Telus today surprised the North American market by releasing two of HTC's more desirable phones in Canada, ahead of any official US launch. The HTC Touch takes the popular GSM touchscreen phone from Europe and adapts it to CDMA networks. In Canadian form, the device is also set to run at 3G speed with EVDO and will run even faster with an impending EVDO Revision A software upgrade, Telus says. It shares the same 2-megapixel camera and Windows Mobile 6 Professional interface as the original Touch and should be available now for as little as $150 Canadian with a three-year plan or $500 without any contract.

The carrier today also unveiled its version of the HTC S640. A more conventional QWERTY design, the phone will also have support for EVDO Rev. A and a 2-megapixel camera but will add Wi-Fi to provide high-speed Internet access on a local network without using costly cellular bandwidth. It also launches today and fetches the same $150 price on a 3-year term, but uses its smaller screen to reduce the contract-free price to $450.