HTC has just announced its entry into a completely new market for the company, action cameras. You might have heard of the GoPro, a little camera in a box, that is usually worn or attached, to provide an action view of the said adventurer/explorer/thing. The HTC Re is similar in its intent, but different in design, with a familiar wide angle lens camera enclosed in an unusual structure of a bent cylindrical tube. The camera aims to capture moments that you usually miss, something that the company already tried to achieve with its Zoe app. The Re wants you to capture those moments, whenever you want, with more creative options than a smartphone, and a form factor that is smaller and easier to handle, leading to more creative opportunities.
The design of the hardware is weird but smart. It looks like a lot of things, for example, a bent tube, a L joint of a PVC pipe, an inhaler in inverse, etc. You are supposed to hold the device like a spray gun, or better, a soda can, which seems like a natural way to hold it. The camera shutter key is on the bend, which makes it a thumb press away from a photo and a longer press away from a video. So when you are just carrying a Re, you just point at the subject and shoot, as the wide angle lens provides you a fair idea of what you’ll get, without a view finder. The longer press records a video when the LED flashes to red, a press of the button on the front switches it to slow motion, and all media is stored on its micro SD card, which can then be shared with the Re app, available for both iOS and Android devices.
The camera on this is a 16 megapixel sensor, with a 146 degree wide angle lens, capable of recording full HD video and 120 fps slow motion video at 720p. Adding to that the camera is inherently water proof, and doesn’t require a case for protecting itself from any kind of water damage. the in-built battery is a 820 mAH unit that can apparently continuously record a little more than 1.5 hours of video and click 1,200 16 MP photos. It can also record Zoes, just like the other HTC phones. The usual “action camera” additions like Time lapse, slow motion videos, a slew of accessories for attaching it to things, or the ability to wear it on your body, are all available from HTC, as a part of the device’s ecosystem.
Talking of ecosystem, the software is completely dependent on the smartphone client. The Re apps will provide you the options for changing the wide-angle type, choosing the modes, share pics and videos, set time lapses and so on. The app connects over WiFi direct, just like the GoPro and seems to offer very similar options. In addition to all this, the Re app will also soon let you configure a direct live stream to your YouTube channel. Label this “coming soon”. Tencent and Instagram get their names dropped by HTC, as partners for its open API/SDK initiative, which will let developers create new experiences around the Re. For $199, the Re is a very competitive offering from HTC, and is clearly a bold entry into a business segment for the company struggling to make it work again in smartphones. The recently launched Desire Eye, with it’s super high res selfie camera, and the Re camera, with its innovative design are indications that the Taiwanese company is trying to bounce back. The new products are very impressive, but we will be letting you know more about them in our hands on posts later, stay tuned for that.