HTC Titan and Radar go on sale

HTC’s new handsets with the Mango flavour of Windows Phone 7, the Titan and Radar, have gone on sale early at Phones 4u. The phones weren’t officially due until the middle of the month.

So the Inquirer reports, as a spokesperson from Phones 4u told them: “We managed to get stock a little early so the HTC Titan and Radar actually became available in stores on Saturday. It’s available online as of today too.”

The HTC Titan is the high-end Windows Phone 7.5 device, with a 4.7 inch 800×480 display, 1.5GHz processor, 8 megapixel camera and 16GB memory (where a lot of WP7 phones have been offering half that).

Phones 4u is offering the Titan for free on a £31 per month deal with both Vodafone and Orange, the former coming with 900 minutes, 3000 texts and 500MB of data, the latter 600 minutes, 3000 texts and 250MB of data.

The Radar is the more thrifty alternative, with a 3.8 inch display and a 1GHz processor, plus twin cameras (the main being 5 megapixel) and the standard 8GB of memory.

That’s available for free from £23.50 on Orange complete with 400 minutes, 3000 texts and 250MB of data.

The Mango update to Windows Phone 7.5 comes with 500 new features, including custom ringtones, a central inbox to link up multiple email accounts, grouping for contacts, deeper social network integration, voice commands and many more.

HTC has also recently announced that its Windows Phone 7 handsets are an important part of the company’s smartphone strategy moving forward – and that 30% of its sales have come from WP7 devices.

That’s the first piece of positive feedback we’ve heard regarding WP7 sales, and it seems a little unlikely given the current smartphone market share Microsoft’s OS holds according to analysts (1.7% according to ComTech in September).

It’s true that Mango does represent a significant step forward, though, and with WP7.5 phones also coming from Samsung and Nokia, MS should soon be moving upwards in the smartphone world.