HTC’s highlight of Mobile World Congress is the new HTC Desire 816 (formerly known as the HTC Desire 8). HTC is pitching its largest Desire series phone as a “flagship mid-range” since it comes equipped with a 5.5-inch 720p display, 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD expansion (up to 128GB), 2,600mAh battery, 13 megapixel f/2.2 main camera, 5 megapixel front-facing camera and HTC’s trademarked front-facing BoomSound speakers with dedicated amplifiers. The HTC Desire 816 also packs in LTE and HSPA+ support for EMEA and Asian markets.
Despite its massive size, the HTC Desire 816 is only 7.99mm-thick with a weight of 165 grams. The design of the HTC Desire 816 is a bit different than what we’ve seen from HTC over the past 12 months. The phone does have the same basic shape as the HTC One, but the design details are distinctly different. It’s nice to see that HTC is creating a unique design language for its Desire phones rather than making them look like cheap HTC one know-offs.
While the HTC Desire 816 isn’t a flagship-tier phone for HTC, it does have a few new features which we have never seen on any other devices from HTC – nano-SIM support and on-screen Android buttons. The HTC desire 816 will be competitively priced with a China launch set for March 18th followed by a global release in April.
HTC REIGNITES THE MID-MARKET WITH 2014 HTC DESIRE PORTFOLIO
HTC Desire 816 is the first of a new breed of mid-range HTC smartphones combining beautiful design and flagship performance for incredible value
Barcelona, Spain, February 24, 2014 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, has today unveiled the first model in its ambitious 2014 mid-range portfolio. The HTC Desire™ 816 distils elements of the internationally-acclaimed design DNA of HTC’s flagship HTC One® family, with a vibrant, modern colour palate and quality materials that give the HTC Desire range its own familiar, yet distinctive flavour. Demonstrating HTC’s obsessive focus on incredible design, both inside and out, the HTC Desire 816 packs an advanced feature set that makes it one of the best value smartphones ever introduced by HTC.
“The HTC Desire 816 marks the beginning of an exciting new era for the mid-tier,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. “Incomparably beautiful to look at and hold with the technology and software to match, the HTC Desire 816 challenges everything that people expect from lower cost smartphones. It is bringing genuine choice to the category by delivering stunning design and high-end performance at unbelievable value.”
Beautifully designed, powerful performance
The first edition of the new-look HTC Desire family comes fully loaded with HTC’s iconic dual-frontal speakers and HTC BoomSound™ for incredible audio quality, while HTC BlinkFeed™ keeps users up-to-date with the latest news and social updates on the spacious 5.5 inch screen. Two powerful cameras make the HTC Desire 816 ideal for photography lovers. A 13MP rear-facing camera complete with HTC Zoe™ and automatic highlight videos, as well as a 5MP front-facing camera, make it the perfect device for capturing both the perfect selfie and stunning landscapes in amazing quality.
Powered by a quad-core, 1.6 GHz processor and offering 4G LTE connectivity, the new HTC Desire model offers world-class speed and power and is fully-equipped to keep pace with the most active lifestyles, whether browsing, gaming or switching between multiple apps.
Global Availability
The new HTC Desire 816 will be available in China, running HTC Sense 5.5, from March and will be upgraded to the latest version of HTC Sense via an OTA update upon global retail availability in April. For more information visit www.htc.com.
Both Desire 610 and Desire 816 are beautifully designed phones with very godd specs. Although I would like same goodies inside 610 as in 816, that means CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz, 1.5 GB, front and back camera, and 720p screen. And one thing HTC do wrong time after time, their phones are to huge for screen size, HTC Desire 610 which is 4.7″ is same size as LG G2 which is 5.2″.
The same specs as the 816 can’t be in the 610 for two reasons. One, that would raise the cost of the device, which is the very reason HTC gave the 610 lower specs. The second reason is that they’re trying to avoid the HTC they used to be back then by putting put similarly specced devices on the market at almost the same time in almost all the same areas with slightly different designs. I remember the Desire Z, Desire S, and Desire HD had the exact same specs and were sold at the same time.
What are the prices in £ we are looking at for the HTC Desire 816?