Desire 626 and 626S

HTC’s Desire 626 and 626S are solid mid-rage phones with a few key differences, based on which carrier is supporting which model. The higher-end Desire 626 will arrive at Verizon and AT&T, while the lower-end 626S will hit T-Mobile, Sprint, and others.

Both versions of the Desire 626 sport a 5.0-inch, HD screen with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. Even though the screens aren’t incredibly high-resolution, they look bright and sharp for 720p. Only real sticklers will note the difference, and these are budget phones, so 720p is decent. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 quad-core processor powers the 626 along with 1.5GB of RAM — or 1GB of RAM, if you’ve got the 626S.

The Desire 626 and 6262S run Android 5.1 Lollipop with HTC’s Sense UI on top. Either 8GB (626S) or 16GB (626) of storage is built into the phone, and is expandable via a MicroSD card slot, which is great news for those who like to take pictures. As far as connectivity goes, the Desire 626 and 626S have Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz), and NFC. The 2,000mAh battery should keep the phone running for a very long time — especially with the 720p screen, which isn’t very power hungry at all.

The only other area in which the Desire 626 and 626S show their differences is with the camera. Both sport an 8-megapixel back camera with auto-focus and 720p video recording, but the Desire 626 has a 5-megapixel camera on the front, while the 626S has a 2-megapixel shooter instead.

Depending on the carrier the Desire 626 will arrive in several color combinations, including Marshmallow White, Gray Lava, Blue Lagoon, Marine White, and White. You can see all the color combinations in the picture above.

The Desire 626 will go on sale at AT&T on August 21 for $0 down if you buy it on AT&T Next, or it’ll cost you $1, if you spring for a two-year contract. On Next 24, customers will pay $6.17 per month, with Next 18, they’ll pay $7.71 a month, and with Next 12, they’ll pay $9.25 a month.

T-Mobile started selling the Desire 626S on July 22 for $170 full price, or for $0 down and $7.09 a month for 23 months with one final payment of $6.92. It’ll cost just $80 at MetroPCS, thanks to a rebate offer — you can sign up for information on the carrier’s site. On July 19, Sprint started selling the Desire 626S for $130 on its prepaid plans in the Marshmallow white color option. It’s not on Sprint’s site yet, but you can see more on HTC’s page.