HTC announced the launch of their new HTC One A9 smartphone, a successor to the HTC One M9 from earlier this year. The smartphone company live streamed a launch event today where they unleashed the new mobile phone powered by Google’s new Android Marshmallow operating system.
The key here for the HTC One A9 is that HTC wants you to know that this is your phone that you can customize. It benefits from the Android Store, which isn’t locked down like the Apple Store, but also lacks the bloatware that Samsung phones come with.
Preorder for the phone begins today with a special introductory offer of $399 on HTC.com and comes in both 16GB and 32GB editions. Both of these editions feature the awesome Uh Oh Protection and 6 free months of Google Music service.
HTC One A9 New Features
HTC Rapid Charge 2.0: This allows your smartphone to charge up to 75% faster.
Expandable storage up to 2TB
Android Marshmallow OS
Much improved Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 617 processor
HTC One A9 Camera
Everyone knows that a phone’s biggest feature has to be the camera, which is why smartphone companies spend so much money on research and technology in that department. You’re always hearing about iPhone and Samsung cameras, but the fact is that HTC has some incredible technology of their own.
The main 13MP rear camera features Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which automatically minimizes hand shake and corrects vibrations to give you a clear photo every time. The front UltraPixel camera captures 300% more light than conventional smartphones.
Additionally, the phone is loaded with fantastic photo and video editing software.
HTC One A9 Design
The HTC One A9 has a noticeably different look than previous HTC One A9 phones, and I don’t think it’s unfair to say that it looks somewhat similar to an iPhone. After all, that is the market the phone is going after.
The phone boasts a 5-inch display screen, measures 145.75 x 70.8 x 7.26 mm, and weighs just 143 grams. The screen boasts Full HD 1080p resolution and is protected by 2.5 Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
HTC One A9 Sound
One of the things that we liked about the HTC One M9 was the sound quality and performance the smartphone offered, so it only makes sense that the company has carried that into the A9.
Rocking the powerful HTC BoomSound™ technology (a fan favorite) paired with Dolby Audio™ surround sound technology, we can almost guarantee that the audio from the One A9 will be better than that of your friends’ iPhones or Samsung devices.
As an added bonus, the HTC One A9 also features twice the output power in the headphone jack, allowing you to enjoy your favorite music at a level your parents would hate.
HTC One A9 Battery Life
One of the biggest complaints from HTC One M9 users was the quality of battery life on their smartphone. From the looks of the specs, it doesn’t look as though the phone has addressed that issue directly (M9 Battery = 2840 mAh | A9 Battery = 2150 mAh) but the company says the phone’s processor is optimized to maximize battery life throughout the day.
Additionally, the M9 will feature the quick charge which will offer up to 75% faster charging. We’ll hold our opinions until we have the phone in our hands, though.
HTC One A9 Colors
The HTC One A9 will be available in Opal Silver and Carbon Gray initially, then Deep Garnet and Topaz Gold will be made available in the coming weeks.
HTC One A9 Specs
SIZE: 145.75 x 70.8. x 7.26 mm
WEIGHT: 143g
DISPLAY: 5.0 inch, Full HD 1080p,
Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4
PLATFORM
Android™ 6.0 with HTC Sense™
PROCESSOR
Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 617, octa-core
64-bit, 4 x 1.5GHz + 4 x 1.2GHz
MEMORY1
Available configurations vary by market
Configuration 1:
ROM: 32GB
RAM: 3GB
Expandable: microSD™ up to 2TB
Configuration 2:
ROM: 16GB
RAM: 2GB
Expandable: microSD™ up to 2TB
NETWORK2
2G/2.5G – GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 MHz
3G UMTS
Varies by market
850/900/AWS/1900/2100 MHz
EMEA / Asia
4G LTE
FDD: Bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28
TDD: Bands 38, 40, 41
Americas
4G LTE with Voice LTE (VoLTE)
FDD: Bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 29
SENSORS
Fingerprint sensor
Ambient light sensor
Proximity sensor
Motion G sensor
Compass sensor
Gyro sensor
Magnetic sensor
Sensor Hub
LOCATION
Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS
CONNECTIVITY
Bluetooth® 4.1
Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 & 5 GHz)
3.5 mm stereo audio jack
micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port
SOUND
Dolby Audio™* and Hi-Res Audio
* Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories
CAMERA
Main camera
13MP with sapphire cover lens
f/2.0 aperture, auto focus, BSI sensor
OIS (Optical Image Stabilization)
1080p video recording
Front camera
HTC UltraPixel™
f/2.0 aperture, fixed focus
1080p video recording
MULTIMEDIA
Support for 24-bit, 192KHz high-resolution audio
Audio supported formats:
Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .flac, ac3, ec3, eac3
Recording: .aac
Video supported formats:
Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .avi, .mkv
Recording: .mp4
BATTERY
Capacity: 2150 mAh with Quick Charge 2.0 support (forward compatible with Quick Charge 3.0)
HD video playback: up to 12 hours
Audio playback: up to 60 hours
Internet use on WiFi: up to 9 hours
Talk time on 3G: up to 16 hours
Standby time: up to 18 days
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Premium all-metal unibody
Fingerprint-based security
RAW image capture
Hyperlapse video creation
High-resolution audio