A post by the famed leaker evleaks on Twitter this morning claims that HTC is currently developing two new entry-level handsets.
Reportedly codenamed A1 and V2, the phones will enter the long-running Desire family and as such are likely to rival devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Ace 3.
Although nothing else is revealed, we can speculate a little on what features the pair are likely to acquire by looking at the budget Desire 310. This joined the range a couple of months ago, in March. Although primarily designed for Asia, the device retails at the equivalent of around £140 in the UK or approximately $300.
For this price, the handset is great value with a 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex A7 processor and 1GB of RAM. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5.1 and is let down only by its 480x854 resolution 4.5-inch screen. This leads to a pixel density of just 218ppi.
HTC also recently launched a couple of mid-range devices branded as Desire - the 816 and 610. The 816 is a 5.5-inch phablet, however, and the 610 is still a large 4.7-inch device.
Because of this, the new devices revealed by evleaks today are likely to sit somewhere between the 310 and 610 but with a definite lean towards the 310. Alternatively, they may be retailed for an even cheaper price than the 310. This would be possible if a dual-core processor was used instead of the quad-core unit in the 310 and if a smaller display was fitted thus turning the A1 and V2 into proper, 'first-smartphone' entry-level devices.
With little else to go on, we will have to wait for an official statement from HTC to learn more. It is good to know that HTC don't seem to have forgotten the consumer who doesn't want - or can't afford - a premium, flagship phone like HTC's own One M8, however.
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