Day two of Mobile World Congress kicked off with HTC’s press event this morning. The Good news is that HTC has introduced a pair of new Android phones and a mini version of the HD2. The bad news is that HTC didn’t surprise us with something we were not already expecting. We’ll start things off here with the most anticipated HTC handset in months.
The HTC Desire (formerly known as the Bravo) is HTC’s new flagship Android phone. The HTC Desire is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running Android 2.1 and a revised version of HTC Sense. The 1GHz processor is complimented by a 1400 mAh battery, 3.7 inch 480 X 800 WVGA capacitive AMOLED display, 512 MB of ROM, 576 MB of RAM, Bluetooth® 2.1 with A2DP, FTP and OPP transfer capabilities, FM radio, and GPS.
On the software side, the HTC Desire packs in a few treats that were not present in the HTC Hero. As we reported last week, HTC Sense now has a pinch-to-zoom feature from the home screen which HTC is calling Leap. Simply pinch the screen to zoom out and you will see all your home screens with their widgets. Tap the screen you want and you will Leap right to it. The second new feature in HTC Sense is the new Friend Stream integration and widget.
The HTC Desire simplifies the way that you tend to all of your social networks. With Friend Stream, your interaction with friends across multiple social networks like Facebook®, Twitter™, and Flickr™ are brought into a single easy to follow stream of updates, photo posts, and shared links. Friend Stream also lets you shout out your thoughts or feelings to all your online friends with a single comment that gets broadcast to both Facebook and Twitter.
HTC thought it would be good to mention that the HTC Desire is Adobe Flash10.1 ready, though the handset will ship with Flash Lite, similar to the current HTC Hero. Pricing for the HTC Desire was not released, though most carriers in Europe could be offering the handset for free with a new contract agreement. The HTC Desire release date is scheduled for early Q2 of 2010 across Europe and Asia and will be exclusively available in Australia from Telstra.
HTC Desire Press Release
BARCELONA, Mobile World Congress – February 16, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced an enhanced HTC Sense experience that will be available on two new smartphones that take Android to the next level, the HTC Legend and HTC Desire.
“At its essence, the mobile phone is the most personal item you have in your possession. HTC Sense was created to magnify your ability to create and define your own unique mobile experience,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer of HTC Corporation. “HTC Legend and HTC Desire take Android to another level in both substance with HTC Sense and style with HTC Legend’s revolutionary crafted aluminum uni-body design.”
HTC SENSE
HTC Sense is a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were developed by observing and listening to how people live and communicate. These core tenets of Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected continue to be the key to the new HTC Sense experience.
The new HTC Sense experience continues to focus on improving your interactions with your most important people. This begins with a new HTC application and widget called HTC Friend Stream that seamlessly aggregates all of your social communication including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised flow of updates. This simple aggregation makes it easier than ever to focus on what friends are doing as well as to view the images and links that they share. In addition to Friend Stream, people can be organised into specific social circles, such as groups of friends, colleagues or any other way that makes sense.
The new HTC Sense experience also introduces broad improvements to applications including the browser, email client and others. In addition, the new version of HTC Sense includes a new newsreader application and widget, as well as a new seven-screen ‘Leap’ thumbnail view for quick and easy access to specific screens.
HTC Desire is the richest way to visually experience news, friends, photos, favourite places and whatever else is important on a mobile phone. With one of the most advanced displays available on a phone today, HTC Desire is designed with a large 3.7 inch AMOLED WVGA display to enhance and maximise content, whether it is pictures and videos, browsing the Web or checking on friends’ status updates. HTC Desire is powered by a one gigahertz Snapdragon processor and is Adobeâ Flashâ 10.1 ready. As with the HTC Legend, the HTC Desire also includes an optical joystick.
Patrick Chomet, Group Director of Terminals for Vodafone said, “HTC is a valued partner for Vodafone and has made a strong contribution to the growth of the mass market appeal of smartphones. Vodafone endeavours to offer our customers the widest and most compelling choice of smartphones and to that end the HTC Legend, the HTC Desire and the HTC HD Mini will be ranged in selected Vodafone markets across our footprint. I’m particularly pleased that through our collaboration with HTC, Vodafone customers will experience a differentiated experience on the HTC Legend which will come customised for them with pre-loaded Vodafone 360 Internet services.”
Check out the HTC Desire product page on HTC’s website
early Q2 in key countries by key carrier, but not info for US? Good lord, dont torture, plz?
I’m sure we’ll be getting our own versions of the Desire and Legend here in the U.S.
We just have to wait for T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and At&t to make their desired changes and come up with new names so that we have four different versions of the same handset.
What is a price would be on Desire ?