HTC silently launches the One (M8) EYE in China

Last night, at its press event, HTC announced the new Desire EYE and the RE camera, but missed to mention another device that bears the EYE moniker – the new One (M8) EYE. Curiously enough, the company has now launched the device in China, selling it directly from its eshop page.

The One (M8) EYE's name popped up whenever the selfie-centered smartphone that HTC is brewing was mentioned, but after it got certified in China and the spec sheet revealed the same 5 MP front-facing camera, and after whispers pointed at the Desire EYE as the selfie-phone, it quickly became apparent that the One (M8) EYE is pretty much a One (M8) with its 4 MP UltraPixel Duo camera shamefully removed and replaced by a 13 MP Duo camera. Perhaps this is the reason that HTC decided to skip on even announcing the phone – it would probably be kind of awkward to say “Yes, it's the same flagship, we just replaced the camera because we were getting x amount of bad comments about it”.

So, the device is up for sale on the Chinese HTC website for the price of ~$650 (¥ 3,999). This makes it the first device to hit the market, having the EYE Experience software suite pre-loaded. The shop page's promo pictures show us a glimpse of how the face detection places 4 people's faces in stable frames for a group video chat, the Split Capture feature, and the Live Makeup and Face Fusion effects, which are already present on the Desire 820.

As far as regional availability goes - we know that the Desire EYE and One EYE were imported in India this week, so both handsets will probably be launched there soon as well. However, whether the One EYE is going to come over to the western markets is unknown.

The HTC Desire EYE was revealed to be priced the same as the HTC One (M8). Do you think the two phones are comparable, or is one of them clearly superior in your eyes than the other? Vote in our poll here and let us know what you think.


source: HTC via SlashGear