"HTC One A9" is probably HTC's best attempt to get back on the smartphone competition. And by the looks and feel of the phone, it looks like the company might have developed a great smartphone that will put them back on track.
Here is a summary of the "HTC One A9" hands on review from Tech site GSMarena.
"HTC One A9" Design
"HTC One A9" has its aluminum unibody as its best selling point. It has a smooth matte finish that is probably smoother than the iPhone 6S' coating.
The back of the phone is flat which is unlike the previous 'One' models that had curved bodies. Additionally, One A9's flat body makes the whole device rather thin at 7.3 mm, making it the company's thinnest phone so far. The sides of the phone on the other hand, are not square edged. Instead, the front part and the back part curve towards the sides.
Furthermore, there is a Gorilla Glass 4 protection all over the front surface which is unlike previous HTC designs which did not cover the entire front surface with glass.
As good as how the "HTC One A9" looks, there is no front facing "Boomsound stereo speakers" that HTC has been known for. However, there is a fingerprint reader that is positioned well right under the screen.
On the left side of the phone, there are two card slots, one for a nano sim and one for a microSD card. By the bottom, there is a solo loudspeaker and a microUSB port with Quick Charge 3.0 support and an audio jack.
In general, "HTC One A9" has a great design and it has a good grip and feel as well.
"HTC One A9" Camera
The phone comes with a 13 MP BSI sensor behind an f/2.0 lens with optical image stabilization. There is a dual tone, dual LED flash and the lens has a sapphire cover protection. This protection is rather necessary as the camera actually protrudes slightly from tha back's surface.
The front camera has HTC's UltraPixel sensor (4 MP) which has an f/2.0 lens. There is auto mode for easy shooting and there is also a Pro mode so you can tweak shutter speed and other settings such as the ISO. And if you're into heavy tweakings, you can also switch to RAW files for later editing. The phone also comes with automative RAW enhancement capability that brings out the files' best quality after a few seconds of processing the file.
The Hyperlapse feature is also something the "HTC One A9" boasts of. It is basically a heavily stabilized time lapse videos that you can shoot by hand. So far, it is only available in iOS as an app called Hyperlapse, which makes it impressive for HTC to bring that functionality directly to their device. You would be able to speed up the vids by up to 12x and use Zoe to bind videos together and add some music to make the final output ready for sharing.
"HTC One A9" OS, Features
"HTC One A9" is the first non-Google (Nexus) smartphone to come out with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Other phones are upgradable to Marshmallow as well, but they are still waiting when. Android Pay is also enabled alongside the new OS version, together with the "Google Now on Tap" and the "Doze power state" functionalities, which are all useful and practical features for smartphone users.
"HTC One A9" Release Date, Price
Announced September 2015, the "HTC One A9" is expected to be released November 2015. Upon release, the device may belong to the higher price group and may cost at around 600 Euros.
