HTC has announced the Desire 310, which brings a 4.5-inch display and quad-core processing to the entry-level smartphone.
While Apple and Samsung have been battling it out in the high-end smartphone market, companies like Motorola and HTC are hedging their bets on improving market share with entry-level handsets. Motorola has been seeing success with its Moto G, a budget smartphone the company introduced at the end of 2013. The Moto G was designed to offer consumers some of the features found on premium smartphones, like a 4.5-inch display, speedy quad-core processor, and the latest version of Android 4.4 KitKat.
Motorola executives recently revealed that the Moto G has been a huge success and it's their most successful smartphone launch to date. The Moto G takes some design cues from the company's high-end Moto X but cuts costs by leaving out 4G LTE connectivity.
HTC is now taking the same approach with its just announced Desire 310. The smartphone matches the Moto G in some areas, including a quad-core processor, 4.5-inch display (Moto G ships with a higher resolution 720p display), 3G radip and 5-megapixel rear camera.
"Everybody today wants a smartphone that can keep up with them, regardless of whether it is a flagship or entry-level model," HTC CEO Peter Chou said in a statement. "The latest addition to our renowned HTC Desire range combines super-fast processing and premium features at a lower price, offering users the best possible experience in this category."
The HTC Desire 310 features a 4.5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 480 x 854, a pixel density of 218 pixels per inch (ppi) and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5.1. It's powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core Mediatek processor, Mali-400 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. Users will find 4GB of internal storage and a microSD expansion slot that will support up to 32GB microSD cards.
Its camera capabilities include a 5-megapixel rear camera with Geo-tagging, face detection with the ability to record 1080p video and a front-facing VGA camera for video chat. The Desire 310's wireless connectivity options consist of a 3G HSDPA radio, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, and GPS. Its 2000 mAh battery will provide up to 11 hours of talk time and up to 852 hours of standby time.
The HTC Desire 310 will hit store shelves in April but HTC hasn't revealed pricing yet. We'll keep you updated in case the Desire 310 floats your boat.
