HTC, Verizon To Unveil HD Phablet

Windows Phone 8: Star Features

HTC's smartphone business may be gasping its way through the fourth quarter, but it has at least one more major product to help it along. The company, with partner Verizon Wireless, has scheduled a joint press conference to be held November 13 to reveal what is presumed to be a phablet device featuring a 5-inch display.

The HTC Droid DNA, as it will be called, is a U.S. version of the HTC J Butterfly, which was announced last month for Japan.

The defining feature of the DNA is a 5-inch 1080p HD display. The 1920 x 1080 pixel arrangement gives the DNA 2.07 million pixels at a density of 440 pixels per inch. The display uses Super LCD3 technology and will be protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 2. The screen easily outclasses every other smartphone available today, including category leaders such as the Samsung Galaxy Note II. The Note II's 5.5-inch display has 1280 x 720 pixels, giving it 0.92 million pixels and a pixel density of just 267 pixels per inch.

[ For a closer look at Samsung's Note II, see Samsung Galaxy Note II: Visual Tour. ]

The HTC Droid DNA is powered by Qualcomm's Krait chip. That means four cores of Snapdragon processors at 1.5 GHz each with 2 GB of RAM. With so many pixels to push, the Droid DNA needs this large and powerful engine under the hood.

Other specs for the Droid DNA include NFC, LTE 4G, and an 8-megapixel camera. It ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, HTC's Sense 4+ user interface, and a bold design, according to leaked images of the phablet.

Some might question the need for a 1080p HD smartphone display. Content such as 1080p HD video will be massive, necessitating a large amount of internal storage. It will be processor intensive, which is why the Droid DNA has a quad-core processor. It will consume massive amounts of energy, requiring a large battery. The screen itself will be expensive, but its presence also requires other, costlier components.

In other words, don't expect this phone to be cheap. Verizon will likely charge at least $299.99 -- if not more -- for this phone.

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