However, HTC has neither been completely out of the market nor is on the verge of closure. It is reported that the company is preparing the upcoming Nexus device in 2016. 2016 is expected to prove to be good for HTC. The company launched One A9 in December last year. This was the company’s first phone from the Nexus range to run on Android 6.0. Some features like Apple’s current iPhone have also been seen in HTC One A9. Today we will review this HTC phone and know how much this phone meets our expectations.
Look and design
HTC One A9 to see a large extent IPhone 6S (Review) resembles. With flat metal rear, thickness, unibody design, curved edge, antenna line, protruding camera and the bottom speaker grill, this phone gives Apple’s flagship smartphone. Although, HTC One A9 The iPhone is larger than 6S and has a reputed logo of HTC back and forth. The rear camera of the phone is given 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 the iPhone 6 and 6S. Apart from this, the front part is different from the iPhone and it HTC One M 9+(Fingerprint sensor) looks like. Certainly the iPhone and HTC One A9 have some similarities but it would be wrong to say that HTC has completely copied the design of the iPhone completely. Nor is the A9 designed to see the success of Apple design.
Overall, we find a tremendous smartphone to see HTC One A9. In all types of color variants, this phone is slim, sleek and beautiful and easy to use. The phone has power and volume buttons on the right side while speaker grills, micro-USB ports and 3.5mm sockets are at the bottom. On the right side there are SIM and microSD card slots. The power button is rough texture that can be identified separately from the volume button.
The front of this HTC smartphone has a selfie camera, earpiece and a proximity sensor on the top. The fingerprint sensor is at the bottom. The phone has onscreen buttons instead of capacitive Android button. The fingerprint sensor can also be used as a home button but you can also disable it at your convenience. The phone can be activated by touching motion launch gesture or fingerprint sensor. If you have activated the sensor, then the phone is unlocked only by touching the finger on the scanner. You can store up to five fingerprints in the phone, which you unlock the phone and 1 password Like you can use for supporting app.
The HTC One A9 has a 5-inch full HD amolode panel. Corning Gorilla Glass Protection is also provided. Being an amoled screen can make you feel some warmth in color tone but it is not a problem. We feel that the screen needs a little warmth to get better for the eyes. The color is pop and black 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 great experience.
Specification and software
The HTC One A9 has a 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor. 617 processors after 615 and 616 have been designed according to better performance and good battery life, high LTE speed, good Wi-Fi capacity and Quality Charge Technology 3.0. HTC One A9 Quick Charge supports 2.0 technology but the charger that comes with it does not support this technique. However, we charged the battery with a charger of another quick charge 2.0 capacity and saw that the phone was charged very quickly.
Along with this, the A9 smartphone has 3 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage. Internal storage can be extended up to 200 GB with the help of microSD card. The phone supports 4G connectivity on Wi-Fi 802.11 N, 802.11 AC and Sing Nano SIM slot. The phone has a 2150 mAh battery. Bluetooth 4.1 and HTC Boomsound Audio Ainhesment software is also inbuilt. The specifications of A9 are very good which are mostly found in flagship smartphones.
The company is the first phone of the company to run on HTC One 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 such as dose mode, now on tap and app permission.
HTC assured the quick system update at the time of launch and promised that the latest firmware updates would be available within 15 days of the device. During our investigation, an OTA update was present in Android 6.0.1. Except for a little problem and security update, this phone of HTC supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology.
HTC’s sense UI has been given above the phone. Most of the things in the phone are according to Android. But this does not mean that it does not show a glimpse of typical HTC in the phone. But talk about easily, the phone has become better in both performance and work.
The biggest difference that we saw in this variant of HTC is the Quick Settings menu. Notification sheds and apps are similar to switcher stock Android. Some HTC apps such as HTC backup, HTC music, HTC internet browser and scribbles have been removed. Instead, Google Drive, Chrome and Play Music have been given in the phone, paying attention to the Google app. However, many signature apps such as calendar, clock, gallery, camera and weather and sense homes are still present in 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 such as manual, hyperlaps, slow-motion videos and panorama have also been given. Along with this, both cameras come with HDR and optical image stabilization features.
The camera app of HTC One A9 is slightly different from the camera app given in many previous HTC smartphones but is always easy and convenient to use. Flash, camera switcher and HDR buttons are easily available in the camera app, while panorama, pro, hyperlapis and slow-motion video can be enabled by going to a mode menu. Video recording is also a step process and many other settings such as photos and video resolution, geotaging, grids are also easily available. The camera app is easy to use and the camera can be used immediately by setting motion launch gestar.
The primary camera of the phone can take good pictures in all types of lights. The color reproduction of the photos is fantastic while the color and glow of the photos are also perfect. The details of the pictures are neither very good nor useless. However, photos taken in low light come with good details.
Close up shots taken from the phone’s camera are good. Close up shot sharpness that comes with details is also fantastic. Vedio recording is also fantastic and video recording can be a fun experience with mode like hyperlaps and slow-motion. The phone can also be taken good selfie in low light from the front camera. Apart from all this, optical image stabilization does not have to work too hard to take good pictures.
Performance
The HTC One A9 has Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor and Adreno 405 GPU for graphics. The phone has 3 GB of RAM. This HTC smartphone is fast and easy to use. Despite the metal body, the phone is not too hot during charging and does not face this problem in the phone 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 the front stereo speaker in its phone but the single speaker at the bottom in One A9 disappoints us. A good sound comes from the speaker but there is some trouble. However, the phone has boomsound technology inbuilt for volume and Dolby Tuning is also given.
The phone performs well on both 4G and Wi-Fi networks. While the second device gets to see problems in the network and Wi-Fi signal, we got a good response from HTC One A9. The voice quality of the phone was also excellent. The battery of HTC One A9 lasted for 9 hours 35 minutes in our loop test, which can be called right according to the size of the battery. Continuous use and battery on 4G connections does not support all day.
Our decision
HTC is mostly known for its M-Series flagship smartphone product but the company has also introduced some memorable phones in its affordable segment. With One A9, HTC has launched a new category below the flagship smartphone. The HTC One A9 may not be a showstopper but it is a balanced phone with a good price and feature.
HTC One A9 is nice to be seen with magnificent screen, good performance, up-to-date software, better fingerprint sensor and good cameras. The phone has tremendous network and Wi-Fi capacity, all basic features with good audio call quality. The audio coming from the battery life and its single speaker is the real shortcomings of this smartphone. This phone with a iPhone design is available for Rs 29,990. At this price, HTC has given all the necessary features to the users and this smartphone can give a tough competition to Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016).