14 DAY TRIAL // HTC is expected to launch another Android smartphone in the United States next week, the Bolt. The phone will eventually be rolled out worldwide, but it will be exclusively available in the U.S. via major carrier Sprint.
However, it looks like Sprint's HTC Bolt won't come alone. A new report coming from well-known HTC leaker LlabTooFeR claims the Taiwanese company has another Desire series handsets in the pipeline.
The unannounced device is codenamed A17 and is likely to be unveiled around the same time as the HTC Bolt. Since the latter is rumored to be announced on November 11, at least in the U.S., it means that we're less than a week away from the official reveal of the Desire A17.
Unfortunately, no details regarding the HTC Desire A17's specs have been leaked until now, but we do know that this isn't a Nougat-powered device.
The same source mentioned earlier says the HTC Desire A17 will ship with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow operating system right out of the box. Also, the phone will run Sense 8.1 on top, HTC's new UI.
The successor of the entry-level HTC Desire 530?
The Desire A17 might not be a U.S.-exclusive phone like the HTC Bolt (at least at the beginning), especially that it's an entry-level device.
If we are to make any guesses, the Desire A17 is certainly the successor of the HTC Desire 530, which was known as Desire A16 before the launch. Since the Desire 530 packs a rather modest hardware configuration under the hood, we doubt its sequel will bring too many improvements.
HTC has been trying to stop the money bleeding from its smartphone business in the last couple of years, but the Taiwanese company barely stays afloat. The Bolt and Desire A17 are not going to matter too much in the grand scheme of things, but hopefully, they could be remembered as a good start.