The HTC Wildfire is set to launch in Australia this week, and as expected, it’s the ultimate in budget Android phones.

It will be made available on August 24, exclusively on the Telstra network - pre-paid customers can purchase the Wildfire for $349 outright or post-paid customers can get it for $0 upfront on the $49 cap plan over 24 months.

However, naturally the lower price point will be reflected in features and performance, so don’t expect the Wildfire to be a top-notch Android phone. For starters, the screen is smaller than its predecessors, measuring in at 3.2-inches with a 240×320 QVGA display. If you have bigger fingers, this could offer some usability issues. It uses the manufacturer’s proprietary Sense user interface.

It features a 528MHz processor, which isn’t terrible, but should mean performance will be slightly slower than HTC’s other Android phones. It comes with 384MB of RAM plus a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus, which is similar to the HTC Desire, as well as similar connectivity and media features.

Buy a cheap HTC phone on sale in Australia

By Caroline Warnes