HTC Desire 816 Hands On and First Look: The Coming of Age Mid-Range Phablet is Here

| Updated: Wednesday, July 9, 2014, 13:41 [IST]

Rating:

4.5/5

HTC's Desire series has been around for quite some time but it never blew our minds. No matter what you may call it, HTC's latest handset under its Desire series, the Desire 816, has some kind of magical power that would make you connect with the device immediately. HTC is changing and it's in the positive direction.

HTC originally unveiled the Desire 816 at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), held in Barcelona. Just recently, HTC has launched the device into Indian market at Rs. 23,990.

Taiwan-based HTC claims the Desire 816 to the the world's first phone that supports both GSM and 3G, it works well with CDMA-EVDO networks.

HTC Desire 816 features a massive 5.5-inch 720p HD display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of on-board storage, a microSD card slot, Dual SIM Nano SIM support, Android 4.4 Kitkat, a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 5MP front-facing shooter, and an embedded 2600mAh battery.

In India, the HTC Desire 816 will be directly pitted against the likes of Sony Xperia T2 Ultra, Nokia Lumia 1320 and the HP Slate6 VoiceTab.

We spent some good time with the HTC Desire 816 at the recent launch event held in New Delhi, and here are the first hands on impressions. Take a look!

HTC Desire 816 Dual SIM- Build Quality

The HTC Desire 816 will be praised for its effortless design and handsome looks. It's all plastic but the phone feels pretty solid. Moreover, it seems that the Desire 816 has something common with the Apple iPhone 5C. Both phones have glossy shining polycarbonate rear-back cover.

When we held the Desire 816 in our hands, it was just too slippery to handle. On the design side, HTC appears to have taken a page from the HTC One M7. The only difference between two devices is their different build quality.

The Desire 816 has a unibody design with more rounded edges. Even though it is crafted out of plastic, we immediately connected with the device. At 156.6 x 78.7 x 7.99 mm and 165g, it is taller than an average phablet.

Scrutinizing more about the device, we got to know that the handset uses on-screen navigation buttons, instead of physical control keys. The 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top while the micro-USB port is placed at the bottom edge.

On the left hand side, it features the power/lock button and the volume keys, while on the right side, there is the provision to insert nano SIM cards ( Dual SIM) and a microSD card slot. On the back side, you will see the 13-MP rear-facing camera and an LED Flash.