HTC Desire HD rumour roundup

First confirmed in a Vodafone Germany stock system screen late July, HTC’s codenamed ‘Ace’ device has been building up a steady head of rumour, culminating in the recent leak of a rumoured prototype device (pictured here). You may be aware that James and Matt have been talking about the HTC Ace for several months but now we know that the new flagship handset will almost certainly be called the HTC Desire HD.

So, in a wheat/chaff sorting effort, let’s take a look at the whispers:

Name

Codenamed HTC Ace but expected to be released as HTC Desire HD.

Processor

Originally speculated as possibly sporting a 1.6ghz dual core Snapdragon, the newest Ace prototype leak appears to stick with a 1ghz Qualcomm.  No word on if this is the same Desire-powering Snapdragon, or if it has any additional help in the GPU department to match the Galaxy S’ HD media and 3D capabilities, especially with possible XviD playback.

Screen

The most recent leaked image claims a 4.3" WVGA screen of undetermined type.  Past form would suggest AMOLED but the current shortage may prompt for SIPS LCD in the short term.  If based on Incredible it would be 3.7" but with the Desire already being this size, the HD2 being 4.3" and the rival Galaxy S pushing 4", HTC would have to up the screen to at least 4" to live up to it’s HD tag.

There appears to be less demand amongst EU operators for the full 4.3" according to HTC’s Eric Yin: "Currently there’s only been interest in this big screen thing here [in the US] from an American carrier".  Certainly the hunger for Android on the HD2 may show the consumer demand much the opposite! 

Whether there could also be is a resolution bump ala iPhone 4 hasn’t surfaced and the WVGA seems to confirm for the time being there won’t be.  However the 4" 800×480 screen of the Galaxy S brings individual pixels into focus so a 4.3" AMOLED may do the same.

Hardware

It appears based on the Droid Incredible and EVO with the square look and touch sensitive buttons, possibly with the optical trackball from the Desire.  Mainly constructed of aluminium and seemingly retaining the EVO’s slimline appearence right up to the thin screen bezel.  No keyboard.

Software

The recent leaked prototype is showing Froyo 2.2 and it would seem certain that any device released in late Q3 / early Q4 would have at least that.  No word on any change to the Sense UI but 720p video recording should be from the get-go, eurther point towards the device being partly based on the Desire, as that handset gets its HD video update with Froyo.  As mentioned earlier, there’s likely to be additional video codec support in the form of Xvid playback, possibly with SRS surround sound.

Camera

8 megapixel has been touted but a flash has not been mentioned as being present or absent.  Sense (sorry!) would dictate that if it is indeed the Desire’s bigger brother, it would be unusual to remove it on the higher end device.  The upper screen bezel appears to have a slight round indentation on the righthand side, so a front facing camera is a real possibility if you want some erm, face time over the airwaves with your friends.

Memory

It seems HTC will go with at least some substantial internal memory with the Ace, with 4GB being spoken about at present, putting it on par with the Galaxy S.  External memory could be up to 32GB

Release

October still appears to be the favourite, but a date hasn’t been set.  The OTA Froyo updates for the Desire show that if the device is indeed just a bigger Desire, then it’s at least software ready.

Personally, I cant wait to get my hands on one!

Posted by: Ian