HTC Desire 826: Everything you need to know

HTC, the Taiwanese mobile giant has captured the mid-segment market with launch of the Desire 816. This tremendous success was followed up by adding the color infused HTC Desire 820. Both these models have garnered a huge fan base that is a mix of consumers and critics. The success of these two models paved the way for the new HTC Desire 826. The new HTC Desire 826 was flaunted at CES 2015. The phone is not a mere upgrade but HTC’s desire to regain its foothold in the smartphone segment. We’ve done the rounds to give you a well rounded view of the new smartphone.

HTC 826 Design:

Like all HTC Desire latest models, this phone is a real eye-pleaser. The design elements borrow heavily from HTC’s 820 and Desire Eye. The slim, plastic body fits comfortably in your hands, and is quite easy to manage, despite its large size. The plastic back on the HTC Desire 826 is shiny plastic and not of matte finish, making it a fingerprint magnet. There’s a power button that sits almost flush on one side and the volume rocker and power button are located on the other side. The camera on the front is strikingly similar to the Desire Eye. One of the aspects we thoroughly liked is the integration of the speaker in the design; it is practically not visible making it unobtrusive. The HTC 826 will be available 3 color variants White Birch, Blue Lagoon & Purple Fire (and more yet to be announced). Overall, the design is very minimalistic and suave.

HTC 826 Screen & Display:

The HTC Desire 826 has a 5.5-inch (1080 x 1920) Super LCD3 display with a pixel density of 401ppi. The display of the smartphone is crisp and clear. It is possibly one of the first mid-level phones that have such a high pixel density. The screen also has an incredible screen-to-body ratio i.e. 68.1%.

HTC 826 Hardware Specifications:

The new HTC Desire 826 comes loaded with a lot of hardware goodness. The smartphone is powered by Octa-Core Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 64-bit processor along with 2GB of RAM and a powerful Adreno 405 GPU. The CPU is configured in to 2 x Quad core processors, one clocked at 1.7GHz and the second at 1.0GHz. This is done to improve performance and optimize the phone. The phone will sport 16GB of internal memory along with microSD slot expandable up to a tremendous 128GB. The new HTC 826 will be a dual-sim compliant, considering the phone will be launched first in China. One the connectivity front, the device is 4G LTE compliant and has features such as Wi-Fi, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.1 (A2DP + apt-X), A-GPS, GLONASS. The new HTC Desire is powered by a non-removable Li-Po 2600mAh battery.

HTC 826 Camera:

Like most phone manufacturers, HTC too has concentrated heavily on the camera of the new Desire 826. The phone rocks a stunning Full-HD 13MP autofocus camera capable of resolutions as high as 4160 x 3120 pixels. Catering to the next gen, the 826 is optimized for #selfies. The secondary camera is of 4MP and is powered by HTC’s UltraPixel technology. The large pixels in the UltraPixel technology allow more light in thereby increasing low-light performance immensely. Apart from this the camera has geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR and simultaneous HD video and image recording.

HTC 826 Software and Operating System:

The new HTC Desire will run Android OS v5.0.1 (Lollipop) right out of the box. The OS is laced with HTC’s slick User Interface; Sense UI. The UI will allow users a certain amount of customization. Apart from this, there isn’t much going on in the software department. The phone comes bundled with all trademark apps found is most phone from the HTC Desire series. The next version of HTC’s Sense UI/Sense Home is around the corner. This version will adhere more to Google’s material design.

There is no news about the availability and price of the HTC Desire 826 in India. Considering HTC just launched a slew of MediaTek powered HTC desire phones in India, the phone may only be available somewhere in the 3rd quarter of 2015. Furthermore, keeping in mind that the device is aimed at the mid-level segment and the price sensitive nature of Asian customers, the device will be competitively priced. To sum things up, the new HTC Desire 826 looks like a very promising device.