HTC recently announced the mid-range Desire 500 and now the handset is up for pre-order in the UK for £229.99 (about $347.99 ).
The Taiwanese company has already attracted millions of customers globally with the launch of its top-end handset, the HTC One. With the launch of the Desire 500, it seems that HTC wants to make a solid base in the mid-market segment as well.
"The Desire range has become renowned for bringing a premium mobile experience to the mass market," said HTC Corporations CEO Peter Chou (via PhoneArena). "This particular model, the Desire 500, is no different. It is perfect for people who are always-on-the-go, it enables powerful multitasking and live-streaming of important and interesting information, and it boasts an excellent camera and that bring your important moments to life."
The company also announced that the handset will be available in select regions from August this year, but it did not confirm the exact release dates.
UK online retailer MobileFun has started taking pre-orders for the HTC Desire 500 with a price tag of £229.99.
The launch of a mid-range smartphone such as the HTC Desire 500 is sometimes side-lined with the presence of top-end smartphones such as the Sony Xperia Z, Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and more. However, not everyone wants a top-end smartphone with a hefty price tag, bigger screen and top notch hardware specifications.
Many smartphone customers may still want a smaller mid-range handset with decent hardware specifications and basic smartphone capabilities. The Desire 500 packs impressive features that a smartphone buyer may want in a mid-level handset.
The Desire 500 comes packed with a 4.3-inch display with 480 x 800-pixels resolution, while a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz powers the handset. The smartphone is also equipped with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.6-megapixel front-facing shooter. The HTC Desire 500 also comes with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable further using a microSD card.
The handset will be available in Lacquer Black and Glacier Blue color options. The press release published by Phone Arena also states that the handset will be available in a dual-SIM variant in select regions.
We will have to wait and see if HTC is able to attract customers to the Desire 500.
