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As you heard by now, HTC has announced in London two new phones, the Desire HD and Desire Z (“z” or “zee”, you can say both apparently).  The sexy handsets will be available from most European carriers starting around mid-October. While we don’t have a word yet on the Desire HD, we do know that the Desire Z will be hitting T-Mobile USA as the G2.

HTCSense.com

Along with launching these new handsets, HTC also detailed the new and upcoming HTC Sense.  This HTC Sense update came with a web site (HTCsense.com) from where you can control your phone over the air. You’ll be able from the interface to save and read your SMS, create your own themes.  More interestingly you will be able to control your phone if it is forgotten, lost or stolen. This is a great set of tools, you can make your phone ring for example to find it or send a message to be displayed on the screen with your details if it is lost. SMS, contacts, HTC Sense themes, ringtones can be backed up on the web site as well. Sadly, the new HTC Sense back-up is missing a photo and video solution, so you will not be able to have one place to store everything. You will have to rely on different services (Picasa, Flicker, YouTube,…).

Targeted Customers

Overall, HTC didn’t make any big noise about the technical specs of both phones. Their respective specs are good but nothing outstanding compared to the competition. They made it clear that the intended customers for these are not us, geek or Android fanatics. No, their target are the people who haven’t made it yet to the world of smartphones and are still carrying “just” phones.  They are looking to convert.

Smart move from HTC, as there is a huge number of potential customers. They have planned on a very large (40% larger than the previous one) marketing campaign to promote the phones and show what HTC Sense and HTCSense.com can bring to the user’s  everyday life. They might, but won’t have to, mention Android or Google but really they just need to show people what can they do with a smartphone (like Apple’s Facetime ad). One example, you can send photos or video directly to your DNLA comaptible TV, no need for a cable and if your TV is not compatible, they’ll have an accessoirie (Media Link) to help, a little box connected to your TV.

HTC Location

Google Maps is installed on the phone but HTC have also included their own mapping application called HTC Location. They tried to solve one of the issue of Google Maps and the navigation, if you are not on your provider network (out of range or roaming), you can’t use Google services. HTC worked with Route66 on this app in which you can download complete maps (for free) in the device. You can also purchase Navigation for a period (30 days, 1 year or for life) by countries. It is usefull, if for example you go on holiday, you can get the map of the country for free and, if you think you’ll need it, buy by credit card directly from the app the navigation option for the period you’ll be away. On paper, it is a good idea to buy just what you need but there are already free offers from the competition, Google but also Nokia’s Ovi Map in the segment HTC is targeting. I would suggest then to throw some freebies to potential buyers. See photos in the gallery below for an example of prices, I can’t confirm if these will be the same once the phones will be released.

Reader

On the Desire HD, HTC has included a very well done ebook reader called Reader. The HD’s large screen is a great asset when it comes to reading text. This reader has been developped in partnership with Adobe and will give access to books from Kobo. There are already plenty of other options on the Market for ebook reading (Amazon, Barnes and Noble) but the features in HTC version would help. For example, they make is easy to select text, to anotate, search definition or translate a piece of text.

Are these 2 phones any good?

Yes, they are great phones. The Desire HD is well designed, the aluminium construction makes a solid phone. HTC Sense and all the apps I’ve tried are snappy, it has Android 2.2. If I could have one bad thing to say, it would be to mentioned the lack of front facing camera but then, there are not really that many apps to use it. By the way, there is an auto-portrait mode in the camera app but I am not sure how it works. The Desire Z is as per the G2 a great update of the old G1. The Z hinges, as HTC called them, are very snappy, you might be worried to get a finger cut when closing it (it could not happend!). The keyboard is pleasant to use, even with large fingers like mine. Again, the only bad thing I would say about the Z it would be about the small trackpad, it would take someone time to get used to it.

To conclude, two nice phones and improvments for Sense to give HTC the tools to grab pieces of market own mostly by Nokia. No wonder, the competition tried to crash HTC’s party. They should be afraid, because these two phones, to be released right in time before the Holiday Season, are going to be a success, maybe a little one for Android, but a big one for HTC.

Boy Genius is reporting this morning that HTC has created silver version of the HTC Desire. I don’t know about you, but it sounds pretty damn sexy! Honestly, I didn’t really like brown version, so this is good news. Hopefully, if and when this phone comes to the United States, users will have a choice. Thank you HTC!

Source: Boy Genius Report and XDA Developers

The official HTC announcements have come and gone, leaving us a few Android handsets in their wake.  First up is the new superphone, the Desire.  Long touted as the Bravo, it comes with a large 3.7 inch AMOLED WVGA display, an optical joystick, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, Android 2.1, and the newest version of Sense UI. Did we mention that this stunning little number is Flash 10.1 ready?

Engadget Mobile is reporting that the Desire will be”broadly available” throughout Europe and Asia in early Q2’10 as well as in Australia via Telstra.  No news as to if/when this will hit the US, but we’re pretty sure some version of this will arrive stateside at some point.  On a positive note, HTC was quoted as saying, “a record number of mobile operators have confirmed to launch our new devices. HTC Desire has been accepted by almost every key carrier in every key country we work with.”

Will HTC’s new Legend handset end up in the Google Android store with the Nexus One?  Sindre Lia, of infoSync thinks it’s a possibility and we’re inclined to agree. One of the things mentioned when the Google store was unveiled is that other handsets will be sold through the channel as long as they brought something ‘unique’ to the portal.  Looking at the Legend, we see plenty of things that differentiate it from the Nexus One, making it a potential store candidate.

• The Legend more than fills the gap between feature phones and super phones while the Nexus One sits near the top of the food chain.
• A lower price point could attract more eyeballs to the store
• The two phones have distinctive designs likely to appeal to completely different users
• The Nexus One offers the stock Android experience whereas the Legend features Sense UI

When the HTC Legend was announced, HTC said that there were no immediate plans to offer it here in the United States.  That could mean two things – a US version could come later (a la Sprint’s Hero) or it could be made available through the store without any carrier attached.

As of now, we can only guess as to what phones will arrive in the Google store.  We’re aware of Motorola’s plans to offer something through the channel, but beyond that, your guess is as good as ours.  Or as good as Sindre Lia’s.

Gorgeous, isn’t it?  We’ve been saying for a while now that the HTC Bravo appears to be the nearly identical twin to the Nexus One, save for Sense UI and some minor adjustments.  On paper, the two handsets nearly mirror each other.  If the rumors are true, we’ll be hearing officially from HTC on this device tomorrow at Mobile World Congress.  In the time we’ve been waiting for the news to come down from high, the on-board memory received a boost.  We’re talking 576 RAM and 512MB ROM!

The guys over at Madaco were able to get their hands on the full list of specs, but we’ve taken the liberty of pasting those we thinking most people care about.

• 1 GHz Processor
• Android 2.1 with HTC Sense
• Memory – ROM: 512 MB, RAM: 576 MB
• Display – 3.7-inch 480X800 WVGA AMOLED Screen
• HSPA/WCDMA:
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Optical Trackball
• GPS, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, G-Sensor, Digital compass
• Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
• 5 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flashlight
• Battery – 1400 mAh

These are exactly the kinds of phones we expect from handset makers if they want to play in the upper echelon.  What do you guys think?  All the makings of a Nexus One, plus Sense!

We’ve got a couple of new pictures to pass along to you guys.  Two of the hottest rumored Android handsets, the Bravo and Supersonic, have been captured in better lighting.  As we near next month’s Mobile World Congress, the hope is that we’ll see more of these coming out.   We’re crossing our fingers that official announcements for both of these are right around the corner.

First up is the HTC Bravo

And here’s the HTC Supersonic

Thanks to Jacob and Edwin for the tips!

To take things one step further, a render of the Supersonic has been worked up and found over at androphones.

What you see above is being passed around as “Android 3.0 running on the upcoming HTC Supersonic”.  The image show a 3-D home screen with the app launcher featured in Android 2.1 with a tab.  While it would be great to see something like this as being the next step in Android, we must point out that everything you see is complete render.  Oh, and it’s nearly a year and a half old.

Shortly after the G1 was released, one of our readers decided he would take to creating a better G1 design, or perhaps what the G1 should look like.  He sent along a few different mockups, each with various improvements.  This looks to be a new variation on some old Photoshop work.

HTC Hero is our first phone to embody HTC Sense – an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles – make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected. With HTC Hero, personalization reaches a level never before possible. Rather than burying important content under layers of menus, the HTC Hero lets you put it at glance view, with a selection of widgets that can be placed right on the home screen. The widgets themselves can be personalized with a variety of designs and sizes that best match your personality. With Scenes, a new profile feature, HTC Hero becomes multiple phones in one. Create and switch between Scenes that reflect different moments in your life. Your Hero becomes a weekend phone that helps you relax with your choice of tunes, catch up with your favorite friends and capture some memories with HTC Footprints. And when you go on a trip, your phone becomes your personal guide and gives you instant access to local time, weather and maps. Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls and emails to Facebook updates. HTC Hero makes staying close as simple as turning to your friend and saying hello. When you view people, you see the different ways to get in touch, you also see all your interactions like emails sent to your personal and work accounts. You can even check for social network updates and event notices as well as see the latest pictures your friends uploaded to popular photo sharing sites. Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. Even basic functions like the dialer will pleasantly surprise you on the HTC Hero. You can find a person by dialing their phone number or simply by dialing the first few letters of their name. With HTC Hero, you can look at things through different perspectives.