HTC today unveiled its latest flagship — the One (M8) — in one of the biggest and fastest growing smartphone markets in the world — India. The company also launched the Desire 816 at the event. 

The HTC One (M8) in India will sport a slightly faster Snapdragon 801 chipset clocked at 2.5GHz. Apart from this, the internals will be exactly the same as the International version which includes 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage space, Duo Camera, BoomSound speakers, microSD card slot and a 5-inch S-LCD3 display. It will also support the relatively new 4G LTE networks from Reliance and AirTel, which gives it a major advantage over the Galaxy S5.

HTC also unveiled the Desire 816 at its event. The handset is meant to take on the mid-range segment where consumers demand humungous screens. The 816 comes with a 5.5-inch 720p display, a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.6GHz, 1.5GB of RAM, a 13MP camera in the rear, BoomSound speakers, NFC and more.

Both the handsets will hit the retail stores from the first week of May. The One (M8) will retail for a MOP of Rs. 49,900 while the Desire 816 will retail for Rs. 23,900.

Interestingly, the launch of the HTC One (M8) was followed by Samsung reducing the price of the Galaxy S5 by nearly $80 to Rs. 46,881 ($780) in India. This is surprising because Samsung is a major player in the Indian market and absolutely dominates the high-end smartphone market. Perhaps, the company realised that the lack of 4G LTE support gives the One (M8) a serious advantage over its flagship, the Galaxy S5, and so it decided to reduce its price. Or maybe, it was not satisfied with the lukewarm response to the Galaxy S5 launch in India.