HTC Desire 601, Desire 300 handsets launched

HTC has added two new mid-range handsets to its Desire smartphone range, in the shape of the 4.5in Desire 601 and 4.3in Desire 300.

First up, the Desire 601. It might be made from rubberised polycarbonate in a similar style to the HTC One X, but retains the BoomSound front-facing speakers of the flagship HTC One and One Mini. Powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor running at 1.4GHz and paired with 1GB of RAM, it’s a decidedly mid-range device, but one that still has premium looks.

There’s no Ultrapixel camera, but the 5-megapixel rear sensor should still be capable of taking reasonable quality photos – in low light as well as bright locations thanks to the LED flash. It can record 1080p video and supports HTC’s Zoe short animations. The 4.5in display has a 960×540 resolution, which isn’t going to compete with more expensive mid-range handsets but should still be large enough for comfortable web browsing.

8GB of storage comes as standard but there’s a MicroSD card slot for adding up to 64GB of extra space. High quality aptX Bluetooth is a welcome extra feature, but the major selling point could be the presence of a 4G LTE modem. Assuming HTC gets the price right, it could be one of the most reasonably priced 4G handsets when it goes on sale later this month.

The Desire 300, meanwhile, is a more entry-level handset designed for those with price firmly in mind. It has a 4.3in, 800×480 resolution display, dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, so it isn’t going to set benchmark tables alight, but should still run Android relatively smoothly. MicroSD card support, aptX Bluetooth and a five megapixel camera are all welcome inclusions, but there’s no 1080p video recording or support for HTC Zoe clips. It’s also a 3G-only device.

Like the Desire 601, the Desire 300 will run HTC’s highly customised version of Android, including the Sense overlay and the Blinkfeed home screen. It is due to go on sale from October onwards, although HTC has yet to announce official pricing.