The Taiwanese smartphone brand HTC is back from hibernation. Its first phone after the long break is the Desire 19s. This budget device features a Pixel-esque dual-tone design at the back. Such similarity isn’t surprising considering that early Pixel handsets were designed by HTC. And later, HTC offloaded roughly half of its design and research talent to Google in 2018. The Desire 19s features a 6.2-inch display with thin bezels and a tiny waterdrop notch. To keep up with the competition, HTC’s new phone is equipped with a triple camera setup at the back. For device security, there’s a fingerprint sensor on its back. For more details, head over to the next segment.
HTC Desire 19s Specifications
The Desire 19s is powered by MediaTek’s Helio P22 chipset. It has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. You can expand it further via a microSD card slot. The device sports a 6.2-inch LCD display with HD+ resolution. Looks like the Taiwanese brand hasn’t opted for the IPS (In-Plane Switching) screen, known for wide viewing angles.
Moving onto the photography capabilities, you get 13 MP primary sensor with a 5 MP wide lens, and 5 MP depth sensor. The front camera is a 16MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture. It can record Full HD videos at 30 fps. In terms of connectivity features, you get dual SIM slots with 4G VoLTE support, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and A-GPS (network assisted). The Desire 19s comes with a good-old 3.5 mm headphone jack. The handset holds a 3,850 mAh battery with a 10 W charger. In its heydays, HTC was known for its aesthetically pleasing Android customization. The Desire 19s may smark that nostalgia with the Sense UI skin based on Android 9 Pie.
HTC Desire 19s Pricing and Availability
HTC Desire 19s is available for purchase in Taiwan starting today. In its home country, the HTC Desire 19s is priced at 5990 New Taiwanese dollars, which roughly translates to Rs 14,000. With such specs, the phone is going to be a tough sell against the likes of budget Xiaomi and other Chinese brands. However, at this point, there’s no word on its India launch.
HTC, once considered as one of the finest design-driven smartphone brands in the world, has been out of action in recent times. After subsequent losses in the smartphone segment, the company diversified its portfolio by partnering with Valve corporation to launch a virtual reality headset HTC Vive.
