Man! Mobile World Congress is all about the last-minute leaks this year. First, a tiny glimpse of Windows Phone leaked out just hours before it became official. Now, three brand-spankin’ new handsets from HTC have just leaked out, just one day before HTC’s press conference where we can only assume these devices were supposed to debut.
All three handsets leaked out in rapid fire over at Modaco.
The oh-so-glorious beast you see up top is the HTC Desire, previously known around the rumor mill as the HTC Bravo. Take Google’s Nexus One, stick HTC’s customized Sense user interface on it, replace the trackball with a nifty optical trackpad – and bam! You’ve got the Desire. It’ll run Android 2.1 on a big and beautiful 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen packed on top of a 1GHZ processor, 512 MB ROM/576 MB RAM, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. Alas, it appears that its only prepped for 3G in Europe and Asia at the moment.
We got word of this next one, the HTC Legend, at the same time we found out about the bravo – but words were all we had. Then Netherlandish carrier KPN came along and spilled the beans on this spec-for-spec sequel to the HTC Hero with a few itsy-bitsy press shots. Well, consider those press shots embiggened:
Coming in with a 600mhz CPU, 3.2″ AMOLED screen, and 512 MB RAM/384 MB ROM, it’s not quite as ridiculously spec’d out as the Desire – but it’s still a damn nice handset. Like the Desire, it’s running HTC’s Sense UI on top of Android 2.1 – but unfortunately also like the Desire, the version that has leaked out isn’t compatible with US 3G. Given that a number of US carriers picked up the Hero, however, I’d be damned surprised if it stayed that way for long.
Last but not least: the HD Touch Mini. It’s purportedly running Windows Mobile 6.5.3 — which, considering today’s announcement of its successor, Windows Phone, admittedly makes this one a bit hard to get too excited about. With that said, this’ll probably be one of the last Windows Mobile handsets with HTC’s dramatic UI overhauls on it, given Microsofts new policies that keep manufacturers from replacing Windows Phone interface elements.
Regardless of the politics, all signs indicate that this one will pack a 3.2″ HVGA screen, 5 megapixel camera – and like the rest of them, nothin’ in regards to US 3G.