If HTC was looking for something original, they definitely nailed it with the RE camera as nothing else takes its shape (unless you consider the periscope on a submarine). This little camera was developed to compete against todays action cams, including the GoPro and Sony Action Cam. Does it pull it off? Let’s see!
It’s small, a little slippery in the hands, all plastic, and (as we have already covered) unique in shape. As much as it wants to compete with the action cams, it falls more into the category of novelty or flip camera than a GoPro competitor. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad camera though.
It may not perform as well as a GoPro, but it does do better than the cellphone in your pocket. It packs a Sony CMOS sensor and a ultra wide-angle lens allowing you to get a good shot of everything you point it at and the quality it delivers isn’t too bad at all. Again, not as good as a GoPro, but still delivers. It’s like a relaxed offspring of the GoPro for those who are not as adventurous as say…jumping off the side of a mountain. This is more for strapping to a bike for a nice cruise, or filming your favorite parts of a vacation, day at school or drive down Sunset boulevard.
While viewing the video on a large screen, you will find it isn’t perfect, but for social media and smaller devices, the video looks just fine. Again, better than your cellphone, but not as good as the more expensive action cams.
It feels ok in your hand, and your thumb enjoys the location of the button that allows you to control recording or taking images. If you press it once, it snaps an image (up to 16MP in settings), and holding the button for a few seconds to start recording video. You can choose from both 1080p and 720p for video, but it only records at 30fps (this part we aren’t impressed with since even the dumbed down GoPro Hero does a little more for less).
Audio quality is not the best. This is common for some of these small action/novelty cameras, so we won’t dock it much for that. In slow motion recording, there is no audio at all, which is the same for all the others as well.
Speaking of slow motion, there is a button on the front under the lens that allows you to switch between regular and slow motion. Pressing that button is all you need to do. Slow motion is only 96fps (frames per second), also pretty low in our opinion as most of the other cheaper cameras offer usually 120fps.
There is a small LED light that notes that your recording as well as a beeping sound (this is optional).
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Holding it in your hand does feel natural, even though to the eyes, its shape seems a bit odd (mostly because your mind is used to associating camera devices with square-like objects). The body of the camera uses capacitive touch technology to sense when you have picked it up, allowing it to power itself on and off. This prevents you from having to turn it on and off manually.
On the bottom side of the camera you will find a micro-USB port for charging the camera and connecting it to a computer. There is a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB cards and comes with an 8GB card in the box to get you started. There is also a standard tripod threaded mount on the bottom so you can spin it onto any tripod or similar accessory that support this. The threads are plastic, so you have to be extra careful here.
Battery life is about 1 to 1.5 recording hours depending on if you have your phone connected via WiFi or just shooting blind. This isn’t too bad as that’s about average for these camera devices. We got anywhere from 50mins to just under 1.5 hours in our testing.
The RE comes with an app for both Android and (soon) iOS devices. The app gives you the typical control over the camera including settings and a live feed of the video. You can control whether it is recording or not, taking pictures or initiate time-lapse mode (30, 10 or 1fps). You can also use it to download the recorded videos straight to the phone wirelessly.
HTC offers a number of optional accessories that hold the camera in various ways to help you capture what you are trying to record just right.
Our Conclusion
The camera itself should find a home in the pockets of many, but won’t satisfy those looking for excellent picture quality. The content it shoots is best for social media enthusiasts who like to share their experiences with Facebook and Twitter or from phone to phone. The threads of the mount are plastic, which means you have to be careful with screwing it onto something, but there are other accessories that hold it vs use the mount. The frames per second leave you wanting more and the normal price tag doesn’t fit. The camera itself is just fine, but fits better within the $99 range, else you may be better off with the GoPro’s entry “Hero” model. We decided to give it a 6.5/10. If the price fell to about $99, it would fall around 7 or 7.5.
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Additional Images:
Specifications:
Special Features
Grip sensor instantly turns on the device when it is picked up.
One-hand operation design
One tap for photos; One press for videos
Time-lapse recording, settings control via your smartphone
Android (4.3 and above) and iOS compatible. Seamless integration with your existing photo gallery.
Camera
1080p, 30fps FHD video
720p, 4x slow motion video
146 degree super wide angle lens with f2.8 aperture for low light usability
Battery
820mAh rechargeable battery
Supports 1hr 50mins of continuous FHD video recording
Size
26.5 mm diameter
97.7 mm height
Sensors
16MP, 1/2.3″ Sony CMOS sensor
Connectivity
BLE (Bluetooth v4.0)
Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Wi-Fi Direct
5-pin micro-USB
MicroSD Card Slot
Tripod Hole
Weight
66.5 grams
Memory
Expandable microSD storage
Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.
