Man! Mobile World Congress is all about the last-minute leaks this year. First, a tiny glimpse of Windows Phone leaked out just hours before it became official. Now, three brand-spankin’ new handsets from HTC have just leaked out, just one day before HTC’s press conference where we can only assume these devices were supposed to debut.
All three handsets leaked out in rapid fire over at Modaco.
The oh-so-glorious beast you see up top is the HTC Desire, previously known around the rumor mill as the HTC Bravo. Take Google’s Nexus One, stick HTC’s customized Sense user interface on it, replace the trackball with a nifty optical trackpad – and bam! You’ve got the Desire. It’ll run Android 2.1 on a big and beautiful 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen packed on top of a 1GHZ processor, 512 MB ROM/576 MB RAM, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. Alas, it appears that its only prepped for 3G in Europe and Asia at the moment.
We got word of this next one, the HTC Legend, at the same time we found out about the bravo – but words were all we had. Then Netherlandish carrier KPN came along and spilled the beans on this spec-for-spec sequel to the HTC Hero with a few itsy-bitsy press shots. Well, consider those press shots embiggened:
Coming in with a 600mhz CPU, 3.2″ AMOLED screen, and 512 MB RAM/384 MB ROM, it’s not quite as ridiculously spec’d out as the Desire – but it’s still a damn nice handset. Like the Desire, it’s running HTC’s Sense UI on top of Android 2.1 – but unfortunately also like the Desire, the version that has leaked out isn’t compatible with US 3G. Given that a number of US carriers picked up the Hero, however, I’d be damned surprised if it stayed that way for long.
Last but not least: the HD Touch Mini. It’s purportedly running Windows Mobile 6.5.3 — which, considering today’s announcement of its successor, Windows Phone, admittedly makes this one a bit hard to get too excited about. With that said, this’ll probably be one of the last Windows Mobile handsets with HTC’s dramatic UI overhauls on it, given Microsofts new policies that keep manufacturers from replacing Windows Phone interface elements.
Regardless of the politics, all signs indicate that this one will pack a 3.2″ HVGA screen, 5 megapixel camera – and like the rest of them, nothin’ in regards to US 3G.
I’d be that “Desire” isn’t the name they use. Sorry. Thats the HTC Droid Eris’ internal name. Think about it Desire turned backwards is….. yeah I HIGHLY doubt its called that even internally.
HTC desire is also the purported HTC Bravo which has been so clamored even before the release of the droid.. Finally, this one will finally be unveiled to US!.. Added details: http://bit.ly/htc-bravo-experience
Why do I always get shivers when I see HTC phones? These are gorgeous, moreso than the iPhone and it’s 3 year old look.
/Holds up original iPhone to the screen next to this picture.
Are you serious? It looks NEARLY IDENTICAL to the original iPhone!
The real issue is my 3 year old iPhone has 8 GB of storage that can be used for whatever I want, including apps. Currently I have 51 apps installed using roughly 2.3 GB. Until Android can do the same, out of the box, I’m not interested.
my android does have apps to sd on my ext3 partition as well as a linux swap partition to add extra processing power
wait let me just bluetooth you an app.. oh no? what? doesnt work? FAIL!
I completely agree. HTC are on fire at the moment and the phones are just beatiful. Who would want an iPhone with it’s none expandable storage, non removable battery, none multitasking and 3 year old out of date UI. Seems weird that people keep throwing money such an outdated device.
Is it just me or are these android phone manufactures so busy trying to trump the iphone when they should be simultaneously be going after RIM and IPhone?
I (and I think many other business users of android phones) are looking for thin, fast slider phones. Regardless of how snazzy your make the form factor, the on-screen keyboard just takes too much real estate to be doing real work.
I use my as a mini computer complete with an office suite (Documents To Go), remote vnc desktop and web-based dev tools (a product I’m working on). Try doing any of these things with the keyboard taking screen estate and you are out of business.
The closest thing currently out (despite all of the recent releases) is the Droid; however, before I buy, it will need a better keyboard, a snapdragon (or similar) processor and LTE support.
Until then, I’ll just keep my G1 constantly pluged into the wall, my laptop, my car or an auxiliary battery.
I am a HTC fan, I love their cell phones, at the moment,I have a htc 6800 mogul, I have my eyes set on the nexus one by google…
Hi all.. What’s the Desire name for US market? I just found that Desire was on UK (Europe) market.. I didn’t find it on US online store? is the Droid Eris be the Desire name? Thanks