MWC 2010: HTC announces two Google Android and one Windows Mobile device

HTC continues to remind me of Sony and the way they released new CLIE devices faster than I could ever hope to keep up. Both also make very high quality products that I enjoy using and that end up draining my mobile device fund. At MWC in Spain this week HTC announced three new devices, but unfortunately there is no information that we will see any of them here in the US. Two of the new devices are Google Android smartphones and the other is a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device. If you recall, HTC purchased One & Co in 2008 and you will see major influences from them in the designs of these three new smartphones. The HTC Legend and HTC Desire are the new Android devices and the HD mini is the Windows Mobile device.

HTC Legend

The HTC Legend takes a design tip from the Apple MacBooks with unibody aluminum construction. You will also find an optical trackball, slight chin, and buttons that are physical ones even though they might appear to be capacitive touch sensitive ones. The Legend has a 3.2 inch AMOLED HVGA display and runs Google Android 2.1 with a 600 MHz processor. HTC also will be including their updated version of Sense UI that includes a new Friend stream and groups of widgets. Friend stream offers a single place for Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter streams.

HTC Desire

The HTC Desire is essentially a Google Nexus One with HTC Sense UI. It has the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.7 inch AMOLED display, Android 2.1, and all the rest of the Nexus One goodness. The latest version of Sense is included, along with some other improvements and widgets. For example, you can long press text in the web browser and look up words in a dictionary or Wikipedia, you can send paragraphs to Google Translate, and also use new email, weather, and Agenda view widgets. I personally find a lot of value in HTC Sense, but unfortunately all of us Google Nexus One owners won't get this Sense update since it is an HTC add on and the Nexus One is a Google-branded device.

HTC HD mini

I personally find the HTC HD2 to be a fantastic device that isn't really too big for my pockets. However, if you want a more compact device with the same experience and capability then you might want to consider the upcoming HD mini. This Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device is the size of the original HTC Touch and has a 3.2 inch HVGA display, 600 MHz processor, 5 megapixel camera, microSD card slot, and some interesting design features (visible physical screws and yellow colored interior battery compartment).

All devices should be rolling out in Europe and Asia in March or April of 2010 for undisclosed prices.

Google Android 2.1 Hero updates

In other news that does impact those of us in the US, HTC announced that Google Android 2.1 is coming to the various HTC Hero variants soon and this will include most of the new Sense elements, depending on carriers. The Sprint HTC Hero, Verizon DROID Eris, and GSM Hero will all be upgradeable to Android 2.1. I have an evaluation version of the GSM Hero and will try out this update so I can compare it with my Nexus One.