Display and Design
Desire 820 can be defined as more of a phablet than a smartphone at 5.5 inch Display with 720p HD quality. People would have loved to have an HD resolution rather than HD quality. But the screen size and optimum display we hope will make up for the lag. Keeping up with legacy of impeccable design and comfort, Desire 820 too retains the polycarbonate body from Desire 816, but with a multi tone uni body design improving the strength and tolerance of the device. Almost all the color variants are prone to smudges at the glossy back cover except for Tuxedo Grey version which comes with a matte finish. The overall plastic coating on such big phone makes it lightweight but doesn't feel that good to hold though.
Processor and Performance
HTC with the 64-bit game, has given a major blow to other brands like Sony, LG and Samsung. The new Snapdragon 615 processor here is said to perform 50% faster than the usual Cortex A7 seen in popular Quad core and octa core processors. Though defined as a mid range chip, this phone is specifically designed to be power efficient with four of the cores fixed at 1 GHz and rest of the four at 1.5 GHz. However 64 bit Android versions are not available yet, so the phone will currently be shipped with a 64 bit hardware and 32 bit version of Android. Ironic indeed, because all these days Android have been crying out loud about low quality hardware and here we are. The new Adreno 405 graphics processor is another boon here whereas the current ones in market are Adreno 300 versions.
Camera
8 MP front camera is a definite IN for the selfie lovers along with 13 MP rear camera and all the required tools to ensure quality photos. The features like Real time live makeup, to even out and set the preferred skin tone during the preview, Face fusion which allows you to merge your features with those of celebrity or friend and Photo booth which captures several moments in a single collage are also available.
OS
Phone runs of latest HTC sense 6 over Android 4.4 KitKat. HTC desire is also set to be upgraded to Android L by the end of the year.
Storage and battery
Storage comes with a 16GB space of built-in memory and an expandable memory. Connectivity of this device ranges from 2G to 4G, given it is a CAT 4 LTE device, the speed might even come up to 150 Mbps. Battery is not impressive in figures with 2600 mAh ,but with the power efficient features, that should hold up for quiet some time.
If a premium mid range is what HTC wanted to give us then it has succeeded. The phone fits into the desire line up in both style and performance alike. Presenting a 64-bit phone for the first time at 20k price range is most likely to help HTC receive boost in the “too costly” game that it has been playing.
The 64-bit phones preparing to be launched in India over the next few months are Samsung Galaxy Alpha (price around Rs 25,000?), the Huawei G621 (around Rs 15,000), Samsung GM-510 F (Rs 18,000) and HTC Desire 510, also around Rs 15,000.
Verdict
Final verdict is that if you want a premium mid range phone,Desire 820 will do. But do not just jump in seeing that 64-bit because 64 bit Android hasn't arrived yet. Rest of it looks fine, spectacular actually.
