Sprint and AT&T to begin selling the HTC One on April 19 from $199.99, with pre-orders opening this week

The HTC One will be available on Sprint and AT&T from April 19, both as a 32GB model for $199.99 and a 64GB variant for $299.99.

Consumers who choose the high-end smartphone will be tied to a two-year contract, although AT&T is also offering a free HTC Media Link HD wireless HDMI adaptor with pre-orders starting on April 4. Sprint, however, will be opening its pre-orders the following day.

AT&T and Sprint will be the only wireless carriers in the United States to stock the HTC One on this date, although T-Mobile also confirmed that it would be offering the device as part of its new contract-free Simple Choice plans last week.

What’s most important here is that the HTC One will be getting the jump on the Samsung Galaxy S4, arguably its biggest rival in the Android space. AT&T is accepting pre-orders for Samsung’s new high-end Android smartphone from April 16, which should give HTC a signficant, albeit marginal head start in the United States.

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The HTC One is the company’s new top-tier device, and offers some insanely high hardware specifications to entice users. Qualcomm’s 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, coupled with 2GB of DDR2 RAM is a beast that can handle almost any task with minimal fuss.

Blinkfeed is a new, highly touted feature, replacing the default home screen with a Flipboard-style feed that presents content sourced from social networks and a number of pre-set news publications.

Sense 5, HTC’s new skin for Android is also in full effect here, offering a lighter and stripped back experience compared with previous iterations. The two front-facing speakers are also a treat, although the 4-megapixel shooter on the back is known to produce some pretty mixed results.

The United States is a key market for HTC, and one that it needs to win this year if it’s to reverse its worrying downward spiral. Samsung went big on its Galaxy S4 launch event to remind consumers that its new flagship device isn’t too far away – it will be interesting to see who comes out on top in this latest bout.