HTC S522/S721 HTC Snap ‘Inner Circle’ QWERTY Smartphone Unveiled at CTIA

In line with expectations, HTC have unveiled a new QWERTY smartphone at CTIA in the form of the seemingly BlackBerry inspired HTC Snap which runs the Windows Mobile 6.1 OS and which comes with HTC’s new ‘Inner Circle’ functionality that, according the HTC, ’should help prioritize the people who matter most to you’ by selectively organising emails according to specified levels of importance based on your ‘inner circle’ of primary contacts.

The HTC Snap, which measures in at 116.5 x 61.5 x 12.0mm and is powered by a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM 7225 processor, offers HSDPA connectivity and, in terms of specifications, comes with 256 RAM, 192 ROM, a 2.4″ QVGA screen, integrated 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi and broad multimedia support taking in AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, AWB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV and MIDI audio and WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V and AVI video file formats.

With a four row QWERTY keyboard supplemented by a trackball, the HTC Snap will purportedly be offered in two distinct versions for the Europe/Asia and North American markets – 900/2100 and 850/1900 HSDPA respectively – and is set to become available sometime as the S522 this quarter with a SIM free version of the Snap, to be known as the S721, to follow sometime this summer.

There’s no word from HTC at this juncture concerning pricing.