As expected and reported earlier this month, HTC has announced its first interesting phone in years as its mobile business limps on, the metaverse-focused Desire 22 Pro. It will start to ship on August 1st, and will be on sale for £399.
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So what does it mean to be metaverse-focused? Well, it’s designed to be the “perfect companion” to HTC’s recently announced Vive Flow VR headset and used to access Viverse, HTC’s take on the metaverse. While the headset works with any Android phone, there will likely be some features specific to the Desire 22 Pro that makes it the perfect companion to the headset.
There’s also some NFT functionality here, with HTC’s Taiwanese site advertising that the phone includes a digital wallet to manage crypto assets, and comes with a free NFT. This appears to vary by market, however, since similar language is not present in the marketing materials on its UK site.
Desire 22 pro is the phone to carry you into the future.
— HTC (@htc) June 28, 2022
Learn more: https://t.co/QOev17nRSQ#htc pic.twitter.com/Hrwrp5iNmw
However, most people will want to know how it compares as a regular phone. Internally it’s powered by a Snapdragon 695 processor, with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a 4,520mAh battery. It supports wireless and reverse wireless charging, runs Android 12, and has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. The Desire 22 Pro comes in either black or gold.
So the HTC Desire 22 Pro is firmly in the mid-range. It’s got a 6.6-inch 1080p display with a high 120Hz refresh rate, and a hole-punch notch in its top left containing a 32-megapixel selfie camera. Around back there are three rear cameras, a 64-megapixel main camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.
HTC’s smartphone fortunes have been languishing for years, an objectively sad state of affairs. They made some brilliant flagship smartphones back in the day, culminating in the HTC One M8.
