HTC gives grand unveiling for Desire HD and Desire Z; updates Sense

HTC held a major press event over in London this morning and announced two brand new (and quite beautiful) smartphones: the Desire HD and the Desire Z.

Both of the new HTC handhelds are expected to start shipping to European and Asian markets in October, but North American fans are going to have to (unfortunately) wait until some unknown point "later this year." On the bright side, there are only a few more months left of 2010, so the wait can't be that long, right?

Let's get right to it and break down the some of the few specs made public so far on both of these Android-based devices. (The version wasn't revealed yet, but it almost has to be preloaded with Froyo at this point.)

Desire HD

• 4.3-inch LCD display
• Snapdragon 8255 1GHz processor
• HSPA+
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash

• 720p video recording
• Dolby Mobile
• "Sculpted" from solid block of aluminum

Desire Z

• Qualcomm MSM7230 800MHz processor
• HSPA+
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• 5-megapixel camera with flash
• 720p video recording
• "Pop hinge" with full QWERTY keyboard

Furthermore, both handhelds will treated to the improved HTC Sense, a multimedia interface with enhanced video recording effects, HTC Locations (on-demand mapping) and the Kobo e-reader.

This is paired with HTCSense.com, set to be made public next month and allows users to manage their HTC cellphones from a computer. This includes archiving mobile content (i.e. text messages), customizing the look and feel with wallpapers and such, and also locating a missing device by flagging it on a map and having it ring loudly.

[Top image via @htc on Twitter]