HTC Smart

Discontinued
7th January 2010

Until now, HTC have made only quite high-end Windows Mobile and Android smartphones.. but that has all changed with the introduction of the HTC Smart.

The operating environment on the HTC Smart is called "HTC Sense", and it is built on top of the new Qualcomm BREW MP operating system. BREW is more common in US devices than European ones, but has featured on INQ handsets like the INQ1. 

HTC's endorsement is certainly a significant one for Qualcomm, and although HTC don't have the market clout of others, it is nonetheless pretty important.

The point of this is to make the HTC Smart a much cheaper device that can target a larger market than HTC have done in the past. Competing perhaps against upcoming phones powered by Samsung Bada and the latest more mass-market orientated Symbian devices, the Smart certainly has some tough competition.

It's a pretty straightforward device - the HTC Smart has a 2.8" 240 x 320 pixel touchscreen display, 3.5G support, a 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera with flash, Bluetooth and microSD expandable memory. There's also a multimedia player that can cope with AAC, MP3 and WMA audio plus a 3.5mm audio socket.

Inside, this is a quad-band GSM phone with support for 2100 MHz HSDPA in Europe and Asia with a possible version for the US, giving maximum download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps. The 1100 mAh battery powers the HTC Smart for up to 6 hours talktime and an impressive 25 days standby time on 3G. The internal processor is not specified, but it runs at 300 MHz and is most likely some sort of Qualcomm-based ARM unit. The whole package weighs just 108 grams and measures 104 x 55 x 12.8mm.

There's no guidance at all on pricing, but our guess is that the HTC Smart will retail for less than €200 SIM-free when it hits the market sometime this spring.

This could well be the start of a significant new chapter in HTC's history. If they can make their HTC Sense platform a success, then it could enable them to sell enough handsets to be considered a truly major force in the global mobile market, we will see..