HTC is trying to maintain its phone business afloat

Jul 15, 2015 08:25 GMT  ·  By

Despite numerous reports prophesizing the doom of HTC’s smartphone business, the company is still continuing to make handsets, and lots of them actually.

While HTC's One M9 premium offer didn’t impress customers much, the Taiwanese device maker is currently refocusing its energies toward the budget-friendly market. So the company has announced today that it is refreshing its mid-range Desire lineup in the US.

In total, HTC is bringing out four different Desire smartphones, which come with Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box and affordable price tags. Let’s take them each and see what they offer.

HTC Desire 626s and 626

The two devices have in common a 5-inch HD display (720 x 1280 pixel resolution) and are offered in a variety of fun color options, including Marshmallow White, Gray Lava, Blue Lagoon, Marine White, and White Birch.

Both models are powered by a Snapdragon 210 system-on-chip, which is a quad-core CPU with four Cortex A7 cores running at 1.1GHz.

HTC pre-loaded the two models with its Sense 7 UI that brings its own bag of goodies, including Sense Home or BlinkFeed.

The Desire 626s is the lower-end model and arrives with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD) and an 8MP/2MP camera combo.

By contrast, the Desire 626 offers slightly better specs: 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage (also expandable) and 8MP/5MP cameras on board.

HTC Desire 526

This model takes advantage of a smaller display of the 4.7-inch variety with qHD resolution (540 x 960 pixels). It runs the same Snapdragon 210 chipset with 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage on board (which is expandable as well, being compatible with microSD cards up to 2TB).

HTC Desire 520

The Desire 520 is the lowest specced model in the new lineup. It bears a 4.5-inch FWVGA display with 480 x 854 pixel resolution. The same Snapdragon 210 does the work of keeping the phone alive, together with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD card).

While HTC hasn’t revealed the prices these phones will end up being sold for, we’re told that the new Desire handsets will become available through AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. Pre-paid versions will also make their way to Boost Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, Sprint Prepaid, Tracfone and Virgin Mobile USA.  

HTC Desire 626 HTC Desire 626s HTC Desire 526 HTC Desire 520
OS Android 5.1 Lollipop Android 5.1 Lollipop Android 5.1 Lollipop Android 5.1 Lollipop
Resolution 720 x 1280 720 x 1280 540 x 960 480 x 854
Display size 5 inches 5 inches 4.7 inches 4.5 inches
SoC Snapdragon 210 Snapdragon 210 Snapdragon 210 Snapdragon 210
RAM 1.5GB 1GB 1.5GB 1GB
Cameras 8MP/5MP 8MP/2MP 8MP/2MP 8MP/2MP
Internal storage 16GB 8GB 8GB 8GB
Storage expansion microSD card microSD card microSD card microSD card
Connectivity Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.1 Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.1 Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.1 Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.1
Battery 2,000 mAh 2,000 mAh 2,000 mAh 2,000 mAh

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HTC's new Desire lineup (8 Images)

HTC unveils new Desire smartphones
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