HTC Desire 500 launches, is an expensive mid-range smartphone

HTC has just pulled the veil off the HTC Desire 500 in Taiwan, targeting younger adults. A Taiwan Mobile exclusive from August 1, the device has us a little perplexed over its price point of around $400 (NT$11,900).

The smartphone has sank its teeth deep into the design cues of some of the latest HTC offerings. Namely, the HTC SV and HTC One S appear to have both contributed to the Desire 500's look. This time around, however, the metallic encasing is traded in for plastic.

Regardless, there's no denying – the phone actually looks good. Unfortunately its specs sheet relative to its price tag leave much to be desired. A thoroughly unimpressive 4.3-inch 800x480 resolution display is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 200 clocked at 1.2GHz. Aiding the CPU with the brain work is an Adreno 205 GPU and 1GB RAM. Only 4GB of internal memory is available, fortunately – a microSD slot is available. An 8MP BSI snapper is found on the back, with a 1.6MP BSI front-facing camera also in tow. The device is 9.9mm thick, weighs in at 123g and is powered by a 1800mAh battery.

The HTC Desire 500 will come Beats Audio-equipped, along with an unspecified version of Android Jelly Bean running under HTC's proprietary Sense 5 skin and will also feature BlinkFeed. No BoomSound speakers are to be found.

Whether HTC's latest offering will manage to carve a niche for itself remains to be seen. To be completely frank, however, we aren't holding our breaths – not at this price point. A pity, since HTC's financial troubles need some immediate attention, and moreover – a solution.