The Desire 601 was first revealed by evleaks in July 2013 under the codename "Zara", describing its design as being a mixture of the HTC One and recent Desire-branded devices, and indicating that it might be released on Sprint in the United States. The device was officially unveiled as the Desire 601 on 3 September 2013, with a release in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in October 2013. In the United Kingdom, it was exclusively released by Vodafone. On 18 November 2013, Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile USA announced it would release the Desire 601 under the name HTC Desire. On 27 November 2013, a Dual-SIM version of the HTC Desire 601 was released in Taiwan.
Specifications
The overall design of the HTC Desire 601 echoes that of the HTC One, with a soft polycarbonate shell, front-facing stereo speakers, and a pair of navigation keys. A removable rear cover exposes a removable, 2100 mAh battery, and a microSD slot. The device uses a 1.4 GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 system-on-chip with 1 GB of RAM, a 4.5 inch qHD Super LCD 2 display, and 8 GB of internal storage. The device also supports LTE networks where available. The Desire 601 also includes a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera which supports 1080pvideo recording. The Desire 601 ships with Android 4.2.2 and HTC Sense 5, offering the BlinkFeed, Zoe, and Highlights features from the HTC One.
Reception
The Desire 601 was released to mixed reviews. Its build quality was considered to be in line with other HTC devices with "soft touch" polycarbonate exteriors, while its processor was considered to be fast for its class. The Desire 601's camera was considered to be well below average in comparison to the UltraPixel camera of the One and One Mini, while its speakers were panned for not being as powerful as their counterparts on the One. CNET was similarly conservative, noting that the 601's screen, despite being good enough for everyday use, was not high definition like its Motorola-produced competitor, the Moto G, and that the device's performance was sufficient for "casual bird-flinging gamers." Hardware Zone noted that while it could not be compared to the higher quality metal construction of the One, the Desire 601 was praised for having a "comfortable" feel and a compact form that was sufficient for one-handed use, and its "powerful" camera hardware. Overall, however, the Desire 601 was panned for having a low resolution screen, underperforming on benchmarks in comparison to other phones in its class, and for not being released soon enough to sufficiently compete. In conclusion, however, it was felt that the Desire 601 "will not disappoint anyone who is looking for an affordable 4G LTE Android smartphone."
