Gadgetory

devices from HTC Desire lineup were never intended to be flagship smartphones where the spec list is packed with the latest and greatest in technologies and components to try and edge out over their competition such as the case with the latest desire but did HTC go too far in paring down the spec list and sacrifice the user experience let's find out in the htc desire 816 review first glance it may look like the desire 816 spec sheet was the proverbial chopping block where HTC cut specifications in order to cut costs unlike its flagship sibling the One m8 the desire 816 is powered by a much more modest quad-core Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.6 gigahertz at 5.5 inches the desire screen is noticeably bigger than the One m8 the two phones look very similar but the desire uses a cost-saving 720p display instead of 1080p the big Super LCD panel still manages a respectable 267 PPI pixel density with bold bright colors and it looks fantastic flanking the screen is a pair of front firing boom sound speakers which are loud clear and produced more depth and tone than we're used to on other mid-range phones desire 816 is a big phone or is it a small phablet here HTC opted to include LTE support but kept its Wi-Fi limited to 2.4 gigahertz in our tests Wi-Fi was quick and reliable but t-mobile's high-speed data bans weren't supported so we never got to test anything quicker than edge which we're sure had a positive impact on our battery life moving on to software since UI 6 is a lot less in-your-face than previous versions of HTC's customized UI interacting with the desire was intuitive both for those used to stock Android as well as those used to sense HTC doesn't go overboard with bloat but even still almost half of the desires 8gig internal storage is used up right out-of-the-box thankfully HTC included a microSD card slot capable of accepting up to a 128 gig card it also included a very useful Settings panel to instruct the device to put files from various sources onto the card unfortunately moving apps to the SD card is still a manual process but at least it can be done let's dig into performance the Snapdragon 400 SOC was never intended to win any performance contests which is reflected in its benchmark scores in everyday use the desire was responsive and quick and we never found ourselves waiting on it while we don't want to call it lag because it certainly didn't feel like it we did experience an occasional hesitation but nothing that was particularly distracting everyday apps were smooth blinkfeed was fluid even some of the more graphically intense games in place or ran just fine 2600 milliamp hour lipo battery inside the desired nether that's two solid days of use this is due to its power efficient CPU and GPU and underscored by the 720p versus 1080p screen keep in mind that LTE and HSPA+ an hour's but should still easily get you through an entire day of moderate use the desire 816 s camera has all the right specs 13 megapixels for Stills in 1080p for video though there's a lot of detail in the desire shots it doesn't do as well in low-light conditions but the pictures did turn out quite well images were generally sharp colors were vibrant and the shutter speed and the stock camera app was quick though not instantaneous phone calls were above average - caller said we sounded crisp and clear and they came through very loud we had to turn the volume down a few times which was a welcome change about some pros and cons the htc desire 816 is a great value especially for a device with such a large screen it's got loud clear front firing speakers that make listening to music and watching videos a dream to top it all off it's got outstanding battery life as far as cons go that screen it's only 720p the backplate is a slippery fingerprint magnet and it squeaks when you hold it rounding it out there's no NFC no tap to beam and no Google Wallet for all the htc desire 816 is a very enjoyable phone to use it's big enough to comfortably watch movies on with a bright screen and wonderful speakers to back it up but it's not so big that you can't comfortably carry it around or use it as a normal phone sure HTC had to cut some corners but did so to keep the price down all factors considered the sacrifices are well worth it the desire 816 is much closer to a flagship than it is to a mid to your phone more on the desire 816 a whole bunch of sample photos benchmark and battery results and our final score head over to the full review at pocketnow.com the link is down in the description right next to the like button which you should press if you enjoyed this video until next time this has been Joe Levi with PocketNow thanks for watching