14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC Corporation announced a new Android-based smartphone in the popular Desire series of devices, in the form of HTC Desire 820, but it seems that it is already preparing a new handset that could be very similar to this one.
According to a tweet coming from @upleaks, the mobile phone maker is working on a phablet that will be powered by an octa-core MediaTek processor, and which will be similar in specs to the already available Desire 816.
No specific info on the processor version inside this phone has been provided as of now, but chances are that it will be an MT6595 CPU. The amount of RAM will also be different, but it remains to be seen whether it will be higher or not.
A new mid-range phablet from HTC
By the looks of it, the upcoming smartphone will sport a 5.5-inch touchscreen display capable of delivering a 720 x 1280 pixels resolution, as well as a 13-megapixel camera on the back, with full HD video recording capabilities.
For those out of the loop, we should note that Desire 816 was made official in February with a Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and Android 4.4 KitKat with Sense 6 loaded on top.
The new mobile phone should feature about the same capabilities, except for the different chipset and amount of RAM, which would make it a quite appealing mid-range phablet, that’s for sure.
It could be a new Desire 820 model
No official confirmation on this unannounced HTC device has been provided as of now, but chances are that the handset vendor will reveal it sooner rather than later.
It would be interesting to see whether HTC will release it as a brand new Desire model, or if it will decide to launch it as a different flavor of the newly revealed HTC Desire 820.
I managed to put my hands on the Desire 820 for several minutes last week at the IFA 2014 trade fair in Berlin, and I must say that the MediaTek phone would see much more traction on the market if built based upon the new model, than on the older Desire 816.
Should HTC decide to go this route, it would launch the smartphone with a thinner body, more RAM and internal memory, and better camera capabilities, which would certainly increase its market value.
However, the leaker suggests that the new device will be based on Desire 816 instead, and it remains to be seen what features will differentiate it from its predecessor, in addition to the aforementioned hardware changes.
HTC is going to release MTK Octa-core powered phablet. hardware spec is almost the same as Desire816 except Chipset and RAM.
— @upleaks (@upleaks) September 6, 2014