Amazon UK has announced the release date and price tag for the HTC Desire S smartphone, which was first introduced at the recently held Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

The online retailer will start shipping the much-anticipated SIM-free handset from 18th of April, with a price tag of L420.

The HTC Desire S runs Google’s Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread) operating system, and comes equipped with a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-megapixel HD camera and a 3.7-inch touch-screen that offers a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels.

For storage, the handset offers 768MB of RAM, 1GB of on-board memory.

Compared with the likes of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Desire S, the HTC Desire S smartphone is somewhat underwhelming.

UK mobile phone carriers are expected to offer the handset at affordable service plans. Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile have plans to offer the desire S sometime during the second quarter of current year.