Update: According to PCWorld, the Desire S will in fact run Gingerbread 2.4.
Overnight at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telstra announced that it would release the HTC Desire S on the Next G network in Australia. The HTC Desire was a huge success for Telstra in 2010, being the first mass-market Android phone to take hold in the Australian market.
As we discussed earlier, the HTC Desire S is not a significant upgrade from the original Desire, however it does sport a few tweaks, such as:
- Android 2.3 ‘Gingerbread’
- 1GHz ‘Snapdragon’, which has faster graphics but not much improvement for raw power
- Faster network connectivity on the Next G network
- Unibody aluminium construction, so it’s going to feel nice in the hand.
Warwick Bray, Executive Director, Telstra Mobile Products had no firm date for launch but the phone would launch in the first half of this year.
“The original HTC Desire was a huge hit with our customers and helped to establish the popularity of Android smartphones in Australia.
“The HTC Desire S builds on the qualities that made the original so popular. It features the latest Android Gingerbread operating system as well as a powerful processor that makes for fast, responsive multitasking.
“It also sports faster mobile internet connectivity for snappy web-browsing on the Next G network. And, like its predecessor, it will feature a vibrant 3.7-inch touch screen and access to thousands of Android apps.
“Our customers are going to love the look and feel of the phone too, which is crafted out of a single piece of aluminium.”
