HTC’s Got a Nice New Phone, but It’ll Have a Nicer One in a Month
BARCELONA — HTC wants you to know that it’s about to release something big — it’s just not quite ready yet. Give it another month or so.
The company spent much of its Mobile World Congress press event here in Barcelona talking up another press conference dated for a month from now in New York City. That’s the time, most likely, when the company will release its latest flagship device, the long-rumored follow-up to its terrific HTC One smartphone released in 2013.
The successor to the 4.7-inch One has been rumored for some time. In the process, it’s taken on some fairly confusing names, such as the HTC One Two. Whatever it’s called, it’s almost certainly what the company will be showing off at the March 25 event.
In other words, if you’re looking to upgrade your HTC phone, keep holding your breath just a little bit longer.
That’s not to say that HTC showed up to Monday’s event empty-handed. The company brought along what it has deemed its “flagship midrange” phone. That means it’s nice for what’s essentially a middling phone.
The body of the Android-based Desire 816 is less “top of the line” than “somewhere in the middle of the line.” The device takes some design cues from the One and coats them in plastic, rather than the premium phone’s glass and metal. Compared with the One, the Desire looks downright cheap. Think about the 816 as the iPhone 5c to the One’s iPhone 5s.
In other words, it’s a pretty decent phone, if you can’t spend an arm and a leg on a mobile device. Or, more cynically put, it’s nice, but not that nice.
The 816 lands in as a phablet (a phone whose large size straddles the line between smartphone and tablet), measuring a massive 5.5 inches. Smartphone displays continue to get larger, with the 5.1-inch display on the Galaxy S5 and the 5.9-inch beast we saw from LG on Sunday.
The Desire 816 will launch around the world in April. HTC did not announce U.S. carriers or a price for the phone.
Meanwhile, HTC didn’t appear to skimp on the photography specs, sticking a solid 13-megapixel camera onto the device. There’s also a 5-megapixel camera on the front, as HTC and everyone else these days seems to be going after the selfie market.
Sure, selfies are important. But, again, if you want to take really good ones, maybe wait a month.
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