HTC unveils Desire 816 GSM-only model

Smartphone maker HTC on Tuesday unveiled GSM-only model of its Desire 816 range at lower price point of ₹ 18,990 that will be available from mid-October.

The current model 816 E, which is a dual SIM 3G phone (CDMA+GSM), is now available for around ₹ 21,000.

'We are looking to diversify our portfolio across various price points. Desire 816 E is a world phone and 816 G launched now is a 3G phone that supports GSM SIMs only,' HTC Chief Financial Officer and President of Global Sales Chiang-Lin Chang said.

The company also unveiled its 4G dual SIM smartphones with latest 8-core processor, Desire 820 and another version with quad-core processor 820 Q which it will start selling after a month in the country but did not disclose price.

'Prices of Desire 820 will be unveiled around mid-October as per local market assessment,' Chiang said.

HTC sells medium priced phone in its Desire range.

The 5.5 inch screen size 816 G too has quad core processor. It comes with 13 megapixel primary camera and 5 mp front camera.

At ₹ 18,990 price, dual nano SIM enabled 816 G will compete with the likes of Samsung Galaxy Grand, Nokia Lumia 1320, Sony Xperia T2 and even to HTC's own 816 E.

The phone has 8GB internal storage and supports up to 32 GB external storage.

The 4G models unveiled by HTC too have 13 MP main camera but their front camera is 8 MP. These phones promise to support download speed of up to 150 megabit per second.

This means a video equivalent to full size normal Bollywood movie can be downloaded in about half a minute.

Desire 820 have internal storage capacity of 16 GB and support external storage of up to 128 GB.

Chiang said that HTC will launch more 4G phones across various price points once the network are launched in India.

'Desire 820 smartphones support both the variant of LTE (4G) which is fit for Indian market,' Chiang said.

In India, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Augere, Aircel and Tikona Digital have spectrum that can be used for deploying TDD-LTE - a variant of 4G technology.

Recently telecom companies in India acquired spectrum in 1800 Mhz band, widely known as 2G spectrum, in which ecosystem for another 4G technology, FDD-LTE, has been developed.

Desire 820 handsets support both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE.