HTC announces Desire 816 and Desire 610 "mid-range flagships"

HTC has unveiled two "flagship mid-range" Android smartphones at MWC 2014 - The Desire 816 and the Desire 610. The two new HTC phones showcase a simplistic design, which is a clear evolution of the company's HTC One. According to Jeff Grodon, Senior Global Online Communications Manager at HTC, the company will be betting heavily on the Desire 816 which sports more impressive specs than its sibling.

HTC Desire 816

The HTC Desire 816 features a 5.5 inch display with a 720 by 1280 pixel resolution, which results in a reasonably sharp 267 ppi pixel density. The handset comes with a 13-megapixel, f/2.2 aperture unit, capable of 1080p video capture. In the front, you get an impressive 5-megapixel cam, with f/2.8, wide-angle lens, and it can do 720p capture. You get only 8GB of internal storage, but you also have the option of expanding this with microSD in case you need more storage space. In terms of connectivity you get Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, optional NFC and 4G LTE. You also get a 2600 mAh battery, which is avegarge of this type of device and HTC's BoomSound stereo speakers. All of this is powered by a capable 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.5GB of RAM.



The HTC Desire 816 will be available globally in April, though the handset will start selling in China as early as March. The pricing of the handset is unknown at this time.

HTC Desire 610

Next we have the HTC Desire 610 which comes with a 4.7 inch display with a 540 by 960 pixel (qHD) resolution, which results in a 234 ppi pixel density. You get 8GB of internal storage again, which you can expand using microSD if required. You also have an 8-megapixel camera in the rear with f/2.4 aperture unit capable of 720p video capture and a 1.3 megapixel front camera which is also capable of 720p video. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0, W-Fi, GPS, optional NFC, and 4G LTE, and BoomSound speakers are also included in the package with a 2040mAh battery. The whole thing is powered by a similar 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, but we have only 1GB of RAM this time.

Like the Desire 816, the pricing of the Desire 610 was not revealed, but we are told to expect it to arrive in Europe as early as May.


Would you consider purchasing either one of these mid-range HTC smartphones? If so let us know which one you pick in the comments section below.