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Carphone Warhouse appeared to have let the cat out of the bag after it put details of a mystery Qwerty phone called the HTC Desire Z — as well as the heavily leaked HTC Desire HD — on its Mobiles.co.uk website. That was until it admitted to our sister site ZDNet UK that it had culled the specs from online rumours.
Carphone’s online-only retail operation featured both Android phones on its ‘coming soon‘ page as well as lengthy descriptions of what they will be packing in terms of specifications. The listings have since been removed.
The HTC Desire Z is the major eyebrow-raiser for us — if it’s real, it’ll be the first HTC Android device for ages to carry a slide-out Qwerty keyboard. The site suggests it will run Android 2.1 at launch rather than the latest Android 2.2, which just sounds wrong, to be honest. The Z was previously spotted on Vodafone Germany’s systems by Slashgear.
The specs of the HTC Desire HD (formerly known as Ace) have already been leaked around the Web and accidently given away by Amazon, but are worth repeating here.
It will run with the Android 2.2 OS on a 4.3-inch touchscreen, carry a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and boast an 8-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capture. Both Desires will have the usual 3G, HSPDA, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth we expect of high-end phones these days.
The purported introduction of the HTC Desire Z is a surprising move, as HTC moved away from Qwerty keyboards on its Android phones after its first effort, the T-Mobile G1. HTC has a long history of building Windows Mobile phones, however, and these usually sported keyboards.
The HTC Desire Z will go up against the BlackBerry Torch, which also has a touchscreen, slide-out Qwerty keyboard combination. The Z may have the edge with its Android software — the Torch has had a lukewarm reception in the US.
HTC hasn’t confirmed either device officially, with an unveiling expected next month. Both will be available unlocked at launch, Mobile.co.uk says.
Has HTC flogged enough versions of the HTC Desire? Is the Qwerty keyboard a good move? Are you surprised that retail sites list products based on leaks and speculation? Bash away in the comments.
