We were puzzled by HTC's decision not to show is rumoured flagship HTC M8 Eye at the New York Double Exposure event.

The phone is real and Engadget Chinese saw the phone listed and after going to HTC.com/cn we saw the same thing.

HTC One M8 Eye has a 13-megapixel rear camera

The 13-megapixel dual camera phone is available in China for 3999 Yuan which translates to €513.65 or $652.17 and it looks almost identical to the HTC One M8, with a different camera.

Our Chinese is rusty but Google Translate points to a 13-megapixel camera at the rear, with the same 3D depth technology that we saw with the original HTC M8 ultrapixel phone.

The front facing camera didn’t change and it is still 5-megapixel unit capable of capturing 1080p video. This comes as a disappointment, as the Desire Eye has a 13-megapixel front and 13-megapixel rear camera. 

No surprises under the bonnet

The rest of the phone is the same as the HTC One M8, you get a Snapdragon 801 SoC clocked at 2.5GHz, LTE, 2GB RAM and 16GB storage with microSD capable up of supporting cards up to 128GB. The phone weighs 160 grams and has a 2600mAh battery.

We have no idea why HTC decided to deny this phone to US consumers. Maybe it didn’t get the FCC stamp of approval in time for launch, as HTC traditionally shows the US audience only what's available in the US, and so far HTC M8 Eye is China only. We have seen this pattern before as phones like Butterfly 2 are available only in some Asian countries.

Let's hope that the 13-megapixel HTC One M8 Eye will eventually reach Europe, North America and the rest of the world.