KPH tech blog

What happens to your old phone when you get a new phone? Do you sell it, or keep it? I kept mine, and it’s done really well so far.

Performance

Apart from app permissions – a persistent notification bug which resets after each reboot, and which it still suffers from – my HTC Desire Eye is doing okay in terms of performance.

The Desire Eye was once touted as a flagship in a medium-range phone body, and that’s exactly how it still performs to this day. It’s not as fast as my Galaxy S7, nor do I expect it to be, but it can still hold its own, and has been more than adequate for basic tasks like checking emails and social media, browsing the web and occasionally watching YouTube and Netflix.

I also found out that, with regards the performance issues I was experiencing this time 2 years ago, I was actually affecting its performance more than I realised.

I had an epiphany, of sorts, about a year ago, that made me realise why this was happening – even though the explanation was quite literally staring me in the face the whole time:

In order to squeeze as much juice out of the battery as I possibly could when it was my daily driver, I’d enabled the ‘Power Saving’ mode, not realising that limiting CPU usage on a medium range device would have such a detrimental effect to its performance under heavy loads. This has never been an issue with my S7, but then that’s a flagship device – what do I expect?

Once I’d realised this, which as I said was about a year ago, it was too late as I’d already switched to my now daily driver, the Samsung Galaxy S7.

In the last year, however, I’ve left my Desire Eye out of Power Saving mode as much as possible, meaning slow speeds are almost a thing of the past with my Desire Eye. It’s still not got anything on my S7 – not least because it’s a now 4 year old medium-range smartphone, whereas my S7 is a 2 year old ‘flagship’ – but at least most of the performance issues have gone.

This does mean I can’t use the phone for long, and definitely not below the 10% mark – which is now the signal of an imminent shutdown. But to be honest, I don’t really need the battery to last all day every day, as its now my secondary device, and I only really use it when my S7 is plugged in and charging. Therefore, I can rest assured and use the CPU to its fullest, without worrying much about getting through the day on a single charge.

Charging

Talking of charging – fast charging is no longer available as an option. I assumed this was a HTC thing that they disabled with the last major firmware/security update, but for whatever reason, it just can’t do it anymore.

It shipped with Quick Charge 2.0, and an adapter/cable capable of delivering that power. I’ve tried that charger, I’ve tried newer & backwards compatible Quick Charge 3.0 plugs and cables, but still, my Desire Eye refuses to ‘fast charge.’

Weirder still, the menu option to enable/disable fast charging has even disappeared, and I’d thought it would be hidden somewhere in the hidden Developer Options menus, but nope. Zilch. That’s what’s led me to assume it was a HTC thing with a recent update, automatically disabling Quick Charge capabilities to force you to upgrade to a newer HTC phone.

With the recent battery scandal that hit Apple, regarding its slowdown of older devices because of supposed ‘battery deterioration,’ the idea that HTC and other OEMs might have employed similar strategies, actually isn’t that far-fetched.

Ultimately, the loss of Quick Charge 2.0 has meant a minimum charge time (to 100%) of about 2.5hrs, but seeing as it’s not my main device anymore, I’ve come to accept it.

Boot times

Something else that is also still an issue, is the initial boot time. It takes forever for the phone to switch on – much longer than my S7, and even longer than my 5 year old Samsung tablet which runs on much older hardware. It isn’t the end of the world, but it does mean I have to wait a bit before the phone’s ready to play.

Camera

The camera is very slow, however, taking such a long time to autofocus, that most times I just give up and use my S7 or my DSLR.

HTC Sense 7, and basic UI experience

HTC Sense was once the cornerstone of Android, but now, it just looks like a drab afterthought. It’s also massively outdated, and there’s no gestures to make life easier (apart from gestures to ‘unlock’ the phone). Thankfully, this is Android – the land of the free, and the home of customisation.

Therefore, to please my eyes and improve the aesthetics of the home launcher, I’ve been using Nova Launcher Prime with custom icons and gestures enabled – meaning I can swipe up for the app drawer, and down for the notification panel and quick-settings toggles.

For reference, the icon pack I’ve been using is the Pixel Icon Pack, now known as the Pix UI Icon Pack 2, by Rasolant Ltd, although I have used other icon packs as well, such as Flight Flat Minimalist by Nate Wren Design.

I can even press and hold on an app to access quick functions (just like every other current smartphone can do), as well as swiping up on an app icon to access a secondary function – I currently use this on a few apps which means my home screen doesn’t have to be so cluttered anymore. If I swipe up on the app icon for the SMS messages app, for example, I’m taken to my emails; and a swipe up on the Facebook app takes me to Facebook Messenger, etc, etc.

Audio

Audio is also still lame on its stock setting, compared to any of my other devices, and that’s despite the onboard HTC Boomsound technology. The PowerAmp app is still installed and handling my music needs as and when.

Recently, however, when listening to audio (in any app), I’ve noticed some crackling and hissing of sound, almost like there’s interference – but I’ve only noticed this at the lowest possible volume setting (which, I assume, on the old Android scale of 1-15, is a ‘1’). Up to level 2 and it’s gone.

I’m not sure if this was always there, or if I’ve only just started noticing it now, but it doesn’t exist at higher volumes, so maybe its just a glitch with the software ot audio DAC. Or, maybe HTC weren’t expecting users to play audio on volume setting 1, so didn’t tune the DAC to be brilliant at that level?

I think what I’m saying here is that, although the camera isn’t up to scratch, the audio is lame, the UI is drab, it takes a while to load and to charge, my HTC Desire Eye is still a very capable device for the basic tasks of any lifestyle – just as long as I don’t ask it to do anything heavy. Or quickly, for that matter.

– Chris J.K.