Plastic-clad M9e could be yet another One M9 variant

HTC is working on a new member of the One M9 family. The “M9e” looks like an economy version of the One M9+, sharing most of the specs, but swapping metal in favor of a plastic body.

The One M9+ launched in early April in Beijing, as a bigger and arguably better version of the M9 targeted primarily at China and India. The device comes with a 5.2-inch Quad HD LCD display, a 64-bit MediaTek Helio X10, 3GB of RAM, and a 20MP main camera featuring a depth sensor just like the M8. On the front, the M9+ features a touch-based fingerprint sensor.

The HTC M9e, spotted by Engadget Chinese in China’s TENAA certification database, features the same fingerprint sensor on the front, but the back is dual-tone plastic, and there’s no secondary depth sensor.

The specs that can be gleamed from the regulatory docs suggest the M9e is identical to the One M9+, save for the lack of the depth sensor.

There’s no official info on this device yet; the use of plastic could result in a lower price tag, but it remains to be seen if M9e will ever make it outside of Asia.

Provided the M9e is indeed coming to market, we have to question why HTCfeels the need to release another device that looks a lot like the E9+, which also features a plastic body and BoomSound speakers. Thoughts?