HTC just announced its latest flagship smartphone, the HTC One M8. Google is now offering pre-orders on the stock Android HTC ONE M8 Google Play Edition.

Android skins like Samsung's TouchWiz, HTC's Sense and Amazon's Kindle Fire OS all try and make Android easier for people to use and also add some great proprietary features. There are some people who really like the design of these devices but prefer to run stock Android because of its quicker and straight to the point approach. Many Android smartphone owners go to great lengths to free their handsets from TouchWiz, HTC Sense and Amazon Fire by rooting their devices.

Rooting allows users to gain root access to give the user privileged control, what this does is it allows you to completely customize the software your smartphone runs, but is one way many people dump TouchWiz, HTC Sense, and Amazon Fire and run a stock version of Android. Last year, Google made the process easier for anyone who doesn't want to go through with hacking their handset's OS. Google introduced both a Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Play Edition smartphones. It sells the smartphones unlocked and running the latest version of Android 4.4KitKat and like its Nexus smartphone and tablets, Google Play Edition devices come with a guarantee of receiving Android updates soon after Google releases them.

Google has just added HTC's brand new HTC One M8 to its Google Play Edition lineup. The unlocked smartphone runs a stock version of Android 4.4.2 KitKat and is priced at $699.99 and has an expected shipping date of 2 to 3 weeks.

Google highlights that the HTC One M8 Google Play Edition combines the best of HTC and the best of Google Play. Users will be treated to the excellent build quality HTC has given the smartphone. It's made out of a single piece of brushed aluminum that has a seamless design and curve that makes the device feel great in the hand. It also has HTC's dual front-facing stereo speakers that many reviewers have said are the best sounding smartphone speakers.

The true reason to buy this device over HTC's version with HTC Sense is the fact that you won't need to root the device to run the latest and greatest version of stock Android right out of the box. The smartphone will run on AT&T's and T-Mobile's 4G LTE networks.