HTC's 3G-enabled follow-up to its S620 - aka 'Excalibur', aka Dash - BlackBerry-like Windows Mobile smart phone has made an early, unscheduled appearance on the web as a pair of piccies and details of its specification.

According to a mole cited by Italian-language site SoloPalmari.com, the new device, codenamed 'Cavalier', sports the same 2.4in, 320 x 240, 65,536-colour display as the S620, a MicroSD slot, the touchpad scroll control, and incorporates 64MB of RAM and 128MB of Flash. Both devices offer 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE cellular connectivity.

Cavalier builds on that with regular UMTS 3G and the HSDPA download speed-boosting technology. Other key improvements include a Samsung CPU clocked to 400MHz, up from the S620's 200MHz OMAP 850; a two megapixel camera - the S620 has a 1.3Mp job - and a more capacious, 1,050mAh battery.

The handset will be launched in the January/February 2007 timeframe, the report claims.

HTC unveiled its latest PDA phone, Herald, earlier this week. ®