If the HTC One M8 was pretty much the pinnacle of what you wanted from a phone, except for the camera, then HTC has fixed that problem announcing the HTC One M8S with a 13MP rear camera.
There’s other differences as well, with HTC dropping the processor from a Snapdragon 801 to a Snapdragon 615, but bear in mind that the Snapdragon 615 is a 64-bit processor adding a bit of extra grunt behind the scenes with the 64-bit optimised Android 5.0 (Lollipop) coming pre-installed on the device.
The big news is of course that the Ultra-Pixel camera has been replaced, but as you can see from the picture of the rear, the Duo-Camera has been retained. The Duo-Camera allows the HTC One M8 and M8S to perform all sorts of photo wizardry with re-focusing and depth of field, which should be slightly improved with the larger sensor on the M8S.
A larger battery and Bluetooth 4.1 round out the differences, though you can see them quite clearly in this comparison table which Anandtech has released which shows off the similarities and differences between the two phones:
| HTC One M8s | HTC One (M8) | |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, 4 x Cortex A53 at 1.7GHz + 4 x Cortex A53 at 1.0GHz | MSM8974ABv3 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 801 |
| RAM/NAND | 2 GB LPDDR3, 16GB NAND + microSD | 2GB LPDDR3, 16/32GB NAND + microSD |
| Display | 5” 1080p LCD | |
| Network | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Qualcomm MDM9x25 UE Category 4 LTE) | |
| Dimensions | 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.55mm max, 160 grams | 146.36 x 70.6 x 9.35mm max, 160 grams |
| Camera | 13 MP F/2.0 Rear Facing, 28mm (35mm equiv) and rear depth camera, 5MP F/2.8 Front Facing |
4.0 MP Rear Facing with 2.0 µm pixels, 1/3" CMOS size, F/2.0, 28mm (35mm equiv) and rear depth camera, 5MP F/2.0 FFC |
| Battery | 2840 mAh (10.79Wh) | 2600 mAh (9.88Wh) |
| OS | Android 5.0 with HTC Sense | Android 5.0 with HTC Sense |
| Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.1, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC |
| SIM Size | NanoSIM | |
So far availability is only for certain European countries, with the UK pricing listed as £379.99 outright. Whether the HTC One M8S will arrive downunder isn’t known, but the lack of release of the various colour variants of the various HTC One models down here paired with the recent launch of the M9, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it.
Why can’t HTC put ois in!?!
More importantly, why can’t a Global Corporation do the RightThing and release ALL variants of their products GLOBALLY at the same time?
Oh this!!!!