Fresh from the global launch of its flagship smartphone, the HTC 10, the Taiwanese tech company has unveiled an all-new mid-range handset called the HTC One S9. The device is currently listed on the company’s German website, which gives us our first look at the upcoming smartphone that is expected to sit a notch or two below the company’s recently-announced flagship. The One S9 comes with a €500 price-tag in Germany, but there’s no word on when the device will see a wider release and what might be its price when that happens. On its part, HTC is highlighting the phone’s imaging capabilities by harping on its OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) feature, which it calls “our best-ever”.
Taking a look at the hardware specifications of the One S9, the device features a 5.0-inch 1080p Super LCD display panel and is powered by MediaTek’s Helio X10 SoC, which comes with an integrated 64-bit octa-core CPU that’s clocked at a maximum of 2.0 GHz, along with a PowerVR G6200 GPU. It also comes with 2 GB of RAM along with just 16 GB of internal storage, which however, can be expanded by up to 2 TB by way of a microSD card. As for the imaging options on the device, the One S9 sports a 13-megapixel rear-facing primary camera with OIS, autofocus and dual LED flash, and a 2-megapixel front-facing fixed-focus selfie-cam with BSI. Both cameras are capable of recording Full HD videos at up to 30 fps.
As for the rest of the details, the HTC One S9 comes with a 2,840 mAh battery and supports Cat.4 LTE, which means theoretical download speeds of up to 150 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50 Mbps. The device also rocks Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is the latest full-release version of Android. Meanwhile, the One S9 also comes with a built-in NFC chip, which means it is likely to be compatible with mobile payment systems like Android Pay. There is, however, no mention of a fingerprint scanner, which is certainly an interesting omission for a device at this price. Either way, even though the One S9 has already been listed online, there’s no word on when it will be available for purchase.