Upcoming HTC Phones 2014: Taiwanese Brand's 'Cheaper Flagship' Arriving In Russia, HTC One E8 Expected To Outsell Its More Expensive Sibling

HTC may be lagging behind in terms of sales and market share, but the Taiwanese brand continues to bring out the best out of Android with its upcoming HTC phones for 2014. Now, the company aims to target the midrange market with its new 'flagship alternative. 

Announced a couple of weeks ago, the HTC One E8 will now be tested as it becomes official in Russia in the coming days. 

The report comes from Russian website Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru, which claims the device would also be priced at RUB 25,000 or roughly €530. 

It may be a little too steep, though for the international market, the HTC One E8 is expected to be a lot cheaper, especially in Asia where its dual-SIM support would be warmly welcomed. 

Aside from plastic polycarbonate body and the 'conventional' 13MP primary camera, the One E8 has no major differences compared to the more expensive One M8.

Both share the same design, BoomSound speakers in front, Sense 6.0 UI, Android version, Snapdragon chipset, screen size and even resolution. The phone also packs a 16GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot that can support up to 128GB of storage, and the usual connectivity options such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC and LTE. 

However, the E8 will reportedly not get the IR blaster that is present in the M8, which is pretty minor if you are the casual user. 

HTC has been doing well in the previous quarter, and it showed some signs of life in terms of earning profits, thanks to its One M8 and the Desire lineups. With the launch of the One mini 2 (M8 mini) and the One E8, the Taiwanese manufacturer will be banking on these two phones to do their share for this quarter, before the expected drop of sales in the final quarter due to new smartphones from Samsung, Sony and Apple.