HTC One A9s is now available in the UK starting at £278.46 SIM-free

The controversial HTC One A9s got official at the beginning of September and then its maker seems to have just forgotten about it. Until today, that is, when the handset has become available in the UK. Unlike what it's name might imply, the One A9s is not an updated version of the One A9 from last year with better specs. It is, in fact, a lower-end model compared to the A9, keep in mind.

The cheapest you can currently find it in SIM-free and unlocked form is £278.46 at Amazon, though its recommended retail price is £299.99. And that's exactly how much you need to pay for one if you choose to purchase from other retailers such as Expansys, Clove, or Carphone Warehouse. Regardless of which company you pick, you can currently only grab the grey/black version of the phone.

Carphone Warehouse will have an exclusive on the blue hue in the UK, but that will only be out on November 28. Speaking of this retailer, as is customary it's also offering the handset with operator contracts. You can get the One A9s with no upfront cost with plans starting at £12.50 per month. That particular option requires using the iD mobile network, brought to you by Carphone Warehouse itself, and has 250 minutes, 5,000 texts, and 500MB of 4G data included each month.

The most expensive choice is an O2 plan costing £40 per month and offering unlimited minutes and texts along with 10GB of 4G data. Of course there are many other options in between, so make sure you go through them all before you pick one.

The HTC One A9s has a 5-inch 720p touchscreen, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie shooter, MediaTek's Helio P10 chipset, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, a fingerprint sensor on the front, and a 2,300 mAh battery. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.