While normally one might expect high end phones to get the latest and greatest features first, this time we see a bit of a surprising reversal. The Desire 510 is HTC's first 64-bit phone, and the first announced device with Snapdragon 410. For those that aren't familiar with Snapdragon 410, it has four Cortex A53 CPU cores running at 1.2 GHz, along with an Adreno 306 GPU which suggests that it is a mild modification of the current Adreno 305 GPU that we see in the Snapdragon 400. Overall, this should make for a quite fast SoC compared to Snapdragon 400, as Anand has covered in the Snapdragon 410 launch announcement.

While it may seem strange that ARMv8 on Android phones is first to appear on a budget smartphone, it's quite easy to understand how this happened. Looking at Qualcomm's roadmap, the Snapdragon 810/MSM8994 is the first high-end SoC that will ship with ARMv8, and is built on a 20nm process. As 20nm from both Samsung and TSMC have just begun appearing in shipping chips, the process yield and production capacity isn't nearly as mature as 28nm LP, which is old news by now.

At any rate, outside of the SoC the Desire 510 is a relatively standard budget phone. As this phone ships with Android 4.4 it's likely that it is running in AArch32 mode only, with AArch64 coming with Android L. The display is a 4.7" size, with FWVGA resolution (854x480) which makes for a rather low 208 DPI. This will be the cheapest LTE phone in HTC's product line, and also has support for a Dot View case. I've included the rest of the specs below, but for the most part the key point of interest is the SoC.

  HTC Desire 510
SoC MSM8916 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 410
RAM/NAND 1 GB RAM, 8GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.7” FWVGA (854x480)
Network 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x25 UE Category 4 LTE)
Dimensions 139.9 x 69.8 x 9.99mm, 158 grams
Camera 5MP rear camera, .3MP/VGA FFC
Battery 2100 mAh (7.98 Whr)
OS Android 4.4 with Sense 6
Connectivity 802.11b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA
SIM Size MicroSIM

The only additional comment I have to make is that there is no 5 GHz WiFi. This is probably a WCN3620 part like the Moto G. While there's no word on pricing, HTC will have to price this near the price of the Moto G for it to be reasonably competitive. The Desire 510 should find its way to Europe, Asia, and the United States.

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  • hlovatt - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    This isn't the site for people with an axe to grind. If you don't personally want to buy an Apple device then don't buy one. If you have facts then state them and also give the downside of your favoured device. Please don't rant on AnandTech it is a sanctuary were people can have informed discussion, there are plenty of sites were uniformed comment are the norm. Let's keep AnandTech at the top.

    In the case of this HTC phone, it isn't going to win a performance or build quality war against an Apple phone. But it will probably be cheaper, therefore whether the phone is good or not will depend upon its price to performance and price to build ratios. Time wil tell when pricing and performance are known and when Andriod L is available on the phone.
  • Iconoclysm - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    Well that's funny, because Apple had 64-bit a year ago as well as a fingerprint sensor that is acceptable enough to actually include on a phone. And this year, you think nothing new is coming?
  • steven75 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    It is indeed extremely ironic this guy doesn't realize it took Android a full year to catch up with a 64-bit processor
  • GC2:CS - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    Beat in what ? This phone was announced in a rush and I don't see any info about when it will start selling, even then, if the iPhone 6 is "just" worlds third 64-bit phone I don't think Apple can be considered ashamed. I don't know how a quartet of low clocked off the shelf A53 cores can represent superior hardware compared to second generation of fully custom super-wide 64-bit ARM architecture.
  • darwinosx - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    We have been nearing that drivel for years and its no more true now than it ever was.
  • DesterWallaboo - Sunday, August 31, 2014 - link

    Ummm.... Apple iPhone 5s is 64-bit. This is Android playing catch-up.
  • hojnikb - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    Wow, another dissapointing phone from HTC. I bet this is gonna be 250€+
    On the other hand, we have chinse phones based on MTK chipset, which are probobly marginally slower but have far superior screens, bigger battery and display and no bloatware aka sense.
    And they cost half as much.
  • Alexey291 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    Well this IS supposed to be a mid-range phone you know?
  • hojnikb - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    Yeaah.But as i've said, there are other less known brands with far better phones that cost half as much.

    Those companies are really ripping us off. But no one really cares, since most people buy phonse on cotract and dont really see the real price.
  • LiviuTM - Wednesday, August 27, 2014 - link

    "While it may seem strange that ARMv8 on Android phones is first to appear on a non-Android smartphone" - must bu non-somethin else :)

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