We weren't expecting the HTC Desire S smart phone to go on sale in the UK until next month, but it seems online retailer Clove has stolen a march on its traditional retail rivals. It's saying the Android handset will be available in the next fortnight.
"We are expecting stock of the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) handset to be here in the last week of March, which is a bit earlier than initially expected," explains the company in a blog post.
Clove is selling the Desire S for £406.80, including VAT, with that late-March delivery date. UK network Three has the phone slated for an April release, as does Orange, with Vodafone and T-Mobile expected to start selling it that month too.
Last month, Amazon UK kicked off its own pre-order process for the Desire S, with a list price of £420 and an expected release date of 18 April. The release date remains the same, but Amazon is now quoting a price of £400, undercutting Clove slightly.
Why might you want to get in early? The Desire S has an aluminium case, a 1GHz processor, 768MB RAM, 1GB of storage and a 5-megapixel camera, along with a 3.7-inch, 480x800-pixel screen.
It'll have the latest Android software, which HTC says could be the 2.4 version of Gingerbread, although Clove reckons it's 2.3 -- we'll see when it arrives. HTC's latest version of its helpful Sense UI will be overlaid on Android.
As we explained in our comparison with the original HTC Desire, the new version is slightly lighter and smaller than its predecessor, and while both have a 1GHz processor, the Desire S has a faster GPU along with more RAM, so games should fly on it. Also new is a front-facing camera for video calls, while HTC reckons you'll get an extra 190 minutes of talktime out of the Desire S' battery.
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Comments 5
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Anonymous 9 March, 2011 10:26
It will have to be cheaper than that if they want to compete with the new dual-core phones
EvilJoe39 9 March, 2011 13:06
O2 also saying they're releasing it in April!
ace9988 10 March, 2011 16:26
watch how the new dual core phones binge drink on the battery, as if android didn't have battery issues with single core phones
doodi_dealer 12 March, 2011 21:11
It would just feel silly of me to buy this phone, even though it's from HTC, considering it's out of date even as it comes out!
Anonymous 23 March, 2011 16:37
In fact this is just a superb superb superb phone, and the refresh has made it an absolutely solid performer and great battery wise.
I have (just checked) uptime of 7 days 22 hours with no issues, battery is down to 85% after 10h21s. The phone is easily running google street view, earth & stars and I've not had any battery issues - I couldn't believe the difference in technology leap from my previous N95.
I just cannot see the reason for dual core on a phone - are you mental!!! It isn't fast enough already? I see the stats on the phone say it spends 66% of it's time at 250Mhz and 27% at 998MHz - I can see this turning into one of those stupid "horse power is king" number of CPU's or MHz marketing races that's completely unnecessary in my experience with a (or specifically this) telephone.