An HTC named Desire. OK, two HTCs...
Making Sense of the Android experience
The Android phones are tumbling out thick and fast from HTC.
The Taiwanese handset powerhouse is launching two phones today, the multimedia-tastic HTC Desire HD and a phone for Suits, the HTC Desire Z. Also it is touting software enhancements, branded under HTC Sense, which will help people monkey around with the pics and vids with a "variety of fun camera effects" on their phones.
HTC Sense also includes location-based maps, which are delivered "without download delays or incurring mobile roaming charges; and dedicated e-reader, featuring annotation, search and translation capabilities, and a new ebook store.
HTC is unwrapping a new website called HTCSense.com to manage their phone, maybe by PC. The site may be live - but it tells that authentication is needed to access it.
Now to the phones - and no, we don't have prices yet.
Desire comes in many forms
HTC Desire HD is multimedia-tastic - while the Desire Z is a business beast with a full qwerty keyboard.
The HD has an aluminium "unibody", 4.3in LCD display, Dolby Mobile SRS virtual sound, a dual flash 8mp camera and 720p HD video. It is the first phone to use the new 1GHz Qualcomm 8255 Snapdragon processor, HTC says.
The Desire Z has a "pop hinge" which opens up to show the QWERTY keyboard, supplied with sundry shortcuts and two customisable keys to access common functions without opening menus. It comes with a 720p HD video recording and a 5mp camera.
The phones start shipping in October, although North Americans will have to wait a little long for the HTC Desire Z to come their way. Both handsets will be "broadly available" through operators and retailers.
COMMENTS
I love HTC
Damn these phones look good - I was set on the Desire HD, but the Z looks sweet too with the proper keyboard.
I've been using the Hero since it was launched and while the keyboard is OK it can be really annoying - probably in part because of the small(ish) screen size.
Roll on October, death the the iPhone.
Chinese, not Chinese
While you are technically correct in referring to HTC as a Chinese company, they are based in the Republic of China which is nowadays commonly refered to as Taiwan. With all the knockoffs coming from the People's Republic of China (that's the big country to the north west of the Island of Taiwan) I'm sure HTC would want you to make that distinction.
There's something consistent about inconsistency
I'm from the optical telecoms field, so no expert on the specifics here, but surely at some point it does not matter what hardware configuration is present on the target device - as long as some minimum specs are met software should be able to adapt and run. I see why this was a problem with phones in the past, and possibly now, given their moderatecomputing power, but surely phones will eventually go the way PCs went - with millions of possible device configurations all running the same software successfully. And that is what consumers want - few people want to have the same handset 3 years running, or have to wait 18 months to get a newer version from their favourite manufacturer.
@Giles Jones
No updates? So they never pushed out a 2.1 update for my Hero from 1.5, or did I just imagine that. Or any updates to the Dream, for that matter...
Chinese, not Chinese
@AC
I can't say this about HTC for sure, as I've not looked at the company or the phones in detail but the fact is, quite a few Taiwanese hi-tech companies have factories on Mainland China.
I know for a fact that my Asuses (Asii?) are ALL made in China. If I were a betting man, I would say fair chance of the same with HTC. Check that out and correct me if I am wrong.
I do believe that though there has not been a formal 'end' to the war, there is very little animosity left really between the 2 countries except perhaps at the level of politicians.
So... what is the real difference then?
