HTC unveils yet another underwhelming mid-range phone you won't be able to buy
Can you remember when was the last time you got genuinely excited about a freshly announced or upcoming HTC smartphone? How about the last time you actually met someone who was (unironically) rocking a Desire or U-series device as a daily driver?
Unfortunately, while the Taiwanese company is (somehow) still alive and kicking, its latest handset is unlikely to remind anyone of the brand's glory days from around a decade ago. Although the HTC Desire 20+ is certainly not as disappointing as the Wildfire E2, everything from that unnecessarily convoluted name to its generic appearance and middle-of-the-road spec sheet seems explicitly designed to be instantly forgotten.
In case you're wondering, no, this mid-range model does not follow in the footsteps of a "regular" Desire 20 variant, arriving instead a few months on the heels of the Desire 20 Pro and more than a year after the Desire 19+.
Before you start comparing this thing with various low-cost Android phones available stateside, you should know HTC is only selling the Desire 20+ in its domestic market for the time being, with no plans for a Western release unveiled at the moment and official US sales feeling highly unlikely.
Priced at the rough equivalent of $295 in Taiwan, the 6.5-inch handset comes with a reasonably stylish design, although a slightly too prominent notch and a pretty massive chin (by late 2020 standards, at least) strongly contribute to an overall mediocre artistic impression. Probably the worst thing about HTC's latest attempt at a mobile industry comeback is the sub-par 1600 x 720 pixel resolution of the aforementioned 6.5-inch display, closely followed by the phone's excessive 203-gram weight and 9mm profile.
On the bright side, the main reason why this thing is so chunky is that it packs a hefty 5,000mAh battery. Combined with a frugal screen and an octa-core Snapdragon 720G processor, that juicer should be able to keep the lights on for a couple of days of work on a single charge while supporting decent 15W speeds.
Another good thing about the HTC Desire 20+ is that it retains the good old fashioned headphone jack, while the 48 + 5 + 2 + 5MP quad rear-facing camera system doesn't look half bad on paper either. Of course, we'd have to take it for a spin out in the real world to see what it can actually do, which is unlikely to ever happen.
But perhaps the more important question is whether or not any of you would be interested in picking up this device at around $300 with Android 10 pre-installed, as well as 6 gigs of memory and 128 gigs of internal storage space in tow. How about it, guys and gals? Do you think HTC stands a chance of ever returning into the Western spotlight with these types of mid-range efforts?
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