The appearance, display, and build are all nearly identical, but HTC has made some big changes under the hood. Gone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, replaced with a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 processor. The battery has been boosted up to 2,840mAh – identical to the M9 – and the 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” camera from the M8 has been replaced with a standard 13-megapixel shooter. The second lens remains intact.
Rounding out the specs, the One M8S will come with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a MicroSD slot. Looking at software, the phone runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and HTC Sense 6.0, unlike the One M9 which runs Sense 7. The weight is the same as the M8 at 160g, though the M8S is slightly thicker: 9.5mm to the original M8’s 9.4mm.
The biggest difference in the new model is the price. The M8S will sell for £380 (roughly $563) in the U.K., while the original M8 sold for around £530. That said, the original One M8 can be bought for less than the M8S.
The HTC One M8S will be available in silver, gold, and gunmetal grey, and so far, the phone has only been announced in Europe, with no word of a release in the United States.
The new phone seems roughly the same as the version on which it’s based, with the main changes limited to the camera and battery life. Combined with the more efficient chipset, the larger battery should lead to a notable improvement in battery life, and this combined with the lower price could make the phone a hot seller.
