The appeal for a larger screen device has grown among consumers over the last couple of years, and more recently manufacturers have been providing cheaper options. Today we have news that the HTC Desire 816 gets an official US release.

It was back in May that the possibility of a HTC Desire 816 release in the US first emerged via a FCC visit by a Sprint variant, and now the device has been officially launched for the Virgin Mobile network with availability starting today.

The handset will cost you a cool $299 with the networks no-contract price plans, and for your money you get a smartphone that features a 5.5-inch 720p touchscreen display that is powered by the quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chip set clocked at 1.6Ghz.

This is coupled with 1.5GB of RAM with 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded by up to 128GB via microSD card. Camera wise we have a 13-megapixel camera on the back with a 5-megapixle unit around the front.

Hopefully more carriers will offer the device to their customers in the coming few weeks.

Will you be considering the HTC Desire 816?

Source: GSMArena.