HTC Desire 816 Smartphone Review

This mid-range smartphone is sharing the same design aesthetics as that of its sibling HTC One and strikes a balance between price and features. The company is targeting mid-range customers with the giant 5.5-inch screen device that bundles a slew of features.

Body Design and Features - With entire plastic body, Desire 816 looks fairly decent. The front panel is made with matte plastic while the back one comes with glossy finish that works like magnet to smudges and scratches. HTC’s design moves to a new direction with taller screen size. The only 8mm thick device is easy to grab in one hand, but difficult to operate. It is coupled with front facing speaker with BoomSound to please your ears.

It shares the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.6GHz, which Moto G also boasts of but available at about half the price. The device runs smooth even with heavy usage. Some popular apps and games work swimmingly and even while playing heavy games, it performed outstanding with sound and graphics.

The device comes with1.5 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory, in which about 4 GB is available to the user. Thankfully, HTC comes with microSD slot that allows expansion of the memory up to 128 GB. It sports two Nano-SIM cards and both support 3G connectivity. The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 720x1280 and gives great movie watching experience from every angle.

Desire 816 comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system and the latest HTC Sense UI v6. HTC tried to keep many options in the phone. It sports Car Mode and Kid Mode. While the car mode makes your driving easier, Kid Mode keeps the phone protected from kids.

Camera - The smartphone is equipped with 13 MP rear camera that captures images in real-colors. In daylight, it captures crystal clear images and even in low-light one can capture quite nice images using the LED flash. It comes with automatic settings that enable you to click detailed images in normal lighting conditions, but if it is dark there could be noise. The camera app has several settings to select suitable scene mode, apply filters, etc. to make it more user-friendly. The front-facing 5 MP camera is decent for selfies and video calling. Both, front and rear, cameras are capable of shooting HD videos even in low light.

Battery - The giant phone gets power from a non-removable Li-Po 2600 mAh battery. The phone can last for full day with fair usage and even more. In our video testing, with full brightness and volume, it lasted for almost 6 hours.

Bottomline: It is the right choice for people looking for large device with crisp display, loud and clear sound, without making hole into the pocket.

Price: Rs. 23,990

Key Specs: 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5 GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory, Expandable up to 128 GB, 5.5-inch display, Android OS, v4.4.2 KitKat

Pros: Big screen, Camera, Front speakers, Battery, 128 GB card support

Cons: Glossy rear plastic, Non-removable battery