HTC One M8 Windows Model Available On Amazon With $50 Price Tag

A special deal has slashed Verizon's HTC One M8 for Windows to just $50 on Amazon with a two-year contract, GSMArena reports.

The smartphone, which is also available contract-free for $599.99 (with the Verizon logo), is a limited time Verizon exclusive, as AT&T will also begin selling it later this year. Recent reports also suggest the device will be offered by T-Mobile and Sprint, as well.

The device may also feature an important advantage over its Android companion - battery life.

Although the hardware is nearly identical between the devices, the M8 for Windows features 22 hours of 3G talk time, and up to 528 hours of standby on 3G, while the M8 for Android offers 20 hours of 3G talk time and up to 496 hours of standby time on 3G. The difference means the Windows model has a 10 percent boost in talk time and a 6.45 percent advantage in standby time.

While the answer as to why there is such a noteworthy discrepancy isn't exactly clear, PCWorld offers a solid breakdown:

"The natural question is whether Microsoft's Windows Phone OS is more efficient, from a power perspective, than the Android version 4.4.2 (KitKat) that is powering HTC's phone. If so, that might be a selling point for consumers hoping to eke out every last bit of power from their HTC One (M8) phone-and a feather in the cap of Microsoft, which has just 2.5 percent of the world smartphone share, compared with almost 85 percent for Android.

Under the hood, though, there may be another answer: The two versions of the One (M8) may not be truly identical, after all.

Consider the cellular radios the two phones use. HTC's One (M8) for Android supports a number of different frequencies: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks; 3G WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ for Europe, Asia, and the major U.S. carriers; the CDMA frequencies used by Sprint and Verizon; and the 700/800/850/900/1800/1900/2100/2600 MHz LTE frequencies.

The One (M8) for Windows uses the same 2G, 3G, and CDMA bands, but only a subset of the LTE frequencies that the Android version uses: specifically the 700/1700/1800/2600 MHz frequency bands."