The HTC One M8 seems to be pretty close to launch, as the device has leaked online and HTC itself has teased "more beautiful curves coming soon."

HTC recently launched its One M8 flagship smartphone for 2014 and is expected to continue releasing various spinoffs to suit more tastes, budgets and preferences. The HTC One M8 is a high-end device with top-notch specs and features, but HTC fans may also be interested in more options.

After hearing lots of rumors about an HTC One M8 Prime variant that would launch as an even higher-end smartphone with a WQHD display, the rumor mill is now turning toward the purported HTC M8 Ace.

This rumored M8 Ace smartphone is expected to arrive as the lower-cost version of the flagship, sporting the same design that received such high praise, but in a polycarbonate body instead of the premium aluminum casing. A plastic casing would allow HTC to keep the costs down for this device, and bring even more competition to the plastic-made Samsung Galaxy S5.

The leaked image of the purported HTC M8 Ace (see above) comes from a Chinese website called ifanr, but not much information is currently available. Speculation is ripe, however, and Unwired View suggests that HTC will market this variant as a fashionable one.

HTC has not confirmed any of this so far, at least not specifically. For its part, the company posted its own teaser image on Twitter, along with a caption that touts "more beautiful curves coming soon." As the HTC M8 Ace is expected to boast the same curvy design as the One M8 flagship, HTC's teaser post most likely refers to this upcoming model.

The image that leaked out of China shows just the rear of the device, without revealing much. Based on this image, the rear camera appears to come without a flash, but with a depth sensor above it. On the other hand, if that's not the depth sensor seen above the main camera, it may be the LED flash, though it would be rather odd considering that it's a bit far apart from the camera.

In terms of specifications, rumors so far suggests that the HTC M8 Ace may have similar specifications as the flagship. The handset is expected to sport a 5-inch full HD 1080p display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage capacity. On the software side, the smartphone should run Android 4.4 KitKat straight out of the box.

The leaked image shows the purported HTC M8 Ace in a red color option, but the handset is also expected to come in other eye-catching paint jobs as well. With nothing officially confirmed so far, however, take everything with a grain of salt for now.