HTC Announces the Desire 500 – A New Mid-Range Handset Boasting Sense 5

HTC has gotten a lot of media attention lately, not only because of the launch of the successful HTC One, but also because of the recently announced HTC One Mini, as well as the numerous leaks and rumors surrounding the fabled HTC One Max, which is rumored to be the company's first phablet.

Nevertheless, these smartphones are not the only ones to come out of the Taiwanese manufacturer's factory gates lately. There's also the Butterfly S, the Desire 600 as well as the Desire 200. Now, HTC has announced yet another mid-range smartphone, dubbed the Desire 500.

The handset in question features a Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage expandable by up to an additional 64 GB via microSD. The Desire 500 packs a 4.3 inch Super LCD display featuring a resolution of 480 x 800, an 8 MP main camera boasting HTC's ImageChip processor, an LED flash and F2.0 aperture with 28 mm lens and 720p video recording capabilities, as well as Beats Audio. Unfortunately though, the BoomSound setup currently offered on the HTC One and the One Mini is missing, so the gadget will deliver a more conservative design, featuring one speaker on the back panel.

The package is being powered by a 1,800 mAh battey which, according to HTC, should provide up to 12.1 hours of talk time on WCDMA and up to 17.8 hours of talk time over GSM. Standby times are 435 and 401 hours for WCDMA and GMS respectively.

Last but definitely not least, although the Desire 500 arrives with a not yet specified Android OS version, but it does pack the latest Sense 5 user interface out of the box.

As far as the handset's availability goes, the HTC Desire 500 has been announced for the Taiwan market at a price of roughly $400, which can be considered a bit high. Although HTC hasn't announced any details in regards to the handset's availability outside of Taiwan, previous leaks have suggested that the Desire 500 might become available in Germany via O2. That being said, although there's no official word on whether or not the handset will leave Taiwan anytime in the foreseeable future, the leaks are on our side. Would you be interested in buying the Desire 500? Or do you consider the price to be a bit too steep for what the smartphone has to offer?

Source: HTC
Via: Android Authority