Now... collapse to editable mesh and tell me then again how many polygons you have.
Judging from the "faced" look of you model, I’d say it is impossible you have such a low polygon count.
You're probably using the more convenient "editable poly" mode, which will give you a wrong indication of the polygon count. :S
For an editable poly, a polygons is considered a surface that has a visible edge. Poly's can be quads or even bigger. A quad will show up as 1 polygon, where in fact you have 2 faces.
If you want an accurate poly count, then collapse your mesh into an editable mesh!
Look at the pic below :
both objects originate from the same object as they are copies.
left is the ediable mesh, right is the editable poly.
the editable mesh indicates 32 polygons, where as the right one indicates 48-32=16 polygons
nice new plane
