HTC One ME9 coming to India next month as a cheaper, plastic version of the HTC One M9+?

Recently, word leaked about another variant of the HTC One M9 flagship phone. The HTC One ME9 was recently leaked by serial tipster @upleaks and eventually was certified in China by TENAA. Now Zauba, the Indian website that tracks imports and exports out of the country, reported that 1700 dummy units have been imported into India since May 8th. The most recent shipments included 120 in Classic Rose Gold and 180 in Meteor Grey. Both of those units were said to be "Dual SIM Dummy" models valued at $6.43 USD each.

The HTC One ME9 is a more wallet pleasing version of the HTC One M9+. Instead of the Duo camera on the One M9+, the One ME9 features just the 20MP snapper on back. And instead of the all metal build, the cheaper model employs polycarbonate. According to a source who allegedly works for HTC India, the HTC One ME9 will launch in the country during the third week of June in Gold Sepia, Classic Rose Gold, and Meteor Gray. The handset will be offered at the equivalent of $552 USD. Just like the HTC One M9+, it doesn't appear that a version of this model will be making its way to the U.S. or Europe.

The phone features a 5.2-inch LCD-3 display with a 1440 x 2560 QHD resolution. That works out to a pixel density of 565ppi. The 64-bit MediaTek MT6795 SoC is inside, containing an octa-core 2.2GHz CPU and the PowerVR G6200 Rogue GPU. 3GB of RAM is aboard along with 32GB of native storage (of which 21GB is available to the user). A 128GB capacity microSD slot can be accessed by those who desire more memory. We've already discussed the rear camera, and the front-facing shooter is the 4MP Ultrapixel camera that used to be on the back of the HTC One (M7) and HTC One (M8). A 2840mAh battery keeps the lights on, and Android 5.0 is pre-installed with Sense 7.0 running on top.

Is this the last HTC One M9 variant, or does HTC have more to come?


source: @upleaks, TENAA (translated), Zauba via MakTechBlog, Mobipicker (1), (2)