HTC's next-gen Android flagship phone to debut Feb 2010

With or without a Qwerty array?

The head of HTC's Swedish operations has said the company will unveil the 'Hero 2' smartphone in February 2010 and ship the Android-based handset soon after.

The gen comes by way of IDG's Swedish-language newssite. According to the executive, one Patrik Andersson, the second-gen Hero will be announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC), a phone trade show that kicks off in Barcelona on 15 February.

Register Hardware will be there, of course.

Andersson didn't say anything about the device's name or about its specifications.

HTC is believed to be working on a handset codenamed 'Passion' - possibly that's its go-to-market name too - which combines Android 2.0 with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a 3.5in OLED display.

Passion may be 'Hero 2' or it may not be. Certainly, there's talk that one HTC Android smartphone due to debut at MWC will sport a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, a feature missing from Hero. ®

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