HTC Radar

Available now
2nd September 2011

One of a pair of Windows Phone 7.5 devices announced by HTC, the HTC Radar and the TITAN are the first new Windows handsets from HTC for nearly a year.

The Radar is a mid-market smartphone competing against the likes of one of HTC's other phones, the Desire S.

There's a 3.8" 480 x 800 pixel touchscreen display, a 1 GHz processor with 512MB of RAM, up to 8GB of internal non-expandable flash storage, a 5 megapixel rear camera with a VGA front camera, 3.5G support, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS plus DLNA.

Windows Phone 7.5 is quite different from Android or the iPhone, but it's a good operating system in its own right and it has established a small but growing library of applications and supporters. It will do just about everything that every other smartphone will do, especially the basics such as web browsing and making phone calls.

It's a nice looking phone, managing to avoid the black slabbiness of many others. Combined with the radically different user interface, the HTC Radar has plenty of wow factor in a time when smartphones all appear to be the same.

Physically, the HTC Radar measures 121 x 62 x 11mm and weighs 137 grams. The 1520mAh battery provides up to 7 hours talktime and 14 days standby time. The Radar is housed in a stylish aluminium unibody shell that we have seen on several other HTC devices.

HTC say that the Radar should be available from October onwards. No guidance was given on price, but the HTC Desire S is currently retailing for around €400 and we would expect the Radar to be about the same.