Near the beginning of the month my colleague posted on new upcoming smartphone from the HTC camp known as the HTC Ville, an Android 4.0 packing high-end device that could set it up as a challenger to the first Android Ice Cream toting Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and we are treated today to the first image of the HTC Ville.

The image of the new ICS HTC Ville comes our way courtesy of the guys over at Pocket Now and is reportedly the slimmest handset from HTC yet coming is at that eight millimetres in thickness, and packing some impressive specs.

The specs according to the previous report are, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED touch screen, 1.5GHz dual core Snapdragon 4 series processor, metal construction, an 8 megapixel rear facing camera, 1080p video, HTC Sense 4.0, Beats Audio, HSPA+ and a 1650mAh battery, and of course Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

When it comes to that thickness, the HTC Ville beats both the Samsung Galaxy S2 that measures 8.49mm at its thinnest point, whilst the iPhone 4S comes in at 9.3mm.

The word is the HTC Ville will make an appearance during Mobile World Congress 2012 in February, and no doubt we’ll know more about the smartphone by then. The big question is though will the HTC Ville be a good enough alternative to tempt people away from the Galaxy Nexus?

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