HTC Announces Desire 300, 601, Blue HTC One, and BoomBass Accessory
by Brian Klug on September 3, 2013 3:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- HTC One
- Desire 300
- Desire 601
- Blue HTC One
- BoomBass
Just ahead of IFA in Berlin, HTC is dropping news of two new phones and a speaker accessory. The two new phones are the Desire 601 and 301, which round out the midrange tiers of HTC's 2013 smartphone portfolio, and a "vivid blue" variant of the HTC One and One mini. Finally HTC is announcing a new accessory dubbed BoomBass which accompanies the HTC BoomSound experience with lows that the HTC One's dual front facing speakers can't quite produce.
Desire 601
The first is the Desire 601 which looks it takes industrial design cues from something of a cross between the HTC One S and One X. The 601 looks to include relatively modest specs, and includes a 4.5-inch qHD display, 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 (MSM8930) SoC, and 5 MP rear facing camera with aperture and focal length that mirror the One system from the previous year's lineup. The 601 also continues the use of stereo front-facing speakers.
Desire 300
The Desire 300 is a rung below the 601, with an older Snapdragon S4 SoC (maybe MSM8x27) at 1.0 GHz and 4.3 inch WVGA display. Camera moves down to 5 MP with F/2.8 aperture and 34mm equivalent (35mm equiv) focal length.
| HTC Desire 601 | HTC Desire 300 | |
| SoC | 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 (MSM8930) | 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 |
| Display | 4.5-inch qHD | 4.3 inch WVGA |
| RAM | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 512 MB |
| WiFi | 802.11b/g/n | 802.11b/g/n |
| Storage | 8 GB, microSD Expansion (up to 64 GB) | 4 GB, microSD Expansion (64GB) |
| I/O | 3.5mm headphone, microUSB | 3.5 mm headphone, microUSB |
| OS | Android with HTC Sense (4.2.2) | Android with HTC Sense (4.1.2) |
| Battery | 2100 mAh | 1650 mAh |
| Size / Mass |
134.5 x 66.7 x 9.88mm, 140g |
131.78 x 66.23 x 10.12mm, 120g |
| Camera | 5 MP rear facing, 1.4µm pixels, 1/4" size, F/2.0, 28mm | 5 MP rear facing, F/2.8, 34 mm |
| Price | ? October 2013 | ? October 2013 |
The HTC Desire 601 runs Android 4.2.2, the Desire 300 runs Android 4.1.2 probably because of the older SoC inside. I've made a table based on the specifications that HTC has made public for the two new devices. Availability is given as being in October 2013, with no specific word on pricing.
Next up is a bluetooth accessory for HTC phones, a discrete compact subwoofer with dedicated amplifier designed to accompany the BoomSound experience on smartphones, called BoomBass. There's no supplied photograph of the BoomBass, but hopefully it's small and compact. Supplying a discrete subwoofer and nothing more is a bit interesting, since HTC already has the Beats Pill accessory which works well. The BoomBass apparently is designed to fill the bass frequency response lacking from the BoomSound speakers on HTC's phones.
HTC is also announcing a "Vivid Blue" variant of the HTC One and One mini, which will arrive in some markets Q4 2013. That variant looks pretty striking, but there's no word on what that translates to for the USA operator landscape.
Source: HTC Desire 601, Desire 300
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ShieTar - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
Any way you could just give actual resolutions in the tables rather than these acronyms? I had to google qHD, because for a short moment there I thought it could actually mean Quad-HD. Seems to mean quarter-HD instead.I just don't think there is a single person in the world for whom qHD is a more relevant information than 960x540. Some people may know the acronyms by heart, but those people will surely not be confused by seeing the actual numbers. And everybody else is saved a trip to Wikipedia.
Brian Klug - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
qHD has been around for so long I didn't think anyone didn't know what it meant, but yes, 960x540 is indeed right, as in one Quarter HD. I usually always try to put the numbers beside the acronyms, just didn't this one time.-Brian
yannigr - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
Agree with you 100%. No reason to wright exams every time reading an article. There are so many devices and hardware out there that even many people who do follow technology, like me, can't remember everything. And really, WHY remember everything?sheh - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
Yeah. I was wondering about that, including a searh engine trip also for WVGA. As usual, I was thinking that all these resolution acronyms are silly and worthless. Why would anyone want to memorize 50 acronyms for saving a few characters. At least I know what VGA is (though I think it should actually mean 320x200 :)).Doh! - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
With Nexus 4 with much better hardware spec. and the recent lowered price, I think these new HTC phones have a tough battle ahead of them.piroroadkill - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
Ultra pointless low specs.Seriously, once you get to specs this bad, you honestly should just head to ebay and buy a chinese phone with a cheesy quad core cortex A5, several batteries, and so on, for less. You'll get a higher res screen and a more recent version of Android to boot..
yannigr - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
You are not going to find articles for cheap noname Chinese devices in Anandtech, so why bother reading the article and commenting?Anyway, I do agree that you can buy good and powerful Chinese phones at half the prices but their are people who feel better putting a known brand phone 2 centimeters from their brains than a no name one, no matter how better specs or/and lower price it have.
willis936 - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
Wow that blue One. Just. Wow.My opinion of a piece of hardware has never been shaped by aesthetics before but their marketing team can pat themselves on the back for this one.
ashayderov - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
Google did this before. (Whith Gmail Blue)marc1000 - Tuesday, September 3, 2013 - link
loved the blue One too. the black details match with the screen, and with this blue it looks like it came from some years in the future.but if it comes with Maps 7.x, not even this great looks will make me buy one.