Unveiled overnight at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona, Spain, the HTC Desire S is best described as an evolution of the original HTC Desire. The Desire S features the same 3.7in, capacitive touchscreen, 1GHz Qualcomm processor, and 5-megapixel camera as its predecessor, with a minor RAM increase -- 768MB up from 576MB -- the biggest change under the hood. The Desire S also gets a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

Unlike its predecessor, the HTC Desire S's body is constructed from a single piece of aluminium, which HTC calls a "unibody" design. The HTC Desire S will run the 2.4 Gingerbread version of [[artnid:369312|Google's Android operating system.

"The original HTC Desire was a huge hit with our customers and helped to establish the popularity of Android smartphones in Australia," said Warwick Bray, executive director, Telstra Mobile Products. "The HTC Desire S builds on the qualities that made the original so popular. It features the latest Android Gingerbread operating system as well as a powerful processor that makes for fast, responsive multitasking."

Telstra says that pricing and availability for the HTC Desire S will be announced closer to the launch date, which is expected to be any time between now and June. A Telstra spokesperson said the exclusive deal for the Desire S will run three months from the launch, but that there is an option to extend the deal.