HTC Debuts RE Action Camera, New Desire Eye Selfie Phone

HTC on Wednesday unveiled in an event in New York the RE action camera, the selfie-centric Desire Eye smartphone, the HTC EYE Experience enhanced imaging software and Zoe, a video editing community. RE is a small handheld camera with a unique cylindrical design made to fit in your hand. It features a built-in grip sensor that instantly activates the camera when picked up, eliminating the need for a power button. Its single shutter button allows one tap to capture photos and a longer press for video recording.

RE is featuring a high-resolution, 16MP CMOS sensor, full HD (1080p) video recording, 146 degree wide-angle lens and slow-motion and time-lapse recording. The RE app features a remote live viewfinder that lets you set up the shot and watch the live action on the screen of your mobile device, or switch to album and playback view to flick through the shots and videos already stored on the camera. The app will also back everything up to your phone or the cloud automatically. In addition, in the future, RE will offer real-time video streaming to YouTube. The RE app will be available on both Android and iOS.

RE will initially launch in the US at HTC.com and Best Buy, and in time for the holidays at AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Amazon.com. For $199 you get just 8 gigabytes of storage, but you can add up to 128 gigabytes more with a microSD card.

Today also sees the launch of HTC's new top-of-the-range HTC Desire model, the HTC Desire EYE. Sporting 13MP front and rear cameras for detailed image quality that allows you to zoom, crop and print without compromise, the HTC Desire EYE is fully equipped for those who love to take photos, videos and selfies. BSI sensors capture photos even in low-light conditions, and intelligent dual-LED flash on both cameras provides natural tones when ambient light levels drop further.

The smartphone is also equipped with three dedicated microphones. HTC BoomSound and a stunning 5.2" Full HD display combine to make the HTC Desire EYE a multimedia companion.

The waterproof device has a dedicated two-step camera key for focus and capture providing instant access to shots, even one-handed.

Other featurs include HTC's new HTC EYE Experience and Zoe, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor and 4G connectivity.

The HTC Desire EYE will be offered by AT&T exclusively at launch. No details on price yet.

It's not just about the hardware though. The HTC EYE Experience imaging software keeps you perfectly framed at all times. Up to four people in the same room can also be tracked comfortably with each face cropped and positioned on the screen for maximum clarity. This means that you can use Skype without worrying about exactly where you or your friends are standing, as the camera will follow everyone. In addition, a screen sharing option brings desktop functionality to smartphone-based video chat.

The new Split Capture function is combining simultaneous photos and videos taken on the front and back cameras into one split-screen image or video, allowing you to document your journey and your reaction without relying on thumbnail views. Crop-Me-In places you at the heart of the action by cropping you from the image or video taken with the front-facing camera and positioning it within the scene captured by the main camera. Voice Selfie removes the need for awkward hand contortions by enabling you to trigger the shutter release with a simple command. Simply "say cheese" as soon as you've struck the perfect pose or trigger the video recording with "action" or "rolling" commands.

Additions to the HTC Desire 820 are also included in the HTC EYE Experience such as face fusion, the feature that allows you to merge your face with that of a friend and Live Makeup, where you can set the desired level of skin smoothing and preview the effect in real-time before the image is captured.

With the new Zoe collaborative video-editing app it's easy to remix your photos and videos into highlight reels, with themes and soundtracks that can be shared. Allowing friends to remix their content with yours, Zoe creates a highlight video for all to share through their favorite social networks.

Zoe 1.0 is enabling short, medium and long Zoes that can be made up of just a couple of still images, or an entire series of video clips, with its new content engine making it easy to present small numbers of clips or even individual images in an interesting way.

Integrating fully with RE, Zoe video highlights are automatically generated and ready to share. There is no need to edit, no need to sync to your PC, just simply upload them with a single touch. Zoe 1.0 is available free of charge on Android now and is coming on iOS later this year.

HTC EYE Experience will roll out to the following models: HTC One (M7), HTC One (M8), HTC One (E8), HTC One mini, HTC One mini 2, HTC One Remix, HTC One Max, HTC Desire 612, and HTC Desire 816 in the coming months.

HTC Desire EYE S pecifications

SIZE: 151.7 x 73.8 x 8.5 mm
WEIGHT: 154 grams
DISPLAY: 5.2 inch Full HD 1080p

CPU

Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
2.3 GHz, quad-core CPUs

PLATFORM: Android with HTC Sense

MEMORY

Total storage: 16 GB, available capacity varies
RAM: 2GB
Expansion card slot supports microSD memory card for up to 128GB additional storage (card not included)

NETWORK

2G/2.5G - GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3G - WCDMA:
- ASIA - 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
- AT&T - 850/AWS/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA up to 21 Mbps
- EMEA - 850/900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 42 Mbps
3G - TD_SCDMA: ASIA - 1900/2000 MHz
4G - LTE:
- ASIA - FDD bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 28/TDD bands 38, 39, 40, 41
- AT&T - bands 2, 4, 5, 17, 29
- EMEA - bands 3, 7, 8, 20

SIM: nano SIM

SENSORS

Accelerometer
Proximity sensor
Ambient Light sensor
Gyro sensor

Durability: IPX7

CONNECTIVITY

3.5 mm stereo audio jack
NFC
Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX enabled
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5 GHz)
DLNA for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer
HTC Connect
micro-USB 2.0 port

CAMERAS

HTC Eye Experience with Face Tracking, Screen Share, Split Capture, Face Fusion, Live Makeup, Auto Selfie, Photo Booth, Crop Me In
Dedicated camera button

Rear camera

13MP , BSI sensor, f/2.0, 28mm lens, wide angle, with HDR capability
1080p Full HD video recording
Dual LED Flash

Front camera

13MP, BSI sensor, f/2.2, 22mm lens, wide angle, with HDR capability
1080p Full HD video recording
Auto focus with zoom capability
Dual LED Flash

Audio

HTC BoomSound
Dual front-facing stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
3 microphones for enhanced background noise cancellation
Sense Voice

MULTIMEDIA

Audio supported formats:
- Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .flac, .wav, .wma
- Recording: .aac
Video supported formats:
- Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .mkv, .wmv, .avi
- Recording: .mp4