Plastic HTC One (E8) makes official debut (Update)

After several weeks of rumors and leaks, the cheaper plastic version of the HTC One M8 also known as the “Ace” has surfaced on HTC’s website. Aptly named the E8, this budget-friendly take on the company’s current flagship smartphone appears to retain its high-end counterpart’s BoomSound speakers, but it lacks the Duo Camera setup offered by the M8.

Since this is HTC’s Chinese site, there’s no guarantee that the E8 will ever make its way to the US, but at least we know for sure that this device is the real deal. While we’re pretty fond of the M8, the idea of a competitively priced alternative doesn’t sound like a bad idea. However, we’ll have to see what kind of hardware this handset is packing before making a final judgement.

Update: Some further digging has revealed that this plastic variant of the M8 will ship with a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor and a 13-megapixel camera with a single LED flash.