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HTC Desire 500 launched in Taiwan, packs Sense 5 but ditches BoomSound
Just when you thought HTC's going all the way with its BoomSound feature, the company stopped short with its Desire 500, a mid-range model that's just been announced for the younger Taiwanese audience (think: university students). As you can see above, the new device takes design cues from the One S for its front side (but with plastic instead of metal), and from the One SV on the back. Despite the lack of front stereo speakers, this phone still packs the same 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 SoC featured on the Desire 600 range. Similarly, you'll still find NFC, microSD expansion (on top of just 4GB of built-in storage) plus Sense 5 UI with BlinkFeed and Video Highlights here -- the latter works alongside the same pair of cameras: an 8-megapixel f/2.0 main camera, plus a 1.6-megapixel front imager. What's slightly disappointing, perhaps, is the low 800 x 480 resolution on the 4.3-inch display, and we're even more baffled by the relatively high suggested retail price of NT$11,900 or about US$400. Hopefully it's just a way to persuade more people to get the subsidized Desire 500 from Taiwan Mobile, HTC's exclusive local partner for this phone come August 1st. Stay tuned while our colleagues in Taiwan grab some hands-on photos. Update: Our brethren over at Engadget Chinese has just posted their hands-on. Enjoy!
HTC Desire 500 launching in Taiwan next week, boasts 'energy of the young'
Despite HTC launching the Desire 200 and Desire 600 earlier this year, it looks like there's still a bit of room left for the Desire family to grow. According to an invitation we've just received from the anxious Taiwanese smartphone maker, it'll be launching a device called the Desire 500 next week, on July 23rd. The text in the invite has the slogan "Energy of the young, imagination of the boundless," which makes us think this might be a lower-end device targeted at first-time smartphone owners. We saw a leaked document from a European operator referencing the Desire 500 earlier this month, so this phone may very well launch outside of Asia. If it doesn't, though, we'd happily settle for a Butterfly s.
