The Zara name first popped up on our radars in early summer, when a report from Chinese media revealed that the Zara would be a plastic-built smartphone that would launch in the last quarter of the year alongside the flashier HTC One Max.
Noted trafficker of insider info @evleaks chimed in with a tweet on July 23, saying that the HTC Zara is “supposedly a mashup of the One and Desire families.” Now the same leakster is back at it with an alleged press shot of the HTC Zara, which appears to confirm his original assessment: the device does look like a hybrid between the One and a Desire phone.
HTC Zara: MSM8930 (2 x 1.2GHz), 4.5" qHD, 1GB/8GB (microSD), 8MP, 2100mAh, JB 4.3, Sense 5.5, Q4 pic.twitter.com/WswKeLJLYz
— @evleaks (@evleaks) August 20, 2013
HTC seems to have kept the dual front speakers of the One (and presumably the BoomSound system), and, overall, the front of the leaked device looks pretty much like a plastic HTC One. On the back, it’s a different story, with the camera styling taking design cues from the Desire family. Of course, there’s no aluminum in sight.
In terms of specifications, @evleaks confirmed that the Zara would be a mid-ranger featuring a dual-core Qualcomm 400 processor, a 4.5-inch qHD display, 1GB or RAM, 8GB of storage (expandable), an 8MP camera, and a 2100 mAh battery. Interestingly, the software is Android 4.3 with Sense 5.5 on top, which would be a new version of HTC’s flavor of Android.
We believe we’ll get to see the Zara this fall, probably under a different name, with an official debut possibly in September.
If you are wondering why the leaked press shot features the @urbanstrata watermark instead of @evleaks’ usual mark, it’s simply a case of trolling. @urbanstrata is the Twitter handle of Jeff Gordon, one of HTC’s top PR people, who’s having a sort of a feud with @evleaks (Evan Blass, former Engadget and PocketNow editor).
Gordon has called out as fake the latest One Max pics that Blass leaked, and the two have been exchanging retorts on Twitter for a while now.