The HTC Legend, said to be the upgrade of the much-loved Hero, could be with us in a matter of weeks judging by new images that have popped up online. Read on for more juicy details…

The HTC Legend first appeared in the much talked about 2010 HTC product roadmap leaked towards the end of last year. At the time, we commented that its “11.4mm thich aluminium unibody, 3.2in OLED screen and clickable optical pad make this a seriously good-looking device. There’s more than a little Hero-esque styling going on here”.

Since then, it’s been accepted that the HTC Legend will in fact be a direct replacement for the Hero. And given the very-much-finished look of the phone in the latest spy pics, along with the original roadmap’s suggested March release date, suggests the Legend could be with us very soon, maybe even at next week’s Mobile World Congress.

The picture shows a handset clearly running HTC’s Sense UI, and the Taiwanese giant appears to be following BlackBerry’s lead in ditching the round trackball for an optical trackpad.

As for the rest, past leaks suggest a 3.2in OLED touchscreen – which looks about right given the latest pics – and a 600MHz processor designed for agility rather than the raw power of the ubiquitous 1GHz Snapdragon.

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