HTC"s recent handsets have been a bit of a mixed bag. The HTC 10 flagship was undoubtedly impressive, but it struggled to win over buyers - in the US, T-Mobile dropped it from its range after just two months. The entry-level Desire 530 looked decent on paper, but was lacking in many areas. And HTC replaced its appealing mid-range One A9 with the new One A9s that"s inferior to its predecessor in some key aspects.
Today, HTC unveiled its latest devices, bringing premium design to the mid-range.
Indeed, the new Desire 10 handsets might well be mistaken for flagships at first glance - HTC is evidently keen to bring a high-end feel to buyers who can"t necessarily justify the cost of buying a top-of-the-range device.
There are two versions of the new handsets, though as you can see, they"re near-identical in design. HTC is clearly aiming for restrained elegance rather than the more ostentatious designs of some of its lower-end Desire devices, and its efforts with the Desire 10 appear to have paid off.
Both the Desire 10 Lifestyle and Desire 10 Pro are offered in four colors - Stone Black, Polar White, Royal Blue, and Valentine Lux (the minty option) - each with gold accents.
The Desire 10 Lifestyle is the more affordable of the two, and therefore misses out on some of the specs available to its sibling. The Lifestyle model lacks a fingerprint sensor for example, as well as having a less complex rear flash setup, and a lower-resolution display.
It also has a less powerful processor - bizarrely, HTC has opted for a Snapdragon 400 chipset, rather than the much newer Snapdragon 410. The 400 made a name for itself on devices released two years ago, such as the Nokia Lumia 830.
Key specs of the Desire 10 Lifestyle include:
- 5.5-inch Super LCD with HD (1280x720px) resolution and Gorilla Glass
- Quad-core 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC
- 2GB / 3GB RAM
- 16GB / 32GB onboard storage (plus microSD card support up to 2TB)
- 13MP rear camera with autofocus, backside-illuminated sensor and HDR mode
- 5MP front-facing camera with BSI sensor and HDR mode
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Bluetooth 4.1
- NFC
- microUSB 2.0 port
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 2700mAh battery
- 156.9 x 76.9 x 7.7mm; 155g
The Desire 10 Pro is, as you would expect, the better-equipped of the two devices, with a more powerful processor, more storage, superior cameras, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.
Key specs of the Desire 10 Pro include:
- 5.5-inch IPS LCD with Full HD (1920x1080px) resolution and Gorilla Glass
- Octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB onboard storage (plus microSD card support up to 2TB)
- 20MP rear camera with backside-illuminated sensor, laser autofocus and auto-HDR mode
- 13MP front-facing camera with BSI sensor and auto-HDR mode
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth 4.2
- NFC
- microUSB 2.0 port
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- 3000mAh battery
- 156.9 x 76 x 7.89mm; 165g
The Desire 10 Lifestyle will go on sale first, in the UK and other key markets, priced at £249 GBP (roughly $325 USD). The Desire 10 Pro will launch in November, in select markets, but pricing has not yet been announced. HTC told Neowin that the devices will not be sold in the US.
Both devices come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow installed, rather than the latest Android 7.0 Nougat release.
Editor"s note: This article was updated after publishing to clarify HTC"s position on US sales of its Desire 10 devices.