Telus HTC Desire launches

I think that Friday August 6th 2010 can unofficially be labeled Android day in Canada.  That’s because Telus has officially launched HTC’s latest superphone, the HTC Desire, sporting the latest version of HTC Sense.  It’s also a harbinger of a possible price war to come, as it’s a solid 1GHz processor priced at $79.99, which is more than competitive with other high end phones.

The new phone comes with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera (with flash), and a 3.7″ 800 x 480 screen.  We had a chance to get an ALMOST hands-on with the phone earlier and in that short time it didn’t disappoint.  An interesting takeaway from the whole thing comes right near the end, when the discussion of mail sync came up.  One of the additions to this version of Sense is a deeper integration with Microsoft ActiveSync.

Beyond the standard mail and contact support found in Android (Google licenses Exchange from Microsoft for Gmail support) the Desire add calendar support, as well as server side security features such as remote wipe and password protection.  Whether it actually makes the phone more appealing to business customers in the real world remains to be seen (the suits sure love their physical keyboards), but if you’re in charge of a corporate account and the Blackberry Torch just isn’t working for you, having solid Exchange support is never a bad thing.

There’s a press release after the break, which covers most of the bases that people want to read when talking about a current top tier smartphone, but oddly there’s nary a mention of it’s additional Exchange capabilities.

The HTC Desire is available from Telus for as little as &79.99 on a 3 year contract.

PRESS RELEASE

TELUS answers Canada’s smartphone craving with the Award Winning HTC Desire

The hottest handset of 2010 to launch only at TELUS

Toronto, ON – TELUS today announced a powerful addition to its leading 3G+ Android powered device portfolio with the upcoming HTC Desire, named Hottest Handset of 2010 at Mobile Magazine’s 2010 Mobile Industry Awards.

Boasting a large, crisp touchscreen, the HTC Desire is the perfect Android powered smartphone to stay connected to social networks, access the most popular Google apps, such as free Google Navigation and YouTube and personalise by choosing from over 50,000 apps (applications) in the Android Market. Multiple social networks – such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr are easy to follow and update in a single view with HTC’s Friend Stream app. Users can expect a more vivid view of rich web pages just like at home with Flash support for embedded videos on the brilliant touchscreen and the ability to navigate with double-tap, and pinch and zoom. The 3.7” capacitive touchscreen and powerful 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, combined with HTC Sense and the ultra-fast speed of TELUS’ 3G+ network, make this smartphone incredibly responsive.

“With social media being an essential part of the way Canadians communicate and stay informed, TELUS is committed to bringing them some of the best smartphones available on the market to answer that need,” said David Fuller, Chief Marketing Officer at TELUS. “The HTC Desire is not only the perfect smartphone to stay in the know of everything that is going on around you, it’s also the ideal device to experience Canada’s fastest mobile network* that covers 93 per cent of Canada’s population.”

“Beginning last year with HTC Hero and continuing with the HTC Desire today, we have worked closely with TELUS to bring cutting-edge Android devices to Canadian customers,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice-president of HTC America. “Both of these devices feature the acclaimed HTC Sense™ experience, an intuitive mobile framework that puts people, not technology, in the centre of everything.”

Additionally, the HTC Desire features:
• Android 2.1 with HTC Sense
• Access to over 50,000 applications from Android Market
• Seven homescreen panels to customize with tons of prealoaded live widgets, apps and live wallpapers
• HTC Friend Stream app and widget to get consolidated updates from Facebook, Twitter and Flickr
• 3.7” , WVGA 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen
• 5 megapixel camera with flash and video capture
• Expandable memory up to 32 GB (8 GB microSD card included)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n

Please visit telusmobility.com/smartphone for additional information.