HTC One E9s, the ‘affordable’ version of the flagship E9, is available for pre-order in India at a price of Rs 22,000.
A Delhi-based retailer is offering the phone for delivery before the end of the month for those who book by paying Rs 2,000.
The HTC One E9s is very very similar to the E9, but there are three major differences — display technology, build and processor. HTC often launches ‘s’ versions of its phones which are usually about 20-25% cheaper than the ‘main’ version.
The Desire 820s, for example, is available at Rs 18,900, while the 820 is selling for Rs 23,500.
In many ways, the One E9s is a cross between the Desire 820 series and the flagship E9 itself – designed to be affordable to buyers of mid-range phones.
Given than most of the Desire 820 series (820s, 820q, 820 and so on) are all priced in the Rs 22,000 range, the One E9s offers far more value than the Desire series.
Let’s go through each of the factors that make the E9s superior to the Desire 820 series.
BUILD
The foremost of the factors that set apart E9s is the build quality. The phone boasts of the same all-metal construction as its more expensive counterpart, unlike the Desire series.
The Desire series have an all-plastic construction, with a distinct light colored, flat back-pane.
The E9s definitely looks more premium, and not just because of the metal. The colors, the design and the texture are definitely more appealing than the plasticky Desire models.
We believe that some of the benefit will flow through to the longevity of the phone as well. Some of the Desire series phones have faced complaints related to touchscreen issues and so on. The One E9s should be a class apart on that front.
DISPLAY
The E9s is one of the few models from HTC to sport an AMOLED display. Even the more expensive E9, E9 Plus and M9 Plus do not come with AMOLED displays, but only LCD ones.
AMOLED displays offer richer colors compared with LCD panels. However, the E9s does compromise on the resolution aspect: It offers only 720p resolution on its 5.5 inch display, compared to 1080p on the Desire 826 (Rs 23,300) and the E9 (not officially launched in India.)
The E9 Plus, priced at Rs 33,500, offer quad-HD. (720p means there are 1 mln ‘dots’ on the screen, full-HD implies 2 mln and quad HD means 4 mln – increasing the ‘clarity’.)
However, the Desire 820 series phones come with 720p displays as well, and the E9s offers the advantages of AMOLED technology in addition, making it a better choice.
PROCESSOR
The HTC One E9s comes with a 64-bit processor built on Cortex A53 technology, which means that performance will be above average. The phone should score about 25,000-30,000 on Antutu.
The likely chipset is Snapdragon 615, which is slightly less powerful than the MediaTek MT6795M found on the E9.
In terms of power, the phone will be comparable to the Desire 8xx series, some of which also come with the same chipset.
OTHER SPECS
The other specifications are the same as those found on all the other Desire 82x series phones – 13 MP rear camera, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal memory, 4G LTE, 2.6 Ah battery and so on.
Other competitors of the phone will include the Samsung Galaxy A7 (price Rs 25,000), the upcoming Galaxy A8 and the Moto G 3rd Gen.
The official launch of the E9s should be over the next three weeks, considering that the retailer is promising delivery by the end of the month. The sticker price of the phone should be around Rs 24,000, while the market price would be closer to the Rs 22,000 promised by the dealer.
In addition, the HTC One ME has also hit the Indian market at a price of Rs 38,000.