HTC Desire 816

“Voracious media consumers will appreciate the expansive display and loud speakers, while performance is in line with the price. And $300 for this much phone is a fantastic deal. If you're looking for something smaller, the Virgin Mobile Supreme has a more manageable 5-inch display and still represents good value at $300, while the even smaller HTC Desire features the same front-facing speaker setup as its larger sibling. For phablet fans on Virgin Mobile, though, the Desire 816 is a top pick and earns our Editors' Choice award.”

“HTC makes some of the best-built devices on the market. The Desire 816 was a bit of a letdown in that respect - it's a beautiful device for sure, but the plastic on the back and the side buttons cheapen the feel of the device. Still, what you get for the average price tag of the HTC Desire 816 is a beautiful screen and visually-appealing, functional software. Sense 6 may not be pure Holo Android, but is arguably better looking than other popular Android skins with its flat design and pastel color scheme. The camera is great too, with good quality 13MP stills and 1080p video. We'd take this over any 4MP UltraPixel camera without a blink. Another area where the Desire 816 punches above its weight is audio - the stereo speakers sound great and the audio quality with headphones in is worthy of a flagship.”

“If you are looking for a cheap and powerful smartphone, the HTC Desire 816 is a good pick. The street price is not cheap, but for its price, the 5.5-inch smartphone can offer good hardware which can compete with the performance of top-tier models. The display has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, and the main 13 MP camera takes decent pictures. The Android 4.4.2 OS is on-board and LTE capability allows the smartphone to achieve fast data rates on-the-go. Thanks to the quad-core SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8928 the Desire 816 runs fluidly and can deal with the latest games and apps without issues.HTC has cut few corners and the end product is impressive. We deduct points from the Desire 816 for its relatively small storage of 8 GB, but it can be extended by up to 128 GB. The picture quality could have been better, and the battery should have been removable. Overall, HTC delivers a solid package in the form of the Desire 816.”

“HTC deserves some credit for finding a niche space to compete in, and it's done so with some success. In general, the Desire 816 came out as the most ideal choice among similarly specced Android phablets: It has better camera specs, front-facing speakers and a slick UI. It's even a better deal than the One mini 2, which is essentially a slower Desire 816 with a smaller screen, plus a smaller battery, in a metallic chassis -- the part that HTC's charging you the premium for, yet it's not quite the same smooth finish as the M8's.Of course, the Desire 816 isn't perfect. As on the One mini 2, the cameras are sluggish and sometimes unpredictable, but when they do work, the photos come out nicely. That's pretty much the only thing that's stopping me from totally falling in love with the phone. The Desire 816's only real threat is the OnePlus One (and eventually the Xiaomi Mi 4 in select regions), but given that it's still a rare item, HTC should seize the moment, put up a good fight and fix those camera bugs.”