HTC’s presence in the Indian mobile décor has always been fairly low-key, but the Taiwanese are hoping the Desire 501, 601 and 700 can turn things around.

The mid-range trio has recently hit the ground running in HTC’s homeland, with India probably seen as a second stepping stone in the Desires’ quest for world fame. However, the three lack a certain pizzazz and may well be viewed as overpriced in a market where quad-core devices go for as little as $120 and powerhouse phablets cost roughly 300 bucks.

Starting from top to bottom, you got your Desire 700 Dual SIM, a 5-incher priced at a whopping $540 (Rs. 33,050). Granted, the design is a winner, as the big guy takes a number of cues from the HTC One, but asking north of $500 for a 960 x 540 pix res screened fellow is downright ludicrous.

Powered by a quad-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 CPU, the Desire 700 runs an unspecified version of Android (probably 4.2 Jelly Bean) with Sense UI and BlinkFeed on top. That’s quite nifty, as is the 8 MP rear-facing camera. And the 1 GB RAM is fairly solid too. But the 2,100 mAh battery and 8 GB built-in storage? Forget about it.

Moving on, the Desire 601 Dual starts at $395 (Rs. 24,190), which sounds like a price tag that would have better fitted the 700. Also based on an unknown Android version, the 4.5-inch 601 rocks a dual-core Snapdragon 400 chip, 5 MP main snapper, 1 GB RAM and 8 GB storage while actually looking surprisingly good in the autonomy department, thanks to a 2,100 mAh ticker.

Finally, the least impressive member of the family, the Desire 501 Dual, costs $275 (Rs. 16,890) with a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 pix res panel, dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 MP camera, out-the-box Android 4.1 and… 2,100 mAh battery?!?

Baffling spec sheet, to say the least, though not entirely in a bad way. Too bad about the sub-par screen, or else this would have been by far the best gizmo in terms of bang for buck.