There are often important things going on both sides of the smartphone and HTC has released the Desire Eye to ensure that consumers do justice to the images snapped with the cameras on the front of the handsets.
Revealed at HTC's invite-only Double Exposure event, the Desire Eye features a 13-MP camera on its back and a camera of the same caliber on its face. Both of the 13-MP cameras are paired with dual LED flashes and can record video in 1080p.
The Eye Desire has a 5.2-inch, 1080p screen for reviews and edits of those selfies. The smartphone is fitted with 2 GB of RAM and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 2.3 GHz quad-core processor.
Flowing through that hardware, the Eye Desire's software has been designed to minimize the arm-stretching struggle of snapping the perfect self portrait.
Eye Desire owners can use the smartphone's "Crop-Me-In" feature to turn landscape images and videos into selfies, thanks to the high-quality cameras.
"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, opening the door to more extreme, exciting selfies and videos," says HTC.
With the Eye Desire, taking selfies no longer requires athletic and graceful fingers. Users can use voice commands to snap a self portrait, once the stage has been set for the shot.
The Eye Desire's software also includes face-tracking tech that can follow the countenances of up to four individuals, comfortably, says HTC.
"Combining incredible hardware with unrivaled software, HTC is reinventing the way we think about imaging," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. "We are taking you out from behind the viewfinder and putting you back where you belong, at the heart of the action."
Along with the Eye Desire, HTC showed off the RE, a dedicated action camera that looks poised to compete with GoPro's products. The 16-MP RE is a rugged, waterproof camera that's wrapped in a tubular form factor and capable of capturing 1080p video.
HTC didn't unveil the Google's new 9-inch Nexus tablet at the Double Exposure event as had been hoped, but rumors alleging the Chinese tech firm is behind the tablet aren't going away.
As the Eye Desire pushes ahead of the pack into selfie-centric territory, HTC has released a series of tutorials to help consumers learn how to best leverage the smartphone's self portraiting capabilities.
Check out the first videos in the HTC Eye Experience series below:
