared
to the 2400 mAh piece in the Desire Eye, the 826
could deliver longer battery life, given its screen
resolution and more frugal chipset. HTC has
proven that it can eke out more bang out of a
given battery capacity than most, so we wouldn't
worry about the battery performance before
we've run our own benchmark on the Desire 826.