By 
The HTC One A9 is official, and the iPhone jokes have already run dry. This latest device from HTC isn’t a powerhouse, but we thought it would be interesting to put it up against their last flagship phone. The HTC One M9 was launched only 6 months ago, but it didn’t receive a great reception. The specs for the One A9 are mostly mid-range, but it actually shares a few things with the One M9, and even bests it a couple of important spots.
The A9 and M9 both have 5-inch displays with 1080p resolution. It was slightly disappointing when the M9 launched with a 1080p display while Samsung and LG have passed that a couple of generations ago. However, it’s more forgivable on the A9, since this is a mid-range device. The two devices also share the same UltraPixel front camera, 3GB or RAM, and 32GB of storage.
One spot where the A9 actually beats the M9 is software. The A9 is one of the first devices to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. Only the Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X currently have Marshmallow. HTC also guarantees that the A9 will be updated no more than 15 days after an update hits Nexus devices. The other thing that the A9 has is a fingerprint scanner. That’s another benefit of having Marshmallow on board. You’ll be able to use the fingerprint scanner for a bunch of things.
Now, for the specs that put the A9 in the mid-range category. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 617. You’re not going to get the same great performance as the Snapdragon 800 series, but the 617 is still a very capable processor. The camera on the A9 is only 13MP. Megapixels don’t always tell the whole story, but the 20MP camera on the M9 wasn’t very good, so we’re not overly confident about this one. Lastly, HTC has equipped the A9 with a 2,150 mAh battery
The biggest downside to the A9 might be the price. It costs $399 unlocked, or from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. For that very same price you can get the Motorola Moto X Pure Edition. You could also pick up the slightly better One M9 for around the same price on the used phone market. For a mid-range device we expected a more mid-range price. Will you be considering the One A9?
Comments