Telstra teams up with HTC for “Signature Premium” smartphone

Telstra has teamed up with HTC to offer an exclusive mid-to-high end smartphone dubbed the "Signature Premium". Priced at AUD$648 outright (or available on AUD$70 per month contract with no monthly handset repayments), Telstra is positioning the Signature Premium as an affordable entry-point into the world of flagship smartphones.

"For more than a decade, we've offered Telstra mobiles designed for specific types of customers," wrote Director of Device Management Andrew Volard on the company's official blog, "From phones for tradies to basic phones for people who are just into talk and text, through to phones for our older customers. With the launch of the Telstra Signature Premium we’re introducing a mobile that caters to a broad smartphone generation looking for high-quality product design at an affordable price."

The device itself appears to be a rebranded HTC One A9, a midrange smartphone with a seemingly iPhone inspired design. HTC revealed the handset in October last year, but the One A9 never made it to Australia.

While the Signature Premium isn't the priciest phone on Telstra's books, its 4GX capable (allowing download speeds of up to 100Mbps) and will support both Voice over Wi-Fi and Voice over LTE calling.

Other internals include a 5-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 617 eight-core processor, a 2150mAh Quick Charge 2.0 enabled battery, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, a front-facing fingerprint scanner, and a 13MP rear-facing camera. The Telstra Signature Premium runs Android Marshmallow.

The Telstra Signature Premium is available from today. On Telstra’s AUD$70 plan, customers get 2.5GB of data, AUD$1000 of talk, and unlimited text. An AUD$95 plan takes this to 6GB of data and unlimited talk. Neither plan attracts any monthly handset repayments.