HTC Incredible S to ship on 26 February

Desire S and Flyer devices expected to follow soon after

Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that the first batch of pre-ordered HTC Incredible S smartphones will start shipping on 26 February, and will be available in stores on 3 March, as HTC steps up its production of Android handsets.

The 135g Incredible S has a 4in WVGA Super LCD touch screen, 1GHz processor and 1.1GB of internal memory, giving it similar specifications to the forthcoming Desire S.

The Incredible S features a contoured body that highlights the internal hardware components in a shrink wrap-like effect. Other features include an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and 720p HD video recording.

HTC is targeting the device at early smartphone adopters, but some people may delay their purchase as the handset ships with Android 2.2 and there is no set date for an Android 3.0 Gingerbread upgrade.

The Incredible S is available for pre-order at Carphone Warehouse, and comes free on two-year contracts starting at £30 per month including 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data. The handset is also available SIM-free for £499.95.

Other HTC devices expected to launch in the coming weeks include the Desire S smartphone and HTC Flyer tablet.

The Android 2.3 Gingerbread devices could prove popular in the enterprise sector, and the Flyer in particular boasts some useful business features.

Online retailer Expansys has set 18 April as a release date for the Desire S at a price of £389.99. The HTC Flyer, meanwhile, has been given a tentative release date of 5 May, with no pricing listed.

V3.co.uk contacted HTC to verify the release dates and prices, but the company was able to confirm only that the devices will ship in the second quarter.

Interestingly, none of the upcoming HTC device will incorporate near-field communications technology, which was introduced to smartphones with the Google Nexus S.

Other manufacturers including RIM, which announced at MWC last week that it is working on NFC-enabled BlackBerry devices, are keen to include the technology.