Cricket today announced that it will offer the new HTC One SV smartphone starting Jan. 16 for $349.99.

The latest model in HTC’s growing One series sports a 4.3-inch touch screen, 4G LTE, a 5-megapixel camera, and studio-quality sound, all running on HTC Sense 4 on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The smartphone features a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with a dual-core, 1.2-GHz CPU, providing high-quality video streaming and gaming, plus seamless multitasking. A microSD card slot offers support for up to 32GB cards, and the device also comes with Dropbox integration, NFC technology, and Android Beam.

Advanced camera options, including one-press continuous shooing and HTC VideoPic, work alongside a low-light feature, which also works with the 1.6-megapixel, front-facing camera.

Additionally, the device comes loaded with Beats Audio, and is protected by scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass and a fingerprint-resistant display.

“We are excited to be the first U.S. carrier to make the HTC One SV available to customers,” Cricket senior vice president for devices Matt Stoiber said in a statement.

“The HTC One SV combines sleek contours and a vibrant color with superfast performance courtesy of the dual-core processor and 4G LTE technology,” Mike Woodward, president of HTC North America, said in a statement.

Customers can run the HTC One SV on the $50 4G LTE Android Double Data Rate Plan with up to 2GB of full-speed data, the $60 plan that allows for 5GB, or the $70 plan with up to 10GB of full-speed data. All-inclusive 3G rate plans are also available.

The release comes as HTC struggles to make waves in the smartphone market against Android powerhouse Samsung and iPhone maker Apple. In a recent interview(Opens in a new window) with the Wall Street Journal, HTC chief Peter Chou said that the worst has passed, and that 2013 “will not be too bad.”

Chou blamed lackluster marketing for HTC’s decline. He didn’t have too many details on how HTC was going to attack 2013, except to say that the company would respond more quickly to market changes. “The most important thing is to have unique products that appeal to consumers,” he told the Journal.

For more, see PCMag’s HTC Is On the Ropes.

Chloe Albanesius contributed to this story.

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