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HTC Desire 530 hands on
HTC might not have had a flagship level product to show off at MWC 2016, but that didn’t stop them from unveiling a trio of new Desire products this week. While hanging out with HTCwe had the opportunity to get our hands on the HTCDesire 530, a mid-range budget smartphone aimed at casual users and those who want a phone that “just works”.
What does the Desire 530 have to offer? Let’s take a quick look.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the Desire 530, and all its new Desire brethren, stick to the same signature design phone in previous Desire phones, complete with slightly rounded corners, sides, and a dual-speaker grill on the top and bottom. One design aspect that is different however is the presence of a bunch of paint speckles on the back, in what HTCis calling ‘microsplash’. The cool thing here is this isn’t a preset pattern, so each and every Desire model with this backing will look at least a little bit different. You can even customize things further with colorful lanyard loops and cases that have microsplash patterning as well.
As for what’s under the hood? You’ll see pretty typical entry-level specs here including a 5-inch 720p LCD display, a 1.1GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210, 1.5GB RAM, 16GB storage with microSD, an 8MP rear cam, 5MP front cam, and a non-removable 2200 mAh battery.
If you like the design of the Desire 530 but are looking for something with a bit more meat, the Desire 630 offers the same aesthetics but upgrades things a bit thanks to its 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with 2GB RAM. The phone also offers a better 13MP main cam, and its dual-speakers support hi-res audio.
Obviously neither of these phones are the most powerful in the world, but they are designed for people that aren’t overly concerned with specs, and just need a phone that handles the basics with ease, while bringing a unique style that reflects their own.
Both the Desire 530 and the Desire 630 run on Android 6.0 marshmallow with Sense UI on top, which offers a familiar experience for anyone who has used an HTCdevice in recent history. All the HTCfeatures you’d expect are here including a vertical scrolling app drawer, HTC’s Blink feed, and the overall typically clean experience Sense brings to the table.
That’s it for this quick hands on look! The Desire 530 is expected to arrive this March, though exact pricing or even launch markets have yet to be announced. Given the specs, we imagine this should be highly affordable and competitively priced with other devices in the budget-friendly space, though we’ll be sure to update you when we know more.