HTC One A9 review
However, as of now HTC has neither completely exited the market nor is it on the verge of closure. It is reported that the company is preparing the Nexus device to be released in 2016. 2016 is expected to be good for HTC. The company launched One A9 in December last year. This was the company’s first phone apart from the Nexus range to run on Android 6.0. The HTC One A9 also sees some features similar to Apple’s current iPhones. Today we will review this phone of HTC and know how much this phone lives up to our expectations.
Look and Design
HTC One A9 looks great iPhone 6s (Review) Looks like. With a flat metal rear, thickness, unibody design, curved edges, antenna lines, protruding camera and speaker grill at the bottom, this phone looks like Apple’s flagship smartphone. Although, htc one a9 It’s larger than the iPhone 6S and features HTC’s iconic logo on the front and back. The rear camera of the phone is placed in the middle instead of the left upper corner.
It is worth noting that the antenna line, metallic unibody and curved edges were used by HTC long before the launch of iPhone 6 and 6S. Apart from this, its front part is different from the iPhone and it HTC One M9+Looks like (fingerprint sensor). Certainly there are some similarities between the iPhone and HTC One A9 but to say that HTC has completely copied the design of the iPhone would be wrong. Nor has the A9 been designed keeping in mind the success of Apple designs.
Overall, we find the HTC One A9 to be a great looking smartphone. This phone is slim, sleek and beautiful in all color variants and is easy to use. The power and volume buttons are on the right side of the phone, while the speaker grill, micro-USB port and 3.5 mm socket are at the bottom. There are SIM and microSD card slots on the right side. The power button has a rough texture so that it can be distinguished from the volume buttons.
The front part of this HTC smartphone has a selfie camera, earpiece and proximity sensor at the top. The fingerprint sensor is at the bottom. Onscreen buttons have been provided in the phone instead of capacitive Android buttons. The fingerprint sensor can also be used as a home button but you can also disable it as per your convenience. The phone can be activated by motion launch gesture or by touching the fingerprint sensor. If you have activated the sensor, then the phone gets unlocked just by touching your finger on the scanner. The phone can store up to five fingerprints which you can use to unlock the phone and 1password Like you can use it for support app.
HTC One A9 has a 5-inch full HD AMOLED panel. Corning Gorilla Glass protection is also provided. Being an AMOLED screen, you may feel some warmth in the color tones but this is not a problem. We think the screen needs a little warmth to be better on the eyes. Colors pop and blacks are deep, making the display more dramatic and dynamic. Apart from all this, the sharpness of the display is excellent and the screen with Full HD panel gives a great experience.
Specifications and Software
HTC One A9 is powered by a 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor. The 617 processor, which succeeds the 615 and 616, is designed for better performance and better battery life, higher LTE speeds, better Wi-Fi capabilities and support for Qualcomm Quick Charge technology 3.0. HTC One A9 supports Quick Charge 2.0 technology but the charger that comes with it does not support this technology. However, we charged the battery with another Quick Charge 2.0 capable charger and noticed that the phone charged very quickly.
Along with this, A9 smartphone has 3 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage. Internal storage can be expanded up to 200 GB with the help of microSD card. The phone supports 4G connectivity on Wi-Fi 802.11n, 802.11ac and Sing Nano SIM slot. The phone has a 2150 mAh battery. Bluetooth 4.1 and HTC BoomSound audio enhancement software is also inbuilt. The specifications of A9 are very good which are found only in most flagship smartphones.
HTC One is the first phone from the company to run on Android 6.0 after Nexus 5X (Review) and Nexus 6P (Review). All the main features of Marshmallow work properly in the phone. These include features like Dose Mode, Now on Tap and App Permissions.
HTC promised quick system updates at the time of launch and promised that the device would get the latest firmware update within 15 days. There was an OTA update to Android 6.0.1 at the time of our testing. Barring a few problems and security updates, this HTC phone supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology.
HTC’s Sense UI is given on the phone. Most of the things in the phone are according to Android. But this does not mean that this phone does not have a typical HTC look. But if we talk about ease, the phone has become better in both performance and work.
The biggest difference that we saw in this variant of HTC is the quick setting menu. The notification shade and app switcher are just like stock Android. Some HTC apps such as HTC Backup, HTC Music, HTC Internet Browser, and Scribble have been removed. Instead, focusing on Google apps, Google Drive, Chrome and Play Music have been provided in the phone. However, many signature apps like Calendar, Clock, Gallery, Camera and Weather and Sense Home are still present on the phone. Which makes HTC One A9 a better phone.
camera
HTC One A9 has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash. There is a 4 megapixel ‘ultrapixel’ front camera. Full HD video can be recorded from both cameras. All modes like manual, hyperlapse, slow-motion video and panorama are also provided. Along with this, both cameras come with HDR and optical image stabilization feature.
The camera app on the HTC One A9 is a little different from the camera apps on many previous HTC smartphones, but it’s always easy and convenient to use. Flash, camera switcher and HDR buttons are easily found in the camera app, while panorama, pro, hyperlapse and slow-motion video can be enabled from a mode menu. Video recording is also a one step process and many other settings like photo and video resolution, geotagging, grid are also easily available. The camera app is easy to use and you can quickly access the camera right from sleep mode by setting the motion launch gesture.
The primary camera of the phone can take good pictures in all types of lighting. The color reproduction of the images is excellent while the colors and brightness of the images are also on point. The detail of the photos is neither very good nor bad. However, pictures taken in low light come with good details.
Close up shots taken with the phone’s camera are good. The close up shot sharpness that comes with the detail is also excellent. Video recording is also great and modes like hyperlapse and slow-motion can make video recording a fun experience. Good selfies can be taken with the phone’s front camera even in low light. Apart from all this, thanks to optical image stabilization, taking good pictures does not require much effort.
performance
HTC One A9 has Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor and Adreno 405 GPU for graphics. The phone has 3 GB RAM. This HTC smartphone is fast to run and easy to use. Despite the metal body, the phone does not get too hot during charging and the phone does not face this problem even while playing games or watching heavy videos.
During the benchmark test of the phone, we got to see attractive figures.
HTC is known for front stereo speakers in its phones but the single speaker at the bottom of the One A9 disappointed us. Good sound comes from the speaker but there is some problem. However, the phone has inbuilt BoomSound technology for volume and Dolby tuning is also provided.
The phone performs well on both 4G and Wi-Fi networks. While other devices experience issues with network and Wi-Fi signals, we got a consistently good response from the HTC One A9. The voice quality of the phone was also excellent. The HTC One A9’s battery lasted 9 hours 35 minutes in our loop test, which is decent for the battery’s size. With continuous heavy use and 4G connection, the battery does not last throughout the day.
our decision
HTC is mostly known for its M-series flagship smartphone products but the company has also introduced some memorable phones in its affordable segment. With the One A9, HTC has introduced a new category of below flagship smartphones. The HTC One A9 may not be a showstopper but it is a well-balanced phone with a decent price and features.
The HTC One A9 looks good with a great screen, good performance, up-to-date software, a good fingerprint sensor, and good cameras. The phone has all the basic features along with strong network and Wi-Fi capability, good audio call quality. Battery life and the audio coming from its single speaker are the only real drawbacks of this smartphone. This phone with iPhone-like design is available for Rs 29,990. At this price, HTC has given all the necessary features to the user and this smartphone can give a tough competition to Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016).
