HTC has announced its newest smartphone, the HTC One A9, today. The HTC One A9 is a higher mid-range Android smartphone from the company that focusses on what the company does best such as hardware design, software experience, and the audio experience. The company has announced that the One A9 comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, and it will receive every Android software update within 15 days after Google releases an update for its Nexus devices. Brilliant, isn't it?
HTC One A9 Specifications
- 5.0-inch AMOLED display, 1,080 x 1,920 pixels, 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based HTC Sense UI
- 13-megapixel primary camera, phase-detection autofocus, OIS, dual-tone dual-LED flash, RAW capture, and 1080p video recording
- 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera with 1080p video recording
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 64-bit octa-core CPU, Adreno 405
- 2GB/3GB RAM, 16GB/32GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot (upto 2TB)
- 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS (with A-GPS), NFC, and microUSB v2.0 port
- Accelerometer, Ambient-Light Sensor, e-Compass, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Proximity Sensor, and Sensor Hub
- 2,150 mAh battery; 145.75 x 70.8. x 7.26 mm; 143g
The HTC One A9 features a 5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,080 x 1,920 pixels, which is covered by a 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 panel. It is equipped with a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor with Adreno 405 GPU. The One A9 will be available in two variants – 2GB RAM with 16GB internal storage and 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage – depending upon the market. In terms of connectivity, the device features a single-SIM card slot with 4G LTE, Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, NFC, and a microUSB v2.0 port. It has a slim metal unibody, and is available in four colours; Carbon Gray, Opal Silver, Topaz Gold and Deep Garnet.
There's a 13-megapixel primary camera at the back, which is accompanied by a dual-tone dual-LED flash. According to the company, the camera has phase-detection autofocus for faster focussing, and the lens is optically stabilised, thanks to the OIS system in place. The front-facing camera has a 4-megapixel UltraPixel sensor with 2.0µm pixel size. Both the front-facing and rear-facing camera have f/2.0 aperture and 1080p video recording abilities. The rear camera can capture RAW images, and the company has a one-touch edit option to make the best out of RAW images without a need to transfer them to a computer.
The device is powered by a rather smallish 2,150 mAh battery, because it is quite slim with a waistline of just 7.26 mm. However, devices like the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge offer larger 2,600 mAh batteries inspite of being slimmer than the HTC One A9. HTC has done a right thing by providing a microSD card slot, and the company claims that it is compatible with microSD cards with storage capacities of upto 2TB. Moreover, the device rocks a fingerprint sensor below the display, and it works even when the display is off.
Thanks to NFC and Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the HTC One A9 supports Android Pay in supported countries. The device has been priced at $399 (Rs. 25,817), and it will be available in various countries starting from the first week of November. After shunning OIS in its smartphones since HTC One M8, the company seems to be bringing the feature back. It recently announced HTC One M9+ Supreme Camera with a 21-megapixel camera with OIS. After it releases in India, the HTC One A9 will compete with the LG Nexus 5X, the Motorola Moto X Style, the Samsung Galaxy A8, and the OnePlus 2.
