X

HTC Ville leak video shows off Android 4.0, skinny frame

The HTC Ville smart phone has leaked in a video posted online, that shows off Ice Cream Sandwich and a new version of HTC Sense.

Luke Westaway Senior editor
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Luke Westaway
2 min read

The rumoured HTC Ville has leaked in a video posted online, that shows the slim smart phone sporting Ice Cream Sandwich and a new version of HTC Sense, our sister site CNET.com reports.

We've embedded the comprehensive (and blurry) video below, which shows off pretty much everything there is to know about the as-yet-unconfirmed mobile.

Expect to see a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel camera around the back and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor thrumming quietly away inside. Along the bottom of the screen you'll find three touch-sensitive buttons.

More excitingly, when the Ville is held on its side you can see it's looking rather thin -- good news when most HTC phones are bulkier and heavier than their competitors.

From the looks of the video, the Ville will arrive running Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google's robot-powered operating system. It's also sporting a new version of HTC Sense, which is the pretty, spinning interface the company bedecks its phones with.

While most manufacturers' Android skins look as though they've been lathered on by a drunk plasterer, HTC's Sense has impressed us in the past and made budget blowers such as the HTC Explorer much easier to use than their Android competitors. A refreshed version could give us reason to prefer the Ville to the horde of other mobiles about to pour down upon us like painful plastic rain.

We also spotted the Beats sound enhancer in the phone's settings menu, so it's possible that the Ville will come with a set of Beats headphones in the box, like the HTC Sensation XE and XL.

We'll likely see the Ville -- probably with a more dramatic name, like the HTC Dynamism, or the HTC Machismo -- get a proper airing at Mobile World Congress, a massive mobile trade show that kicks off at the end of February. We're also anticipating getting a look at the HTC Edge, which will supposedly have a 4.7-inch 720p display and a quad-core CPU, and the smaller HTC Primo.

HTC makes a lot of mobiles that end up being consigned to the US, leaving shoppers in the UK wondering whether it was something we said. Fingers crossed HTC sees fit to plop both the Ville and Edge into Brit shops this year.

Does the Ville appeal to you? Or do you think Samsung makes better blowers? Or perhaps your heart belongs to the iPhone? Whatever your allegiance, tell us in the comments or on our Facebook wall.