HTC Desire 500 hits UK
HTC has launched its latest mid-range smartphone, the HTC Desire 500, here in the UK.
We went hands-on with the HTC Desire 500 back in August and found it to be a capable mid-range performer. HTC has put its obsession with aluminium on hold to produce an all-plastic phone, but it retains that solid unibody design that we’ve come to appreciate from the manufacturer.
The phone features a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 display, which is both smaller and considerably less sharp than we’ve become accustomed to from HTC in recent years.
While the HTC Desire 500 runs on a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, it’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chip built to an older Cortex-A5 recipe. Fine for general tasks, but well below the speedy Snapdragon 800 that’s made its way to the Nexus 5.
Around back you get a standard-looking 8-megapixel camera capable of 720p video, while the front-facing camera is a surprisingly sharp 1.6-megapixel unit. Evidently HTC is aiming the phone at selfie-obsessed teens.
On the software front, the HTC Desire 500 runs on Android 4.1.2, an older but still perfectly capable version of Jelly Bean. Naturally you get the latest version of HTC’s custom Sense UI layered on top, which is actually a lot less fussy and cluttered than previous efforts.
Part of that Sense UI is the BlinkFeed homescreen, which combines all of your social media updates into an attractive mosaic.
The affordable Android phone is available now in the UK, and its white version exclusively from Carphone Warehouse, where it can be picked up for free on a £15 per month two year contract.
Next, read our review of the HTC One Mini.
Via: Pocket-lint