Optus has just announced the HTC Desire 816 is available for purchase on their network. The Desire 816 is a large screened phone, with a 13MP camera included on the rear, it also comes with the HTC BoomSound built into the plastic shell. It also includes HTC Sense built over Android 4.4 and includes software features such as HTC Zoe and Blinkfeed.
Hardware wise, the Desire 816 is a decent mid-range phone, including a Qualcomm snapdragon processor, but a relatively small 8GB of on-board storage, which you will want to increase with a microSD card to make full use of the 13MP camera included on the rear.
- 5.5″ 720P Display
- 1.6 Ghz Quad-Core Snapdragon 400 Processor
- 1.5GB
- 8GB onboard storage with microsSD card up to 128GB
- 13MP Rear camera with 5MP Front-facing camera
- 3G Network 850/900/2100 Mhz
- 4G Network700/900/1800/2100/2600 Mhz
- WiFi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth BT 4.0, GPS,
- Android KitKat 4.4 with HTC Sense
- 2600mAh Battery
- 156.6×78.7×7.9mm @ 165grams
The Desire 816 is an LTE enabled phone, but won’t support the Optus 4G Plus network, as it’s missing the 2300MHz radio. The rest of Australia on the 1800MHz 4G network will be quite pleased, with the phone available on a range of 24 month Optus MyPlans starting from $40 per month($35 plan + $5 handset repayments). There’s a slight bonus with going for the $60 per month plan, with 1.5GB of data included, but choose the one that’s right for you.
Update, June 5: HTC also advises that the Desire 816 is available for $398 outright.
Check it out and see what you think.
It’s a great phone for the price point. Even our cheapest Plan $35 its +$5 for the Phone per month. Works out to be a great competitor to the Note 3
Yeah, at $240 for the handset paid in instalments over 2 years it’s great value. I doubt you could buy a similarly spec’d 4G phone for the same outright.
Doesn’t support 4G/LTE on Optus. Worth getting but only on a different carriers contract. Unfortunately nobody else is offering it on contract yet and the outright pricing, atleast at mobicity doesn’t stack up compared to the Optus plan pricing.
Can’t see this being successful in the current climate.
Optus does have an 1800MHz network which this does work on, just not their 4G Plus network.
Thanks for the clarification, I saw the 4G Plus and assumed it was the entire Optus 4G network. Sorry to anyone I have inadvertently misled.
HTC Desire 816 dual SIM, in stock at MobiCity for $389.95
Actually tempting. I’d like the 5.5″. The person I’d buy it for, not so much.