HTC announced a budget-minded Android 2.1 phone for European and Asian markets. Available in the third quarter, the HTC Wildfire will offer a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen, a five-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD card slot, and a new app-sharing feature, says the company.

In its formal announcement, HTC had few hardware details except for the above, although it did offer more information on some novel software features (see farther below). MobileBurn, among other sites, supplied some additional specs apparently sourced from HTC.

Like the HTC Hero, the Wildfire is equipped with a Qualcomm MSM7225 processor clocked at 528MHz, and offers 512MB RAM, 384MB internal flash, and a microSD slot that can hold up to 32GB, MobileBurn says.

HTC Wildfire
(Click to enlarge)

The 3.2-inch display is said to be limited to 320 x 240 resolution, but offers AMOLED technology, says MobileBurn. The keyboard-free phone is said to measure 4.2 x 2.3 x 0.5 inches (106.5 x 60.4 x 11.99mm).

The HTC Wildfire offers GSM and UMTS cellular telephony, with HSDPA data communications support, says MobileBurn. Other features are said to include 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, aGPS, and the aforementioned five-megapixel camera. The 1300mAh battery is said to support up to 7.3 hours of talk time and 20 days standby.

Loaded with Android 2.1, the Wildfire offers the latest version of HTC's Sense UI layer, complete with Friend Stream, says HTC. The latter, which debuted with the HTC Desire and HTC Legend Android phones in February, aggregate social communications, including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, into one "organized flow of updates."

One new software feature is an app sharing widget that enables users to recommend an Android application by email, text message, or over social networks, says HTC. Wildfire users can send a friend or group of friends a link enabling them to find the application on the Android Market. With a single click they can view the app and download it to their phone, says the company.

Stated Florian Seiche, VP, HTC EMEA, "HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it's through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends."

Availability

The HTC Wildfire will be broadly available in major European and Asian markets starting in the third quarter. Pricing or carrier information was not detailed. More information may be found at HTC, here.

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