It seems like a lot of companies that we had in our head as mobile phone and tablet companies are starting to expand their horizons. With Motorola releasing Hint, and everyone hopping into the smart watch game, tech companies are going to start branching out and competing in different markets.
HTC released something on Wednesday that is kind of quirky: the RE. The RE is an action cam that isn’t quite POV but people will probably classify it as one. It’s basically a little divice that looks like a periscope and captures your life. Here it is in all it’s glory:
Focus on the moment, not on your camera. Remarkably fun and incredibly easy, the RE turns on in your hand, shoots photos and videos without a viewfinder, and streams everything to your phone for easy viewing and one-press sharing.
So, this little guy has a 16MP sensor, which is honestly awesome. It records in 1080p (sadly no 4K, 30fps) and it has 146 degree f2.8 lens. One thing that I struggle with in these little action cams is not the resolution, but the fps. A lot of times 30fps just doesn’t do your activity justice and makes it look choppy; hopefully the RE can keep up. One odd thing, too, is that there is no record button, only “Built-in instant-on grip detection,” so essentially it turns on when you put your finger in a certain place. We’ll see how that goes HTC, but I’m pretty sure every other camera has a dedicated record button for a reason. The battery is a 820mAh and is supposedly good for 1200 photos and just over an hour and a half of video.
The RE connects via Bluetooth and microUSB, and there is an app you can download on iOS or Android that will let you deal with the images and videos you captured right then and there. This is SUCH a handy feature. But wait…there is one more thing about this little surprise gadget: it’s waterproof! You don’t even need a case, just throw it on down into the pool or go cliff diving with it and it’ll be just fine. I’m actually pretty tickled about that.
I’ll admit I’m a little confused about where this device fits into the camera market, but I think that will become clear when HTC tells us the price. I hope it’s a relatively cheap accessory that can lie around the house and be used for stuff like filming a cool shot of your kids on the trampoline or your wife being a goof. It’s there, sitting in the charger, ready to capture anything without being as intrusive as a phone or tablet. And I think that is the idea – HTC doesn’t want you to be watching things through your phone screen but enjoying the show, and letting the RE document it for you.
Here’s a video from Engadget for a closer look:
What do you think of HTC’s new gadget? Would you buy it, or do you think HTC is wasting their time? How much would you pay for the HTC RE? Drop us a line and let us know.
[button link=”http://www.recamera.com/in/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: RECamera[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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