Aphone that was vital in bringing HTC back into the limelight last year was the HTC Desire 816 http://www.flipkart.com/htc-desire-820q-dual-sim/p/itme3m7xnxe8fj9d?pid=MOBEFQEAUXNYFYRC&affid=kunal25ku(Review | Pictures). This mid-range phone had a large screen, ran the latest version of Android, packed HTC's trademark BoomSound speakers, and boasted of a camera that could capture some stunning photographs in the right lighting conditions.

Six months after the launch of the Desire 816 http://www.flipkart.com/htc-desire-820q-dual-sim/p/itme3m7xnxe8fj9d?pid=MOBEFQEAUXNYFYRC&affid=kunal25ku, HTC announced its successor - the Desire 820. Apart from subtle aesthetic changes, it has upgraded internal specs such as a new future-proof 64-bit octa-core processor, slightly more RAM, more internal storage space and a better front camera. Let's dive right in and figure out if the Desire 820 will continue to capture the attention of buyers looking for a phone in the mid-range segment.

ook and feel
We noticed that the front of the HTC Desire 820http://www.flipkart.com/htc-desire-820q-dual-sim/p/itme3m7xnxe8fj9d?pid=MOBEFQEAUXNYFYRC&affid=kunal25ku looks quite similar to its predecessor, with dark borders around the screen and strips on the top and the bottom to accommodate the front-firing BoomSound speakers. What HTC has done differently this time around is use its industrial design expertise to give the Desire 820 an attractive two-tone body. Unfortunately, the glossy plastic looks and feels cheap. It attracts fingerprints and scratches very easily. We'd suggest using a case with this phone - preferably the Dot View one.

The Desire 820 http://www.flipkart.com/htc-desire-820q-dual-sim/p/itme3m7xnxe8fj9d?pid=MOBEFQEAUXNYFYRC&affid=kunal25ku reduces the thickness and weight of the Desire 816  by 0.2mm and 10g respectively. At the same time, it is 1.1mm taller. These are minor changes, although the lower weight is actually perceptible. It felt rather light in our hands.

We got the Santorini White variant of the phone for review, which has blue accents around the edges on the front. It also has a similar coat of blue paint around the edges of hardware the micro-USB port on the bottom, power button and volume rocker on the right, and the camera ring and LED flash on the rear. The plastic ring around the lens of the primary camera protrudes from the body to protect the lens. The 3.5mm jack sits on top of the phone. A flap on the left covers the two Nano-SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

The Taiwanese phone company has decided to stick with the same 720p 5.5-inch screen which was used on the Desire 816. We had expected HTC to bump up the resolution to 1080p, but HTC phones generally have great displays and the Desire 820 is no exception. It has good colour reproduction and brilliant viewing angles. However, we did feel that the brightness level of this screen was slightly on the lower side.