HTC Butterfly expected to launch in January-end in India, for Rs. 44,000

The HTC Butterfly is expected to hit store shelves towards the end of January 2013, becoming the first smartphone to hit store shelves in India with a 1080p HD display.

HTC is planning to bring its first phablet to India. The device is expected to hit store shelves towards the end of January, for Rs. 44,000. In the US the device is called the HTC Droid DNA but in the rest of the world, it is called the HTC Butterfly or HTC Deluxe. The device has been available globally since December 2012.

In terms of its specifications under the hood, it has a 5-inch display with a full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) giving it a pixel density of 441ppi. A Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, Adreno 320GPU, and 2GB of RAM power the device. It has 16GB built-in storage expandable via a microSD card up to 32GB. The Butterfly boasts of an 8MP rear facing camera and a 2.1MP front facing camera. It also houses a 2020mAh battery. Out of the box, the Butterfly will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

At Rs. 44,000 the HTC Butterfly will be the most expensive Android smartphone available. Currently we have the Samsung Galaxy S III priced at Rs. 31,900 and the Samsung Galaxy Note II priced at Rs. 37,400. We have the iPhone 5, which is the most expensive (non-luxury) smartphone available in India starting at Rs. 45,500.

The launch of the Butterfly comes at the heels of the largest global smartphone event, MWC 2013, which will take place in February in Barcelona, Spain. We expect to see quite a few flagship smartphones at the event such as the Samsung Galaxy S IV, Samsung Galaxy Note III, LG Optimus G2 and more.