HTC announces Touch HD, 3G and Viva handsets

HTC has announced a flurry of new handsets that it claims are intended to give customers even more choice when it comes to choosing a Windows Mobile handset.

Pride of place goes to the Touch HD that the company says is aimed at consumers and business customers alike and "raises the bar for mobile internet and entertainment."

Its 3.8in WVGA (480 x 800) resolution display is intended to make web browsing easier than ever. In addition, there's a 5-megapixel auto-focusing camera and a standard 3.5mm audio jack all clear signs that HTC is gunning firmly for the spotlight currently enjoyed by Apple's iPhone.

The Touch HD has quad-hand GSM and 7.2Mbps HSDPA support with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and assisted GPS. It only sports 512MB of internal memory though this can be expanded by a SDHC microSD card. HTC plans to ship the phone with a 8MB SD card in the box.

It's all powered along by a 528MHz Qualcomm chipset and the whole package weighs in at 146.4g. HTC is claiming up to six hours of talk time from the 1,350 mAh battery.

HTC also announced the Touch 3G, a sequel to its groundbreaking Touch, from last year. This is a more lightweight affair at 96g, and equipped with a 2.8in 320 x 240 resolution display, a 3.2 megapixel display and 256MB of flash memory, backed with 192MB of RAM.

Finally, there's the more budget-orientated Touch Viva, which eschews 3G entirely, and sticks with quad-band GSM and EDGE support. The 110g phone contains a 2.8in display, offers 320 x 240 pixels and the memory complement is 256MB of flash and 128MB of RAM,

To cater for the consumer and more casual business user, the Touch 3G will be available in four colours, black, gold, blue and brown while the Touch Viva will only come in grey. Both devices will be available from next month.

Benny Har-Even

Benny Har-Even is a twenty-year stalwart of technology journalism who is passionate about all areas of the industry, but telecoms and mobile and home entertainment are among his chief interests. He has written for many of the leading tech publications in the UK, such as PC Pro and Wired, and previously held the position of technology editor at ITPro before regularly contributing as a freelancer.

Known affectionately as a ‘geek’ to his friends, his passion has seen him land opportunities to speak about technology on BBC television broadcasts, as well as a number of speaking engagements at industry events.