HTC. That’s a name we haven’t heard in years. The HTC Desire, if you’re old enough to remember the launch of Android, was once one of the most desirable smartphones on the market but in recent years the company has slipped from our radars.

When last we heard, HTC was making blockchain-specific smartphones like the Exodus 1 and spending its efforts on virtual reality gear. But now the company’s back with an all-new (and traditional) Android smartphone of a sort that we haven’t seen in literal years. This is the HTC Desire 21 Pro 5G.

An object of Desire?

The handset, despite the impressive-sounding name, isn’t aimed at the top-end of the market. The brand has been in hiding for some time and maybe isn’t quite ready to shoot for the top yet. Instead, this one’s set its sights on the upper-mid-range, with a Snapdragon 690, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage making for a respectable showing from HTC. As the name suggests, the phone will support 5G.

A 5,000mAh battery, which is more commonplace all over of late, is inside and it also supports 18W fast-charging. The display is a 6.7in IPS panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s not 120Hz but it’s also not plain ole 60Hz so… The camera at the back is also an increasingly-common combo — a 48MP main sensor, an 8MP secondary (ultrawide), and then dual 2MP lenses (for depth and macro respectively). Up front is a 16MP sensor.

The HTC Desire 21 5G is priced for launch in the company’s native Taiwan, where it’ll cost about R6,600. Pricing and availability elsewhere in the world hasn’t been detailed at yet.

Source: HTC via Android Police