The smartphone should be initially launched in China

May 8, 2015 02:15 GMT  ·  By

Good news for HTC fans in Asia, as the Taiwanese company plans to launch yet another version of its flagship smartphone, the One M9.

The new version is likely to cost much less than the original One M9, but it will also come with slightly lower specs and not so expensive chassis. Instead of the full metal body of the HTC One M9, the so-called One M9e will be entirely made of plastic.

While this shouldn't affect the looks of the smartphone and the appeal to customers, if the price is right, it's a bit odd why HTC has decided to launch a cheaper version of its flagship since there are already many mid-range Android smartphones in its portfolio.

That being said, it looks like HTC One M9e won't be making its debut on the market too soon, because the smartphone has just been spotted by the folks over at Engadget at TENAA, the Chinese regulatory commission.

It shares lots of its specs with HTC One M9+

Since this is its first appearance at TENAA, it might take up to a few months for HTC to introduce this smartphone. It's also worth mentioning that the One M9e is likely to make its debut in China and it's unclear whether or not it will be released outside Mainland.

Moving on to specs, HTC One M9e has been confirmed to boast a 5.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports Quad HD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution.

The smartphone will be missing the Duo Camera in the M9+ model, but it will have most of its other features, like for example the 20-megapixel photo snapper instead with dual-tone LED flash, autofocus and video recording.

On the inside, the One M9e will be equipped with a 2.2GHz octa-core MediaTek processor and 3GB of RAM. There's no info on the amount of storage, but we expect the smartphone to pack microSD card slot for memory expansion.

In the front, the smartphone will have an Ultra-Pixel camera for video calls and selfies. The One M9e will also feature fingerprint scanner.