Meet HTC's new Desire 12 and 12+ entry-level troopers: Great design, but modest specs

With dimensions of 148.5 x 70.8 x 8.2m and weighing just 137gr, this HTC Desire 12 is quite compact and comes along with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720 by 1440 pixels. It's powered by the MediaTek MT6739, a 64-bit quad-core offering that's paired with 3GB of RAM. The handset has 32GB of native storage and a microSD card slot. At the back, we find a 13MP f/2.2 camera with phase-detection autofocus and auto-HDR, whereas the selfie unit is a 5MP f/2.4 one. A 2,730mAh battery keeps the power up, while charging happens through an old-timey microUSB cable. A 3.5mm audio jack is also present.

Meanwhile, the larger and objectively more interesting Desire 12+ is mostly similar to the Desire 12, but with a few key differences. It comes along with a 6-inch IPS LCD display with the same 720x1440 resolution. A Snapdragon 450 chipset clicks alongside 3GB of RAM, while users still have less than 32GB of native storage at their fingertips. A 2,965mAh -powers up the phone, which should offer around a day of moderate usage thanks to the power-efficient Snapdragon chipset. The real intriguing selling point of the larger device, however, is its dual rear camera. The secondary 2MP depth-sensing camera aids the primary 13MP  f/2.2 unit and lets you snap portraits with an exaggerated shallow depth of field, or "bokeh" in layman's terms. At the front, we now have an 8MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture that should theoretically deliver better selfies in low-light conditions. 

The Desire 12+ arrives with Android Oreo out of the box, which means support for Project Treble, which on its own means that you can theoretically opt out of the stock Sense UI for a custom Android ROM, but doing that will negate all the software goodies HTC has thrown inside. Some of these include, but are not limited to the company's own smart Sense Companion and all the custom image processing algorithms for the cameras. In the meantime, the Desire 12 arrives with Android Nougat.

The HTC Desire 12 will be available in late April in Cool Black and Warm Silver colors. As far as pricing is concerned, the Desire 12+ will cost between €235 - €249 (~$288 - $305), whereas the Desire 12 will set you back €185 - €199 (~$226 - $244) depending on the market. No official word on the availability of the two devices yet. We've reached out to HTC and will update this post as soon as any particular details come to light.

source: HTC