Desire 820
The Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin 2014 (IFA) is almost ready to open to the public, the last few days handset vendors from around the world have been revealing which new mobile devices consumers are going to be able to get their hands on in the near future. Unlike Sony and Samsung, HTC already has its 2014 flagship smart phone in commercial production, the HTC One (M8), so we didn't know what to expect from the Taiwan based manufacturer.
What HTC did show us was the latest member of the Desire lineup, named the Desire 820. This device has been reportedly modelled on the Desire 816 which was apparently HTC's best selling and popular smartphone of the last generation.
Even though the Desire 820 is a mid range model they have not cut cost on the hardware, in fact this is only the second HTC phone to come packed with a 64bit processor and is the very first phone to run on the new Snapdragon 615. Made by Qualcomm and is powered via an octa-core CPU which uses eight Cortex-A53's, four running at 1.5GHz and another four at 1.0GHz, to top it off the chipset has an Adreno 405 GPU. Android L, which is expected before the end of the year, is designed to take advantage of 64-bit processing, this means the Desire 820 is perfectly placed to take advantage of the new Android capabilities.
When it comes to display size we get a 5.5", 1280 x 720px resolution screen. We're also treated to an 8MP front camera which is great for selfie lovers and is a stand out feature from other competitors in its price range. There is also a 13MP rear camera, the same BoomSound speakers found on the One (M8) and LTE connectivity.
HTC announced that the Desire 820 will be available towards the end of September and there will be both single SIM and dual SIM versions available, however the latter may only be available in select markets. Western consumers have not yet adopted the dual SIM in the same way the Asian markets have so we might not get to see a dual SIM Desire 820 in Europe.
There is no word on pricing yet but the smartphone will be available in nine different colors; Marble White, Tuxedo Grey, Santorini White, Milky-way Grey, Tangerine White, Saffron Grey, Flamingo Grey, Blue Mist, and Monarch Orange.