HTC's Desire 610 comes clad in glossy plastic, has LTE (hands

BARCELONA, Spain -- HTC's second handset of the day, not announced at Mobile World Congress but here nevertheless, isn't quite as powerful as the HTC Desire 816. It does have its own charm, however. Clad in bright, colorful glossy plastic, the Desire 610 is also the successor to last year's HTC 601.

Like the larger Desire 816, the 610 borrows much of the design aesthetic of the premium One range. Think of the Desire 610 as an HTC One but in plastic, and you'd be just about right -- a strategy you might equate to Apple's iPhone 5C.

(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET)

While it has a glossy rear back, the sides are matte for a better grip. That's fine, but the build quality doesn't seem as good as the Desire 816.

To be fair, that could be due to the fact that the handset I tried out was a prototype, and the final product may have a better finish (it may also account for the 610 not being on stage this afternoon).

(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET)

The Android 4.4 KitKat smartphone has a 4.7-inch, 960x540-pixel display, and that does mean you may find the fonts a little fuzzy.

(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET)

Powered by a quad-core processor, the handset will also deliver fast download speeds with LTE connectivity.

The HTC Desire 610 will make its debut globally sometime in Q2.