HTC Desire 516

Here's the new 5-inch HTC Desire 516

We’re not sure how HTC is choosing the names of its latest Desire smartphones, but, after the Desire 816, the company now wants to introduce a Desire 516. This 516 was approved by Chinese authorities today, and we managed to uncover the first photos of it.

Weighing 173 grams and measuring 140 x72 x 9.7 mm, the HTC Desire 516 sports a 5-inch display with 540 x 960 pixels. The model that’s been certified in China has TD-SCDMA connectivity, and is made for China Mobile. The handset runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean at the moment, and features a quad-core 1.3GHz CPU, 5MP rear camera with LED flash, VGA front-facing camera, and only 512MB of RAM.

Granted, the 516 doesn’t look as good as the Desire 816 or the Desire 610 (another new handset announced by HTC recently). But we assume it’s going to be a pretty cheap device.

HTC recently said that it wanted to concentrate on the mid-end and low-end markets this year, in addition to launching the All New One for customers in need of high-end smartphones. We’re expecting the Desire 516 to be part of the company’s global low-end line-up, but for now we can’t confirm that it will make it out of China. We’ll let you know when we have more details on this anyway.

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HTC Desire 516

Here's the new 5-inch HTC Desire 516

We’re not sure how HTC is choosing the names of its latest Desire smartphones, but, after the Desire 816, the company now wants to introduce a Desire 516. This 516 was approved by Chinese authorities today, and we managed to uncover the first photos of it.

Weighing 173 grams and measuring 140 x72 x 9.7 mm, the HTC Desire 516 sports a 5-inch display with 540 x 960 pixels. The model that’s been certified in China has TD-SCDMA connectivity, and is made for China Mobile. The handset runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean at the moment, and features a quad-core 1.3GHz CPU, 5MP rear camera with LED flash, VGA front-facing camera, and only 512MB of RAM.

Granted, the 516 doesn’t look as good as the Desire 816 or the Desire 610 (another new handset announced by HTC recently). But we assume it’s going to be a pretty cheap device.

HTC recently said that it wanted to concentrate on the mid-end and low-end markets this year, in addition to launching the All New One for customers in need of high-end smartphones. We’re expecting the Desire 516 to be part of the company’s global low-end line-up, but for now we can’t confirm that it will make it out of China. We’ll let you know when we have more details on this anyway.

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Leaked ad sheds light on the new HTC One’s Dual Cameras

by Rakesh Soni

The All new HTC One has all but been completely revealed at this point in time, but till now, we have never been able to get solid information on how the dual camera setup is going to work. Well, this new leak, a Telstra brochure acquired by the good folks at GSMArena, might shed some light on the “Duo Camera” setup that HTC is going for, in its latest flagship device. We all know how the 4 MP UltraPixel camera underwhelmed us after the initial excitement, but HTC seems to have worked out a solution and then more with this implementation that retains the UltraPixel’s advantages.

This is the complete brochure that has leaked, but the main take away here is this -

Duo Camera

Create vivid images even in low light and professionally edit memories after you’ve taken the shot. Choose where to focus, highlight what you love, soften backgrounds and add 3D effects.

Now lets try to figure out how it will work. First up, low light advantage is obviously the Ultrapixel camera’s large pixel size that HTC mentions here, so it is safe to guess that the low light mode will exclusively use the UltraPixel camera.

About the “Edit memories after you’ve taken the shot”, we have got this theory – Assuming the new HTC One has the Snapdragon 800 processor inside, it will be able to push through or manipulate Ultrapixel 4 MP shots with ease. The old HTC One used to take a rapid burst of pics along with video thanks to the small MP count, so we are guessing HTC is probably going to put it to use here for depth data, thanks to more processing power at the disposal. If you remember right, Nokia has its own Refocus app that lets you focus after you take the shot called.

It works by taking multiple shots at different focus levels and combines them into a single photo. Trick is, it takes the photos at a low 5 MP resolution to avoid the obvious overhead and a faster manipulation of the photos without much shake, it also proves to be less stressful for the chip inside. This will obviously be a even minor problem for the new HTC One as the depth map can be created with the Ultrapixel camera separately and the detailed high resolution image can be retained with the other camera that sits at the top.

Creating a depth map will let you change the focus, lets you add bokeh effects(a blur to the background) and even add 3D effects, just like what the brochure proclaims. In the end, it’s looking like the dual camera implementation is put to clever use by HTC and we can’t wait to see the real deal when it launches later this month. Also among the other things that the new HTC One will get is the “Double tap to turn on” feature(part of Sense 6.0) that’s been slowly making its way on to many devices recently.

We’ll be there live from the HTC launch event in New York, so stay tuned to the blog for more information regarding the next HTC flagship and let us know what you think of this, in the comments section below.

Read More

Leaked ad sheds light on the new HTC One’s Dual Cameras

by Rakesh Soni

The All new HTC One has all but been completely revealed at this point in time, but till now, we have never been able to get solid information on how the dual camera setup is going to work. Well, this new leak, a Telstra brochure acquired by the good folks at GSMArena, might shed some light on the “Duo Camera” setup that HTC is going for, in its latest flagship device. We all know how the 4 MP UltraPixel camera underwhelmed us after the initial excitement, but HTC seems to have worked out a solution and then more with this implementation that retains the UltraPixel’s advantages.

This is the complete brochure that has leaked, but the main take away here is this -

Duo Camera

Create vivid images even in low light and professionally edit memories after you’ve taken the shot. Choose where to focus, highlight what you love, soften backgrounds and add 3D effects.

Now lets try to figure out how it will work. First up, low light advantage is obviously the Ultrapixel camera’s large pixel size that HTC mentions here, so it is safe to guess that the low light mode will exclusively use the UltraPixel camera.

About the “Edit memories after you’ve taken the shot”, we have got this theory – Assuming the new HTC One has the Snapdragon 800 processor inside, it will be able to push through or manipulate Ultrapixel 4 MP shots with ease. The old HTC One used to take a rapid burst of pics along with video thanks to the small MP count, so we are guessing HTC is probably going to put it to use here for depth data, thanks to more processing power at the disposal. If you remember right, Nokia has its own Refocus app that lets you focus after you take the shot called.

It works by taking multiple shots at different focus levels and combines them into a single photo. Trick is, it takes the photos at a low 5 MP resolution to avoid the obvious overhead and a faster manipulation of the photos without much shake, it also proves to be less stressful for the chip inside. This will obviously be a even minor problem for the new HTC One as the depth map can be created with the Ultrapixel camera separately and the detailed high resolution image can be retained with the other camera that sits at the top.

Creating a depth map will let you change the focus, lets you add bokeh effects(a blur to the background) and even add 3D effects, just like what the brochure proclaims. In the end, it’s looking like the dual camera implementation is put to clever use by HTC and we can’t wait to see the real deal when it launches later this month. Also among the other things that the new HTC One will get is the “Double tap to turn on” feature(part of Sense 6.0) that’s been slowly making its way on to many devices recently.

We’ll be there live from the HTC launch event in New York, so stay tuned to the blog for more information regarding the next HTC flagship and let us know what you think of this, in the comments section below.

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HTC One Max full review

The Samsung Galaxy Note may have started the phablet craze, but history won't count for much when the Note 3 faces the HTC One Max. The Max takes the lauded HTC One design and build and trumps the Note 3 in terms of screen size. This fight though is about more than sheer size.

When we compared the Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One we noted that the looks and build quality of the One are miles ahead of the Galaxy S4, while Samsung balanced that out with better specs.

On the phablet playground, both companies worked on areas, which needed improvement - it's the HTC that has the bigger screen this time around, but the Galaxy Note 3 caught up in terms of looks. In case you're not closely familiar with the specs of the two phablets, here's a quick recap of where each device bests the other.

HTC One Max over Galaxy Note 3

• Bigger screen - 5.9" vs. 5.7"
• LCD screen is brighter, with great contrast
• Front-facing stereo BoomSound speakers
• Aluminum exterior
• Fingerprint sensor
• Better audio quality
• FM radio

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 over One Max

• S Pen stylus with many clever applications
• Faster chipset - Snapdragon 800 vs. 600 (Exynos 5 Octa version available too)
• 3GB RAM over 2GB
• Lighter - 168g vs. 217g
• More compact - 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm vs. 164.5 x 82.5 x 10.3mm
• 13MP still camera over 4MP camera with, no OIS on either of them
• 2160p @ 30fps and 1080 @ 60fps video capture over 1080 @ 30fps
• USB 3.0 over USB 2.0
• Removable battery

We'll break down these advantages and cover them in more detail later on, but one thing is clear from the get go. The HTC One Max is basically an enlarged One, while the Galaxy Note 3 is a device from a separate line and has a number of significant advantages over its Galaxy S4 sibling.

HTC One Max faces off against the Samsung Galaxy Note 3
HTC did improve a bit on the basic One design with a fingerprint sensor and a microSD card slot, but the camera OIS got lost along the way. Is that enough to stop Samsung's freight train of features?
We'll know for sure when all the rounds of this heavyweight boxing match are over and the hits are counted. It all starts with design and handling - jump over the next page to see if the big-boned beauty with pedigree can score the first hit against the leather-bound late bloomer

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HTC One Max full review

The Samsung Galaxy Note may have started the phablet craze, but history won't count for much when the Note 3 faces the HTC One Max. The Max takes the lauded HTC One design and build and trumps the Note 3 in terms of screen size. This fight though is about more than sheer size.

When we compared the Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One we noted that the looks and build quality of the One are miles ahead of the Galaxy S4, while Samsung balanced that out with better specs.

On the phablet playground, both companies worked on areas, which needed improvement - it's the HTC that has the bigger screen this time around, but the Galaxy Note 3 caught up in terms of looks. In case you're not closely familiar with the specs of the two phablets, here's a quick recap of where each device bests the other.

HTC One Max over Galaxy Note 3

• Bigger screen - 5.9" vs. 5.7"
• LCD screen is brighter, with great contrast
• Front-facing stereo BoomSound speakers
• Aluminum exterior
• Fingerprint sensor
• Better audio quality
• FM radio

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 over One Max

• S Pen stylus with many clever applications
• Faster chipset - Snapdragon 800 vs. 600 (Exynos 5 Octa version available too)
• 3GB RAM over 2GB
• Lighter - 168g vs. 217g
• More compact - 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm vs. 164.5 x 82.5 x 10.3mm
• 13MP still camera over 4MP camera with, no OIS on either of them
• 2160p @ 30fps and 1080 @ 60fps video capture over 1080 @ 30fps
• USB 3.0 over USB 2.0
• Removable battery

We'll break down these advantages and cover them in more detail later on, but one thing is clear from the get go. The HTC One Max is basically an enlarged One, while the Galaxy Note 3 is a device from a separate line and has a number of significant advantages over its Galaxy S4 sibling.

HTC One Max faces off against the Samsung Galaxy Note 3
HTC did improve a bit on the basic One design with a fingerprint sensor and a microSD card slot, but the camera OIS got lost along the way. Is that enough to stop Samsung's freight train of features?
We'll know for sure when all the rounds of this heavyweight boxing match are over and the hits are counted. It all starts with design and handling - jump over the next page to see if the big-boned beauty with pedigree can score the first hit against the leather-bound late bloomer

Read More