HTC’s Butterfly 2 upgrades M8’s camera to 13 megapixels

TOKYO — HTC’s Butterfly range may not be as well known as the company’s flagship One or midrange Desire series, but the third iteration of this phone looks set to turn heads. While it sports a very similar design to previous models, such as the Butterfly S, the Butterfly 2 boasts specs as good as the flagship One M8.

The Butterfly 2 is expected to launch in Taiwan on September 2, with Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to follow shortly after. HTC declined to comment on whether the phone will make its debut in the US, UK or Australia. But given that the phone has support for most 4G LTE bands used around the world, it’s possible the Butterfly 2 will flit its way westwards very soon.

Flying high with the dual-camera HTC Butterfly 2 (pictures)
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Design and specs

HTC draws its design inspiration for the Butterfly 2 from both the older Butterfly S and the newer One M8. Specifically, the it resembles the M8 in both size and shape, but keeps the shiny colors and polycarbonate plastic of the Butterfly S.

I did a quick test with the M8’s Dot View case and found to my surprise that it fits, though not perfectly (the phone is a little thicker, so the cover almost doesn’t close properly).

Like the M8, the Butterfly S comes with front-facing “BoomSound” speakers, though HTC has incorporated them differently. Because the Butterfly 2’s front is mostly glass, the designers have cut out a small portion on both ends to make way for the speakers. It isn’t out of place, as the grills are flush against the glass.

The 5-inch screen packs in a full-HD resolution (1,920×1,080 pixels), and is sharp and bright enough that I found no issues with it. Depending on where the device is sold, the Butterfly 2 may also come with a bundled pair of JBL headphones.

My hands-on model comes in glossy red. There’s a blue version, as well as a white one, which has a comfy matte surface instead. But the bright, vibrant red chimes with the Butterfly branding (it was used in both previous models) and makes the phone really stand out.

As for its innards, the phone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, and has 2GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. The J Butterfly (for Japan only) comes with 32GB storage as standard. There’s also a micro-SD card slot, and for both this and the nano-SIM card slot, you can just use your finger to pry the trays out.

Dual cameras

Like the One M8, the Butterfly 2 has two cameras on the back. The Butterfly 2’s main camera has a 13-megapixel sensor, however, which is much more than the 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” shooter of the M8. This means, in theory, you’ll get more detail in your pictures, with the trade-off that low-light performance won’t be as hot.

The dual-camera system lets you do all the things you can do in the M8 — namely the UFocus refocusing app, which, much like the Lytro cameras, lets you change the focus point in the picture after shooting. This is because the second camera acts as a depth sensor, recording the distance from the lens of everything in shot. It allows to you to do other tricks too, such as copying and pasting a whole person to another picture without having to manually crop them out yourself.

Software and other features

The Butterfly 2 runs HTC’s Sense 6 UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat, and comes with the usual BlinkFeed and Motion Launch features found on the M8. This means you can double-tap to turn on the phone, swipe downward to activate voice dialing or hold the phone sideways and press the volume button to quickly turn on the camera.

The one cool thing about the phone that isn’t obvious from its appearance is that it has IP57-rated water and dust resistance. This means it will survive underwater to a depth of 1 meter (3.3 feet) without dying. Unlike other splash-happy phones, the Butterfly 2 doesn’t have a rubber flap covering its ports.

HTC calls this “Natural Underwater”, and the phone has short-circuit protection built-in as well. Obviously, you shouldn’t charge the phone underwater, but the Butterfly 2 will easily survive a quick wash in the sink to get rid of unwanted dirt.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, the Butterfly 2 is as flagship as it comes, and the phone’s appearance in the second half of the year makes it HTC’s highest-end device for now. It has all the right ingredients, particularly its 13-megapixel shooter and depth sensor combo. Shooting high-resolution pictures that let you select the focus is a great selling point.

The handset supports both TD and FDD 4G LTE bands, which means it can be used almost anywhere in the world, including China and India, making the Butterfly 2 a perfect device for travellers. Pricing has not yet been announced, but we’ll update this hands-on when we have more information on that, as well as which countries it’ll be fluttering by.