HTC Desire 626 will run Android 5.1 and Sense 7

It’s been less than four months since we reviewed the HTC Desire 620, but HTC has already announced a successor in the form of the Desire 626. It’s a pretty minor specs bump, but there are certainly a couple of key features that make it stand out from its predecessor.

For starters, it runs Android 5.1 and it’s one of the first HTC phones we’ve seen since the One M9 that comes with HTC’s Sense 7 interface. This was one of our favourite features from the One M9, as its extensive customisation settings made it one of the most personalised Android UIs we’ve ever used, so we’re glad to see HTC bringing it to phones further down the range. 

Otherwise, the Desire 626 is very similar to the Desire 620. Measuring 147x71x8.2mm and weighing 135g, it’s a fraction thinner and lighter than the Desire 620, but it still has the same 5in 1,280×720 resolution display and quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor as its predecessor, but at least HTC’s decided to give it 2GB of RAM as opposed to just 1GB.

We’re also pleased to see HTC has increased the size of the rear camera sensor to 13 megapixels compared to the Desire 620’s 8-megapixel sensor. The camera also comes with HTC’s Eye Experience app for easy photo editing, and it can shoot 1,080p video on both the front and rear cameras. It comes with 16GB of internal storage, but this can be expanded up to a massive 512GB via microSD card, making it incredibly flexible if you want to store a lot of photos and videos. 

Available in a variety of dual tone colour schemes, including White Birch, Blue Lagoon, Purple Fire and Dark Grey, the Desire 626 will be available from both Carphone Warehouse and O2. We’ll bring you a full review as soon as we get our hands on a review sample.