HTC Desire 816 Overview

HTC is a company known for producing devices of premium build quality, design and performance. They are looking to redefine the midrange smartphone by and prove that a midrange phone can still be a quality device.

There latest attempt at a midrange offering is the Desire 816 and in this review, we’ll try and determine if they did manage to produce a great performing midrange device.

Design and build
• The HTC Desire 816 has some solid construction. It is made entirely of plastic and has a unibody design.
• The Desire 816 has a matte finish to its sides and front.
• The Desire 816 is a little large but it is no bigger then the Samsung Galaxu Note 3. Despite its size, its actually pretty thin, only 7.99 mm thick.
• The top of the phone is where you’ll find a 3.5mm headset jack and a noise cancellation microphone.
• The bottom of the phone is where you’ll find a USBN port.
• The right side for the phone is where you’ll find two SIM cards and a micro SD slot.
• The left side of the phone is where you’ll find the volume rocker as well as the power button.
Speakers
• The speakers of the HTC Desire 816 are located on the phone’s front.
• The Desire 816 uses HTC’s BoomSound technology which ensures that the speakers produce sound that is very loud and crisp with a good level of bass.
• The BoomSound speakers of HTC are probably the best speakers you’ll find on any smartphone and it’s nice that this is included on HTC’s midrange device.

Display
• The HTC Desire 816 has a 5.5 inch LCD display.
• The display gets a resolution of 1280 x 720. While this is not the highest resolution you can get, it still provides a great picture.
• The HTC Desire 816 display has great color reproduction, deep looking blacks, and good viewing angles.
• The bezels around the HTC Desire 816’s display are big and the bottom has the HTC logo.
• The size is just right for media consumption such as movie watching or game playing
Specs and performance
• The HTC Desire 816 uses a Snapdragon 400 processor which clocks at 1.6 Ghz.
• The processing package is backed by a Adreno 305 GPU.
• The HTC Desire 816 offers 8 GB of internal storage.
• The HTC Desire 816 uses Andorid KitKat
• The device performs fast and easy with apps opening quickly, good web browing performance and can run graphic intensive games.
• Overall, the experience of using the HTC Desire 816 is smooth. The device is responsive and there is little lagging.
Camera
• The HTC Desire 816 uses a 13 MP camera which has auto focus and an LED flash.
• The camera uses Sense 5 camera, which is not the newest version, but is still a great performer.
• Shutter speed is fast and there are plenty of shooting modes to choos from.
• Photos are sharp and you can zoom or crop easily with out much lose of detail.
• Color reproduction is good with photo’s looking vibrant but not over saturated.
• The dynamic range is good, the camera does a fair job in balancing lights and darks.
• The aperture is f/2.2 so you get pretty good performance in low light.
• You also have a 5 MP front camera in the HTC Desire 816.
Battery Life
• The Desire 816 has a 2,600 mAh battery.
• The battery is non-removable.
• During my first day using the HTC Desire 816, I was able to do stuff like text, check social media, web browse, read email, watch videos of YouTube and listen to music as well as use the camera without running out of battery.
• All in all, I got a little over 24 hours of battery life.
Software
• The HTC Desire 816 uses Android 4.4.2 Kitkat and Sense 5.5.
• The Desire 816 has features such as Blinkfeed, Zoe and video highlights on the home screen.
Connectivity
• The HTC Desire 816 has HSPA+ and LTE

Currently, you can get the Desire 816 internationally from outlets like Amazon for about 370 to 400 Euro. In the United States you should be able to find it on Ebay for around $400. This is not a bad price for what the Desire 816 offers performance-wise.
All in all, the HTC Desire 816 is a fanatastic phone, and not just for a midrange offering. The phone has a great and beautiful display as well as the HTC standard for premium build quality. The addition of HTC’s fantastic BoomSound audio system and a great camera makes the Desire 816 and even more attractive phone. The drawbacks would be no LTE and a low display resolution but you can probably live fine without those.
What do you think about the HTC Desire 816?
JR

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