HTC One A9 : A sequel to HTC One or Apple iPhone 6 ?

The Taiwanese smartphone making giant HTC is well known for its flagship devices and does stand in competition with companies like Samsung.  Last year they presented the HTC One M9, which stood out as a flagship device which was preceded by bigger 'One M9+'.

This year HTC introduced the HTC One A9 - a device which carries the flagship 'One' name, but is a 'A' class device. The company promised the first Non-Nexus device with the latest Android system - Android Marshmallow, and did deliver this beautiful gadget on October 20,2015 in New York. As soon the images hit the internet, people were like," Dude, it looks just like an iPhone !". But when I saw it and read the specs, I was convinced that HTC was the first contender to bring a unibody Aluminium body smartphone on the market. Let's know more about this device !

ImG Source : AndroidPit

The HTC One A9 specifications: 

• 5-inch Full-HD (1920x1080p) AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 panel.
• 13MP primary camera featuring of BSI sensor with f/2.0 aperture, capable of recording 1080p Full-HD videos. The selfie camera is a 4MP Ultrapixel fixed focus shooter, the same as used in previous flagships; The One M8 and One M9. The secondary camera can shoot 1080p videos too!
• The battery is 2150mAh, non-removable of course. But, it supports the new Qualcomm's Quickcharge 2.0 technology which will give a superfast charging speed. According to Qualcomm, it will charge the device from 0% to 60% in just 30 minutes!
• There are 2 variants for this device:
  
  1. The 2GB RAM with 16GB ROM Internal storage2.The 3GB RAM with 32GB Internal storage
  
  Both devices have an expandable storage of 2TB via a microSD slot!! (*ahem* .. It's time to introduce the 2TB microSD I guess!)
  
  
• HTC has provided a fingerprint scanner, which is definitely the need of the current generation smartphones.
• A high-resolution single mounted speaker with Dolby Digital Surround Sound support on headphones.
• Finally, The One A9 runs the latest Android system- Android Marshmallow 6.0
• It is available in 4 colors; Topaz Gold, Carbon Gray, Opal Silver and Deep Garnet.

Design and Build quality:

When we first look at the One A9, it can be said that it is inspired from the iPhone 6. But, HTC repeatedly focuses on convincing people that it was the first to craft an all-metal smartphone. (Well, sorry HTC! Apple delivered it first! ). At a recent event, even Cher Wang,CEO of HTC, made the connection, telling the HTC employees that the One A9 is "good enough to be an alternative to the iPhone".

ImG Source : AndroidPit

HTC would probably point out the 'big' differences between the One A9 and the iPhone 6, but the only two differences are as follows:

1. The edges of the One A9 are slightly harder that than the soft iPhone edges.
2. The A9's antenna bands do not extend around the top and bottom of the device.

The metal on the One A9 is polished rather than brushed. On front there is a lozenge-shaped home button, just like on the Samsung Galaxy S6, which is a fingerprint scanner. It isn't a clickable variant as that of Samsung, but a capacitive-like button found on the OnePlus 2. You can unlock the phone just by placing your finger on the button; no need of activating it first!

Display:

The HTC One A9 features a 5-inch Full HD AMOLED display. The use of the Gorilla Glass 4 on the A9 is arguably a better decision than including a QHD display. This helps the A9 to last longer, handle drops better and remain scratch-free for a longtime. The display edges are rounded off nicely, reminiscent of the Huawei's 2.5D glass just as in the iPhone 6 (sadly).

ImG Source : AndroidPit

It has pretty huge bezels above and below the 5-inch screen. The dimensions of the display are 145.75 x 70.8 x 7.26mm, same as the One M9, but significantly thinner.

Camera:

Sadly, HTC hasn't taken the feature of putting a high-end camera on the device from Apple. They focused on a premium-looking camera rather than a premium-performance camera. The goal was just to provide a reliable point-and-shoot camera rather than a competition to the LG G4 or Samsung Galaxy S6.

ImG Source : AndroidPit

The HTC One A9 camera shoots a maximum resolution of 13MP with a 4:3 ratio. If you want to shoot in the 16:9 ratio, you'd have to drop the resolution to 10MP or crop the full resolution image. Yes, there is a f/2.0 aperture, which performs decently in low light and produces less blurry images.

The video is shot at maximum resolution of Full HD, as the optical image stabilizer helps it a lot. For advanced photography, HTC have their own camera app in the Play Store which allows the user to switch to manual modes to adjust color temperature, shutter speed, ISO,exposure etc.

The front camera is a 4MP with f/2.0 aperture, allowing us to shoot at 1080p.

Performance:

The HTC One A9 specs lie in the upper-middle range of smartphones rather than high-end flagships. The phone is powered by Snapdragon 617, a 64-bit octa-core chipset based on the ARM Cortex A53, clocked at 1.5 GHz and Adreno 405 GPU. As mentioned previously, there are 2 variants of the device - the 16Gigs with 2GB RAM and the 32Gigs with 3GB RAM.

HTC has included a microSD slot for the device which can accept a card of 2TB in capacity - or atleast it will, when there will be one! Also, with introduction of Android Marshmallow, the external SD’s are treated as internal storage. So, format a memory card before inserting it in the device.

Battery:

The HTC One A9 is just 7.26mm deep, allowing the manufacturer to fit a battery of just 2150 mAh, which is a bit turn down for the users. Battery is one of the most important features required for a smartphone today.

According to HTC, the combination of A9 hardware and the Android Marshmallow, the device will provide a 16hrs talk time on 3G network and upto 18 days in standby mode(Amazed actually).

The One A9 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 tech with the included charger. The Snapdragon 617 supports the newer Quick Charge 3.0 standard too, but isn't included in the box.

Software:

The One A9 runs the latest Android Marshmallow software underneath the HTC's Sense UI. The Sense UI may not be everyone's favourite but the A9 brings the both of both worlds, giving a great experience. HTC has promised new versions of Android within 15 days of the Google's Nexus devices getting updated. Well, amazing!

ImG Source : AndroidPit

HTC has taken a smart turn to remove some features from previous version of Sense UI 7. Several apps have been taken off which can be installed optionally via Play Store rather than a pre-burden for the device.

Thus Concluding:

HTC is trying harder to deliver a flagship under $400 (INR 26000), featuring amazing features like fingerprint scanner, 13MP camera and a 5-inch display. What HTC has failed to understand that user focuses on battery-life and processor. At the same price tag, there are contenders like the OnePlus 2 and the Motorola Moto X Style. As far as the trend goes, maybe HTC may plan to release the One A9+ which will hopefully provide a bigger, better battery with atleast Snapdragon 808 processor! We’ll look forward to it!