Switch the phone on and the 5.5 inch screen lights up, showing a relatively big LCD screen running a 1280×720 resolution.
While that might not be as lovely a screen as what you get on the flagship bodies, 720p still looks pretty schmick here, even though it’s only running 267 pixels per inch, 60 pixels from what Apple constitutes as Retina image quality.
That said, the screen on the Desire 816 has excellent viewing angles and great colour, with a level of brightness that will still make it semi-useful even when it’s a touch sunny outside.
Get to using the phone and for the most part, this is Android as it was when we saw the HTC One (M8). HTC’s interpretation of Android is still easy to work out, with several widgetised homescreens, a menu system with a couple of grid options, and HTC’s BlinkFeed which lets you view news sources and social feeds in a system reminiscent of Flipboard.
Colour coding is also here for the apps, dividing up what you do between productivity, entertainment, and so on, with a dock that’s also easy to be modified across both the homescreen and standby lock screen.
Performance is a mixed bag, though, with a synthetic benchmark that puts the Desire 816 in a similar category to one of HTC’s previous benchmarks, but a lack of memory helping it to have lacklustre feelings across the board.
For instance, a quick bench with Quadrant reveals a performance on par with last year’s HTC One, scoring 12001, close to HTC’s 2013 flagship which itself grabbed 12509. Even though the chips are similar between this and the One Mini, the Desire 816’s reliance on a quad-core chip compared to the dual-core of the Mini seems to be helping out a reasonable amount for the benchmark.
But the memory isn’t the same as it was in last year’s flagship One with half a gig less, making it a 1.5GB device compared to what Android prefers with the sweet spot of 2GB. That change in specs seems to show up in the performance, with some slow downs when you jump across apps, scroll up and down web pages, and generally use your phone.
Most people will probably be able to put up with these slowdowns, but anyone looking for a solid burst of speed won’t see it here. The Desire 816 works, but not as efficiently as you might expect.
It’s also missing Near-Field Communication, which is a curious omission given that it’s a pretty standard wireless technology now, while also supporting what appears to be an extra SIM card slot that has been blocked up.
You’ll find this blocked up section in between the microSD and nanoSIM slot, and behind a cover flap that is so very hard to remove, so make sure to keep those nails handy (fingernails, that is).
The camera isn’t amazing either, because even though the megapixel range on the back is better than you might get with the HTC One, the camera is slow to respond in software, adding a second or two more from when you hit the on-screen shutter button to take the photo.
Up close, the images lack clarity and appear soft, and you may even find the focus didn’t quite look as good in reality as it did on screen. We’re not quite sure what’s making this happen, but suspect the low speed the Desire 816’s camera offers — from when you press the shutter, wait, and then have the camera take the picture — isn’t helping. Not at all.
Possibly the one good thing to come out of this is the front-facing camera which provides a decent 5 megapixels of goodness, and HTC’s image editing to boot. That’s a decent front-facing camera, which should make anyone looking for a smartphone with decent selfie capability pleased.
Also on the positive side, you’ll find excellent 4G speeds and a decent battery helping the Desire 816 along.
For the former, we found speeds ranging between 40 and 80Mbps over 4G LTE, which makes it one fast little big phone, and suitable for watching movies on that big screen.
On the other side of the equation is how this phone deals with life, and when tested with making phone calls, messaging, sending and receiving emails, web surfing, listening to music, and playing the odd game, we found a day and a half of life was easily possible, reaching into that second day if you needed to.
HTC’s power saving modes are also here, helping to get every last inch of life out of the battery if needed, but you should be fine making it through a work day without needing to reach for the plug.
In fact, we suspect this is partly due to the screen not being above the high definition resolution, which no doubt helps the handset reserve its battery life a little better than if it ran at a higher resolution.
Conclusion
HTC’s attempt to make a budget phablet doesn’t quite nail it, with a device that doesn’t feel bad, but offers a performance that certainly doesn’t match what you might expect out of it.
At a little less than $400, the Desire 816 is a solid choice for anyone keen to have something big and not too expensive, especially with its day-strong battery and nice screen, but if you’re looking for something with more grunt, we’d either look elsewhere or drop down to a smaller size.
