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HTC One M8S mid-range smartphone announced

HTC has unveiled the HTC One M8S, a mid-range revision of last year’s flagship HTC One M8.

It’s less than a month since HTC took the wraps off its HTC One M9, which received a fair amount of criticism for looking and feeling so similar to the HTC One M8 before it.

Now HTC has revealed another phone that looks and feels very similar to the HTC One M8 – because it basically is one.

The HTC One M8S is almost identical to the HTC One M8, but for a couple of notable tweaks.

It’s got the same all-metal design (though it’s 0.15mm thicker) and the same 5-inch 1080p display as last year’s flagship. However, it’s powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 CPU. While newer than the One M8’s Snapdragon 801, and built on a 64-bit architecture, this processor isn’t quite as strong a performer.

That mid-range CPU is backed by 2GB of RAM, while there’s 16GB of storage and a microSD slot for expansion purposes.

More interestingly, the HTC One M8S has a new camera set-up. Out goes the HTC One M8’s flawed 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera, in comes a normal-looking 13-megapixel example. However, the M8S retains its second lens for pronounced defocusing effects – something the HTC One M9 didn’t do. Around front, meanwhile, there’s a 5-megapixel camera.

The HTC One M8S also gets a bit of a battery bump over the One M8, from the latter’s 2600mAh to 2840mAh.

Related: HTC One M10 release date

One slightly irritating point to note here is that HTC isn’t packing the HTC One M8S with the HTC One M9’s Sense 7.0 UI. It’s stuck with the One M8’s Sense 6.0.

The HTC One M8S should be hitting shops some time in April, and it’ll be available in the UK for £379.99.

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