HTC One M8s – a new version of last year’s smartphone

Hot on the heels of the HTC One M9 and M9+ is the… errr… HTC One 8s.

It looks as though HTC isn’t happy in its quest to compete with Samsung and Apple with design and desirability, but it also wants to grab hold of Apple’s naming convention and Samsung’s confusing product line-up.

Yup, HTC has sprinkled some magic update dust over last year’s M8 flagship smartphone.

As you can see, it’s almost identical to the M8 with its all-metal body and 5-inch 1080p display. Delve deeper though and you’ll find that the M8s is using an octa-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 615. The camera has been changed too with HTC swapping out the rear 4MP “Ultrapixel” camera for a standard 13MP sensor – to follow the company’s rethinking over the sensors being used.

It does, however, retain the second focussing lens that the One M9 ditched but seems to make an appearance on the M9+.

Other changes are that there’s now a 2849mAh battery, up from the M8’s 2600mAh power source, and the 2GB RAM is buddied with 16GB of internal storage, expandable by microSD.

Though marginally thicker than the M8 at 9.55mm, it keeps the same weight at 160g. Though the handset uses Android Lollipop 5.0, HTC has interestingly kept the new Sense 7.0 UI version off the M8s, sticking with last year’s Sense 6.0.

I’m guessing this is a way to seperate the new M9 flagship from this leaned on M8.

The HTC One M8s will initially be available in Gunmetal Grey at mobile operators and major retailers in the UK, as well as htc.com from the beginning of April.

I am guessing that take-up of the One M8s will largely depend on price point. Needless to say that it has to be cheaper than the M9 but also compete with pre-owned M8 handsets which will start appearing now that the M9 is here.

Is recycling the M8 a smart move by HTC? Could this be the way of presenting decent specs at a more affordable price as discussed in last night’s vodcast?