Affordable HTC Smart announced for the UK

Not content with rolling out three new phones yesterday, we’ve just piled out of another HTC press conference where it’s announced the HTC Smart, a budget smartphone in partnership with O2.

It’s already been announced for the States, but we now know it’ll be coming to the UK in April with a focus on providing smartphone functionality, without the cost and complexity that put some consumers off.

The phone will run on Qualcomm’s Brew mobile platform, the same platform as INQ’s phones run on, and will pack a 2.8-inch touchscreen, 3 megapixel camera, and 3G connectivity.

As for how it compares to other smartphones on the market, you can see what makes it affordable. The 300 MHz processor is pretty slow by today’s standards, and there’s no on board memory, although there is a microSD slot.

The lack of Wifi is a bit of a downer and a 3 megapixel camera isn’t exactly top of the range, although it does pip the iPhone by at least having a flash.

Of course though, this phone isn’t aimed at the technophiles, and for those who want to be able to get onto their social networks and browse the internet from their handset without paying through the nose for it, the Smart will no doubt appeal.

It also packs the HTC Sense UI like some of HTC’s higher end handsets, so you may well get the premium feel without the price or the big specs under the hood.

It’ll be available in a choice of white, black or pink and although there’s no tariff information available at the moment, we’ve been told it will come to market at more than half the price of today’s smartphone… whatever that is.

We’re going to go and have a play and we’ll be reporting back with hands on snaps shorty. In the meantime, let us know if you think these budget smartphones have a place on the market.