Hands-on Review:- HTC One A9

DISCLAIMER

The opinion of this product is not to discourage the buyers for buying such product.

The opinion is just to state the pros and cons, with some introduction and specifications.

1. Introduction

HTC One A9 is not just a phone, it's a corporate rejuvenation. A9 is the boost HTC needs to swim out of the murky waters and claim its piece on the market. HTC may have outed a few very capable phones this year, but it needs a game changer, a statement that the king is still alive and kicking. But will the One A9 turn out to be everything HTC hopes it to be, or quite the opposite - a Pandora's Box of sorts?

HTC One A9 may seems like a departure from other One phones, but in fact - it's an evolution of the One M7. HTC flattened the metal unibody, thinned the profile and added a 2.5D front glass with curved edges following the recent trends. And there is the vivid AMOLED screen, the OIS camera and the microSD expansion slot - we won't object to any of that.

What's missing is the signature stereo speaker setup at the front - they were a major selling point of previous One smartphones. But keeping those speakers in the One A9 would have increased the AMOLED's bezels, which would have impacted the overall positive impression of a compact and beautiful phone.#GoogleGlass

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2. What I liked about it

-Build quality is excellent, as is the design, though the evolution of the design language has brought it dangerously close to the iPhone 6 and 6s;

-The AMOLED display is excellent, too: it offers class-leading contrast, vivid colors and wide viewing angles though only average maximum brightness.

-The sunlight legibility is great as well.Battery life is barely average at 46h rating, let down by poor web browsing score and mediocre call, video and standby endurances.Comes with rich wireless and wired connectivity options, but we miss the IR blaster.

-HTC Sense 7 is a deeply customized UI for the latest Android Marshmallow, but all the latest Android features such as Android Pay, the Now on Tap and post-installation app permissions are all there plus a lot more.

-The mid-range Snapdragon 617 chipset offers fast processing, but poor graphic performance on the 1080p display. The 2GB of RAM on our review unit are quite sufficient it seems.Video player codec support is a mixed bag,

-DivX videos and AC3 audio are no-go.Audio output quality is class-leading, being nicely clear and very loud just as advertised;

-Camera photos offer high level of detail, good dynamic range, great contrast, lively colors and accurate white balance. The noise levels are quite high though.

-The 1080p video samples came out soft with average detail and low dynamic range, the Hyperlapse videos are somewhat low in resolution. #Marketing

3. Main disadvantages

-Non-removable battery

-No IrDA port

-No fast charger provided

-Non-competitive price outside the USA

-HTC may have a claim on the controversial design, but it isn't popularized by the brand

-The One A9 seems like a proper mid-ranger, well equipped and thoughtfully targeted. The pricing in the USA has been more than attractive, but we have yet to see how the higher EU price will impact the sales.

Hopefully carrier contracts and retailer deals would help it in the long run as at its current commitment-free price its odds don't look so good.

We have some mixed feelings about why HTC has put so much effort into a midrange phone and the only logical answer seems to be that the One A9 is merely paving the way for the company's big return in the flagship segment. 

But until we wait to see how things will turn out - let's put the One A9 through its paces. Maybe it will be the market share booster after all.

4. Hence,

The HTC One A9 is supposedly the one smartphone to turn around HTC's low sales and redeem past mistakes. And it's a mid-range everybody should be delighted to have - the One A9 comes in a beautiful, sleek metal unibody, with a great 5" AMOLED screen, a capable enough Snapdragon 617 chip and there is even an optically stabilized 13MP camera on the back. It deals away with the stereo speakers though, which might be considered as betrayal among the most loyal HTC fans.

That however is not the thing that's bothering us. Our only concern with the One A9 isn't the controversial design, which may or may not be taking after the iPhone 6, but the pricing.

But wait, there is more. HTC is giving the USA fans even more special treatment by offering a a full year HTC UhOh protection for free, and half a year's worth of free Play Music subscription. How about that?!

And if you get the US exclusive special *unlocked* edition, you'd also benefit from a boot-loader unlock option without hurting the warranty plus HTC has committed to delivering timely Android upgrades to this version - and that's within 15 days of the moment the Nexus lineup gets it. It sounds quite a lot like those Google Play Editions of flagship phones that Google used to sell through its own online store.

 It's surely a step in the right direction, but unfortunately, it seems this edition will not be available in Europe.But if HTC One A9 has any chance to improve HTC's sales, fix past mistakes and account for a market share rise, the aggressive pricing on the US market is what we should be seeing in Europe too. #googleplusguides

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5. In my opinion (Read the Disclaimer above before reading the following)

The handset is what I would call a superbly optimized handset. Refined build and going back to the heydays of HTC design (they started unibody metal and the peculiar antenna placement). Slim, extremely zippy, sharp screen, great audio, good camera, smooth multi tasking and a reasonable battery that lasts 1.5 days with regular use. They somehow have got the mix right must say.
 

This is just the start of the innovation in den-ovation in HTC phones, I see people have commented great about the phone features and modifications in their new products. I will suggest you to wait for a month to get the real facts of the phone...One True Thing about the One Series, the battery is at it worst, there are no changes at all...in reality..it sucks!!!

What’s the reason of a 5 inch with 66% screen ratio?

Am in love with this phone as finger print scanning, display and the touch is fabulous. Though I have seen and used iphone 6s, I feel this phone of HTC is the best i have seen at this price and i love owning it.

Superb mobile HTC A9
Fingerprint is perfect than iphone
Smooth mobile n my opinion is best than iphone 6

fingerprint is fast and reliable like iphone 6s even better than iphone 

HTC one A9 have best fingerprint sensor of all smartphones till this day and the fastest one

Still now it's the market best finger print sensor.

People are not available under widgets though it's an unique and very useful feature of HTC!! I need this very badly; can anyone help me on this?

I bought so many HTC phones including all flagship models. Surprisingly I am seeing that "People" is missing as widgets in A9, instead "favorite contacts" is available under widgets which is not useful at all comparing to "people" as widgets. "People widgets" is unique to HTC and the most useful feature which others can't provide & this is one of the most important point for me to sticking with HTC from very beginning. Hope HTC will solve this in next software upgrade.

how is the battery life? specially with 2150 mAh

 Major problem with this phone is Battery. Stand by time I’m getting only 10 Hrs. If I use internet I won’t get more than 5-6 hrs.

Endurance rating of 46 hours. Are we going back to 2012? This isn't innovation, this is "denovation".

6. Specifications

NETWORK
Technology GSM / HSPA / LTE
2G bands  GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 - Americas HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G bands LTE band 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 12(700), 13(700), 17(700), 29(700) - Americas LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 28(700), 38(2600), 40(2300), 41(2500) - EMEA/ Asia
Speed HSPA, LTE Cat7 300/100 Mbps
GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes

LAUNCH 
Announced2015, September
Status Available. Released 2015, November

BODY
Dimensions 145.8 x 70.8 x 7.3 mm (5.74 x 2.79 x 0.29 in)
Weight 143 g (5.04 oz)
SIM Nano-SIM

DISPLAY
Type AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 5.0 inches (~66.8% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels (~441 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 4 - HTC Sense

PLATFORM
OS Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)
Chipset Qualcomm MSM8952 Snapdragon 617
CPU Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU Adreno 405

MEMORY
Card slot microSD, up to 200 GB
Internal 16 GB, 2 GB RAM
32 GB, 3 GB RAM

CAMERA
Primary 13 MP, f/2.0, autofocus, OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama, HDR
Video 1080p@30fps
Secondary 4 MP, f/2.0, 27mm, 1/3" sensor size, 2µm pixel size, 1080p@30fps, HDR

SOUND
Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes - Dolby Audio
- Hi-Res Audio

COMMS
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, apt-X
GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
NFC Yes
Radio FM radio
USB microUSB v2.0

FEATURES
Sensors Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
Browser HTML5
Java No - Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 2.0, 3.0)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP4/H.264 player
- MP3/eAAC+/WAV player
- Document viewer
- Photo/video editor

BATTERY 
Non-removable Li-Ion 2150 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 432 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 16 h (3G)
Music play Up to 60 h

MISC
Colors Carbon Gray, Opal Silver, Topaz Gold, Deep Garnet
SAR EU 0.41 W/kg (head)    

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