Overland Park, Kan. – HTC’s Desire 510 smartphone, promoted as the company’s most affordable LTE phone to date, is gaining U.S. distribution.
Sprint launched the device last Friday with postpaid plans, and now Sprint prepaid brands Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile plan to offer the phone, which they will price at $99 without contract.
The phone is available in white at Boost Mobile branded stores operated by independent retailers, select independent wireless dealers, and at Boostmobile.com with free shipping.
Virgin Mobile customers will be able to order a blue Desire 510 on Virgin’s online store “soon,” a spokesperson said.
The new model features Sprint Spark tri-band LTE technology to accelerate data speeds. It also features 4.7-inch FWVGA touchscreen, Android 4.4 with HTC Sense UI, Qualcomm’s quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB RAM, HTC’s BlinkFeed content-aggregation service, 8GB of on-board memory, 128GB microSD card slot, 5-megapixel rear-facing and 1.3-megapixel front-facing cameras, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, HTC Connect, micro-USB 2.0 port, and 2100mAh removable battery.
The phone is also equipped with Sprint’s HD Voice for clear call quality with reduced background noise when calls are made between Sprint HD Voice-enabled phones operating in areas where the Sprint network has been upgraded with HD Voice.
The phone can be used with HTC’s Dot View case, which attaches magnetically to the phone and covers the screen with a rubberized flap with multiple perforations. When the phone senses the cover is attached, the phone’s screen reverts to displaying time, weather, and caller ID information viewable through the cover perforations. Users can swipe up or down on the cover to take or reject a call.
The phone can be used with Boost plans at $35, $45 or $55, all offering unlimited talk and text and 1GB, 5GB, and 10GB of high-speed 3G/4G data, respectively.
Virgin Mobile USA’s Beyond Talk plans at $35, $45 and $55 all offer unlimited messaging and unlimited 3G/4G data, but voice-minute buckers are 300, 1200, and unlimited, respectively. Though data is unlimited, only 2.5GB/month is high-speed data.
With Sprint postpaid plans and contract, the phone is priced at $0 down (plus tax) and 24 monthly payments of $9 for a total of $216.
