<div>The Taiwanese smartphone maker disappointed its fans in India when it announced that it won’t be bringing their new flagship, the One M9, to the country. Now HTC has not been doing well in the smartphone business, but promises to continue to deliver quality products, one of which is the Desire 826. </div><div> </div><div>The smartphone comes with a soft glossy (slippery) plastic back and a rubber lining surrounding the edges. The design is simple, attractive and it feels quite good for a mid-ranged device. It is however very large due to the 5.5-inch display and the large bezels, especially above and below the display. This is primarily to accommodate the BoomSound stereo speakers which are nicely hidden in slits on either sides of the display. The front facing camera sits right in the middle, just like the Desire Eye, but sadly comes with HTC’s UltraPixel (read 4MP) resolution and an f/2.0 lens which hasn’t been impressive. The two SIM card slots and the microSD card slot are hidden nicely under a rubber flap on the left edge keeping the overall finish of the smartphone in top notch. The power and volume keys are placed on the right edge, which are not the easiest to use as they difficult to reach due to sheer size of the device and are quite flushed with the body giving a very low amount of feedback. </div><div> </div><div>In the hardware department the Desire 826 features a Snapdragon 615 octa-core chip with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable memory which provides ample amount of power. The 5.5-inch display now has a 1080p resolution which is a nice bump from the 720p display on the Desire 820. The back features a 13MP camera with an LED flash which manages to click some good looking pictures although it isn’t the fastest in terms of focusing. To power the smartphone there is a 2600mAh battery which provides enough juice that lasts for a day if you are a light user. On heavy usage the smartphone goes on for half a day before you run looking for the charger. Running on the latest Android 5.0.2 update, it comes with HTC’s Sense 6 interface on top which is buttery smooth and runs without any hiccups. Just like Sony and Samsung, HTC too has implemented a themes section to personalize your smartphone, however one has to sign in to an HTC account. </div><div> </div><div>The biggest area where the Desire 826 disappoints is its price. In such a competitive market, pricing a device at Rs. 25,000 with the above mentioned specs is overkill. One can get cheaper alternatives like the Xiaomi Mi4/Mi 4i, Yu Yureka or the Huawei Honor 6 which offer a similar or even better hardware configuration. HTC has been relying on providing good looking handsets without considering the pricing, which is possibly the reason why the smartphone maker has not been churning good profits. </div>
 (1)_20241001214828_original_image_25.webp)
