Update: According to PCWorld, the Desire S will in fact run Gingerbread 2.4.
Overnight at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telstra announced that it would release the HTC Desire S on the Next G network in Australia. The HTC Desire was a huge success for Telstra in 2010, being the first mass-market Android phone to take hold in the Australian market.
As we discussed earlier, the HTC Desire S is not a significant upgrade from the original Desire, however it does sport a few tweaks, such as:
- Android 2.3 ‘Gingerbread’
- 1GHz ‘Snapdragon’, which has faster graphics but not much improvement for raw power
- Faster network connectivity on the Next G network
- Unibody aluminium construction, so it’s going to feel nice in the hand.
Warwick Bray, Executive Director, Telstra Mobile Products had no firm date for launch but the phone would launch in the first half of this year.
“The original HTC Desire was a huge hit with our customers and helped to establish the popularity of Android smartphones in Australia.
“The HTC Desire S builds on the qualities that made the original so popular. It features the latest Android Gingerbread operating system as well as a powerful processor that makes for fast, responsive multitasking.
“It also sports faster mobile internet connectivity for snappy web-browsing on the Next G network. And, like its predecessor, it will feature a vibrant 3.7-inch touch screen and access to thousands of Android apps.
“Our customers are going to love the look and feel of the phone too, which is crafted out of a single piece of aluminium.”
Typo in the article:
“With both these devices laucnhing in the..”
And yes, I want one. Sucks the tablet is exclusive to Vodafone though. Wish the Galaxy S II was a google experience device too (aka no touchwiz).
The question is though, will both devices run on the Telstra 850Mhz band at all?
typo fixed 🙂
where are they hiding their dual core phones ?
if not dual this should have a similar processor to the flyer (1.5ghz single core) otherwise they cement themselves as last years premium android manufacturer…
This is, dare I say it, a disappointing ‘upgrade’; you could even say, cynical.
I’m sure there’s further disappointment to come with excessive pricing and excessive bloatware. Sigh…
That may well be the case.. it’s such a minor hardware upgrade that you’d hope the cost wouldn’t be too high. However, with the relatively compressed mobile market in Australia, you can bet the price probably _will_ be that high :/
Telstra are shameless.
will the touch screen be improved? that was my main problem with it
Not to forget the upgrade to 768MB of RAM which, after using the Desire HD for a while, actually makes a noticeable difference in running a ton of apps.
Good to see these new devices coming out to the market, but I hope this won’t make Samsung nor the other software developers forget those of us who are stuck with 2 year contracts on older *now considered low end* phones like *Galaxy S*.