HTC has announced a budget version of the One (M8), called the One (E8). It drops the premium metal build of the M8 in favour of a range of brightly coloured plastic casings — but otherwise its specs are surprisingly strong.
There’s a 5-inch 1080p display up front, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 backed by 2GB of RAM under the hood, microSD expansion and all the Motion Launch gesture goodies that were so useful in the M8. 4G speeds are supported, and the BoomSound speakers are ready to bother those sitting at the back of the bus too. The 2600mAh battery from the M8 returns also — which proved surprisingly capable in the flagship. Sadly the Duo Camera is replaced by a standard 13MP sensor, but that’s not too bad; the infrared blaster is perhaps a bigger loss.
There are no details on pricing yet, but expect to see it in stores by the end of June, available in white, black or red. [HTC]
