Ever since TENAA, which is the Chinese equivalent to the FCC in the U.S., certified the HTC Desire 728 and the Asus ZenFone Selfie in July 2015, rumors began to swirl on the possible launch dates of the new handsets. All eyes are now on the HTC Desire 728 since the Asus ZenFone Selfie had already been released last month.

Now, a recent report states that the wait is finally over as the handset has made its debut in China, revealing much of its intriguing specs.

According to HTC's Chinese website via GSM Arena, potential buyers can choose between two color combinations of the dual-SIM phablet. The HTC Desire 728 is available in white and gold as well as black and gray.

The phablet comes with a polycarbonate shell, a 5.5" 720p IPS LCD, a 1.3GHz MediaTek 728 octa-core 64-bit processor supported by the Mali-T720 GPU and 2GB of RAM with 16GB of expandable memory. It is fitted with a 13-megapixel rear camera, five-megapixel selfie shooter while having BoomSound stereo speakers and a modest 2,800 mAh battery.

Other features of the HTC Desire 728 include a Category 4 LTE connectivity and micro-SD support. The phablet will run on the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop right of the box and measures 7.9-millimeter thick while weighing 150 grams.

To say HTC has a winner in the Desire 728 is still left to be seen. The Taiwan-based mobile manufacturers are currently at the short end of global smartphone hierarchy. The big-name players like Apple and Samsung are leading the ferocious pack of competitive mobile makers. Even though these two enjoy unrivaled success with their higher-ended offerings, they are still branching out on the mid-level market, which makes devices like the HTC Desire 728 a small fish in a big pond of mid-tier handsets.

However, it might just have an edge over the rest of the competition, claims an Android-savvy website.

"Part of what makes a great mid-range device is if the smartphone or tablet in question still includes the more desirable features of the flagship model, but loses some of the features you are less interested in," Android Headlines explained.

"HTC have built the Desire from a polycarbonate shell rather than the metal of the flagship One devices. There's a large phablet-sized screen on the front but it's 720p resolution, rather than 1080p FHD or 1440p QHD resolution. You still get HTC's BoomSound, which means the device has great audio quality for watching media or playing games. Under the skin, there's a moderately powerful processor and around the back, a respectable camera."

The HTC Desire 728 retails for $269.