At the IFA 2014 trade show on Thursday, Sept. 4, HTC has officially unveiled its new Desire 820 smartphone, boasting impressive specifications for a mid-range offering.

The 5.5-inch HTC Desire 820 comes as the successor to the Desire 826 handset and will hit commercial availability by the end of this month. The new handset will also come in a dual-SIM variant, bound for a few select markets.

"The newest addition to the HTC Desire family has the velocity, visuals and volume you're looking for in a mid-range smartphone," HTC touts in a new blog post.

"Our new HTC Desire model gives entertainment lovers exactly what they are looking for; a powerful, fast, stylish smartphone that delivers their favourite content on a big screen at a competitive price," HTC CEO Peter Chou adds in the press release (PDF). "With the HTC Desire 820, we've combined the most advanced technology with the best possible entertainment experience and bold, distinctive design to deliver a handset that is both desirable and affordable."

The new HTC Desire 820 is the first smartphone to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) chipset under the hood, consisting of an octa-core CPU with eight Cortex-A53 cores - four cores clocked at 1.5GHz and four clocked at 1.0GHz. This is the second HTC phone to come with 64-bit architecture under the hood. The Desire 820 also packs Adreno 405 graphics, which is pretty good for a mid-range handset. Considering that the 64-bit specification is not really necessary now, the HTC Desire 820 will most likely get an update to Android L in the future to make the most of it.

Other specifications include a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and an 8-megapixel front shooter meant for high-quality selfies.

"The camera you desire: Setting a new standard for selfies, the HTC Desire 820 packs an 8MP front-facing camera to capture solo poses and group shots effortlessly," HTC further touts.

BoomSound speakers are also on board for a superior audio experience, as well as 4G LTE for faster connectivity. 

In other words, the new HTC Desire 820 may not have the top-notch specifications of a flagship smartphone, but it definitely holds its own considering that it launches in the mid-range segment of the market. The handset comes with good specs and impressive features and is expected to be available at an attractive price point.

Lastly, the HTC Desire 820 also comes in a range of available color options, such as Marble White, Tuxedo Grey, Santorini White, and Milky-way Grey. HTC has yet to provide exact pricing and availability details, but we'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more.