Telus officially announces the HTC Desire Android smartphone
Though Canada often seems a step or two behind in getting the latest and greatest smart phones, we’ve recently seen what could be called Superphones (you know, large high-res screens and 1GHz + processors) hitting our shores. Rogers is already carrying the X10 Bell has announced the Galaxy S. Beyond Android, the iPhone 4 will clearly be in this category when released in Canada. [ED Note: I’d put the Acer Liquid E in there as well, given its specs].
The latest announcement, from Telus, is that the HTC Desire will be ‘Coming Soon’. The Desire is essentially a carrier branded version of the Nexus One with HTC’s Sense UI interface, and sports a 3.7″, HVGA 800×480 Sony Super LCD. It’s the first phone using that since there is (or was) an AMOLED shortage that is also having an affect with availability of the Droid Incredible (a Verizon CDMA Desire) south of the border. The rumour had it that HTC would be switching to Sony’s screen tech. With the Telus Desire, that rumour gets a bit more credence.
Sadly even though the Telus Desire is shipping after the release of Froyo (Android 2.2), it will still be shipping with 2.1. However HTC has committed to providing an update to 2.2 in ‘Q3’ for the European Desire. Hopefully Telus and HTC will provide the same update for their Desire soon after. Of course, if you are a power user, you can simply just root and flash a 2.2 ROM on the phone yourself!
More information can be found Telus HTC Desire page (pricing and availability to be announced, but rumours have it at $79.99 on a 3yr term, a pretty amazing price!)
[via Telus, Engadget & MobileSyrup]
Head past the break for more info, video, and a gallery…
Engadget’s review of the European AMOLED model
A short hands-on from HowardForums.com
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