HTC hasn’t been short on new smartphone launches this year – the HTC Sensation most recently, the HTC EVO 3D last month, and then five new phones back at MWC 2011 – but Windows Phone has been conspicuous by its absence. According to a new, leaked promo caught by Pocketnow, however, HTC is readying a beastly photo-focused Windows Phone handset with a whopping 16-megapixel camera.
Video after the cut
Full specifications of the smartphone are unknown, beyond the high-resolution camera and a dual-LED flash. The smartphone pictured looks just like the Android-powered HTC Desire S only with Windows Phone buttons; that could be a placeholder, or it might be that HTC is looking to borrow the Desire S’ slick styling for its new device. Such a route has been seen before, with the Windows Mobile-based HTC HD mini being repurposed as the HTC Aria.
Of course, there’s more to a camera than the core sensor – it doesn’t matter how many pixels you can capture if you’re grabbing them through shonky optics or using a sub-par processing engine. HTC’s phones are generally average when it comes to imaging quality, and so, if this leak is authentic, we’re hoping the company is looking to the good examples set by Nokia on the N8, for instance, to make the most of all those megapixels.
Update: HTC tells us that, as usual, they “do not comment on rumor and speculation.”