A stock Android version of the HTC One was rumoured shortly after the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4 “Google Edition”, and HTC confirmed the speculation yesterday. The company will be bringing the HTC One “Google Edition” to the Play Store on June 26th. The bad news? It looks like yet another US-only outing for now.
The Google Edition of the HTC One will feature identical specs to the retail version of the device, but Sense 5 will be dropped in favour of totally stock Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2. The much-touted Ultrapixel camera will also be along for the ride – you’ll simply have to make do with the standard Android camera interface. Beats Audio will also be onboard and enabled by default.
HTC says that the capacitive button layout will remain the same too. If you need to get to Google Now, then you long press the home button, while diving into multitasking will take a double tap. The bad news is that you’re still going to see a black menu bar adorning the bottom of the screen for any apps that haven’t been updated to adopt Google’s UI guidelines.
As above, the HTC One Google Edition is only expected to launch in the United States for now. The phone will be available through the Play Store starting on June 26th for the unlocked and unsubsidized price of $599. That’s slightly cheaper than the $649 Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition, but you’re still going to be paying a lot of money for stock Android on beautiful hardware. We’ll let you know the minute HTC or Samsung intends to bring the phones to the UK.
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