As expected, HTC launched their new Desire HD and Desire Z at an event in London today, the company’s latest European Android smartphones. Both packing UMTS/HSPA, the Desire HD basically scales up a regular Desire with a 4.3-inch display and 8-megapixel camera, while the Desire Z gets a flip-out QWERTY keyboard and 5-megapixel camera.
Both run Froyo 2.2 with HTC’s new version of HTC Sense; that has a new companion site, HTCSense.com, from which users can remotely track and wipe their smartphone, make it play a ringtone loudly (to help you find it when it’s lost down the back of the couch) and even see backups of all recent SMS and email conversations. The transfer is two-way, too, allowing you to squirt information (such as directions) back to the phone from the online interface.
HTC Desire HD live:
[vms 5e77550897e25711e1d9]
Both devices use full metal cases, with HTC eschewing a full battery cover and instead going for a pop-off hatch as with the HTC Legend. Each gets 1.5GB of onboard storage and a WVGA display, dualband UMTS/HSPA, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, AGPS/GPS and 720p HD recording.
HTC Desire Z live:
[vms dd424a57127423d276bb]
For our hands-on impressions, check out the articles over at SlashGear for the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z.
Press Release:
HTC UNVEILS HTC DESIRE HD AND HTC DESIRE Z WITH NEW HTC SENSE AND HTCSENSE.COM
HTC Sense integrates a variety of multimedia and location-based enhancements and introduces HTCSense.com, a series of new connected HTC services
LONDON, UK – September 15, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today unveiled a new HTC Sense experience with the new HTC Desire HDTM and HTC Desire ZTM Android-based smartphones. The new HTC Sense experience continues HTC’s strong focus on the customer, placing people at the center by simply making its phones work in a more personal and natural way. HTC Sense introduces a number of key innovations including a series of connected services called HTCSense.com that enhance people’s mobile experience on HTC phones.
“We’re excited to be taking the HTC Sense experience beyond the phone to a whole new level with a series of connected HTC services we call HTCSense.com,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “Our customers will value the holistic approach we’re taking to enhance their mobile experience. This customer-first philosophy has resonated with people buying HTC phones and this drives us to continue introducing new innovative smartphones like the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z.”
“As a key Android partner and smartphone brand, HTC continues to bring new innovation to the platform,” said Andy Rubin, VP engineering at Google. “Android is about choice and the new HTC smartphones continue to provide customers with powerful choices and flexibility.”
HTC Sense
The new HTC Sense experience offers a variety of enhancements that improve how people capture, create, share and access multimedia content. With a newly created camera experience, people can record HD videos or capture and edit images with a variety of fun camera effects. With HTC Locations, a new differentiated online mapping experience, people have instant, on-demand mapping without download delays or incurring mobile roaming charges.
HTC Sense also includes a new integrated online e-reading experience utilizing a new e-book store powered by Kobo and a new, mobile-optimized e-reader that includes the ability to highlight, annotate and quickly search for definitions or translate unfamiliar terms.
HTCSense.com
With the new HTCSense.com service, people can simply manage their mobile phone experience from their HTC phone or personal computer. For example, people can easily locate a missing phone by triggering the handset to ring loudly, even if it is set to silent, or to flag its location on a map. If the phone’s been lost or stolen, users can remotely lock the phone, forward calls and texts to another phone, send a message to the phone to arrange its return or even remotely wipe all personal data from it. HTCSense.com makes it easy to setup a new HTC phone or access archived mobile content such as contacts, text messages and call history from a PC browser. People can also customize their phones with exclusive HTC content like wallpapers, HTC scenes, sounds or plug-ins.
HTC Desire HD
HTC Desire HD showcases outstanding multimedia content with its bright 4.3” LCD display and Dolby Mobile and SRS virtual sound and is the first to be powered by the new 1GHz Qualcomm 8255 Snapdragon processor. The HTC Desire HD enables 720p HD video recording and includes an 8-megapixel camera with dual-flash. Building on the unibody heritage of the HTC Legend, the HTC Desire HD is sculpted from a block of solid aluminum and exudes the air of quality and strength that HTC has come to be known for. It also includes the new HTC Fast Boot that enables people to quickly make a call or check emails by shortening the time taken to complete the power-up sequence.
HTC Desire Z
For people constantly on the go, HTC Desire Z makes it quick and easy to stay connected with friends on Facebook and Twitter or with colleagues and customers at work. HTC Desire Z features a unique ‘pop hinge’ that opens to reveal a QWERTY keyboard for fast, convenient typing. HTC Desire Z’s keyboard also includes a variety of keyboard shortcuts and two customizable keys for providing instant access to common functions without the need to open menus. HTC Desire Z also includes 720p HD video recording and a 5-megapixel camera with automatic flash. It is the first phone to utilize the new 800MHz Qualcomm 7230 processor for improved performance and battery life and also includes HTC Fast Boot.
Availability
The new HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z will be broadly available through mobile operators and retailers across major European and Asian markets from October 2010 with the HTC Desire Z shipping in North America later this year.
