We never had to blame HTC in the obvious borrowing of ideas from Apple and other manufacturers. The Taiwanese company has a long history and many of its unique development, but a first time for everything. No matter how good the HTC One A9, talking about it, mostly about how the phone “like an iPhone, only for Android”. But is it bad? Maybe that is what the company had hoped?
HTC One A9, official portrait
In addition, HTC is clearly counting still and for the audience that likes the design of Apple, but not willing to put up with the peculiarities of iOS. It seems that it worked: the buzz around new items were many, the first results of One A9 sales came in better than expected, and early adopters while everyone is happy. It seems that the obvious similarities of design with One A9 iPhone 6 is seriously concerned only journalists and bloggers.
Specifications, package contents
HTC One A9
HTC One M9
Operating system
Android 6.0 Marshmallow + HTC Sense
Android 5.1 Lollipop + HTC Sense
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617, 4 core 1.5 GHz + 4 cores 1.2 GHz; GPU – Adreno 405
Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 4 cores 1.5 GHz + 4 core 2 GHz; GPU – Adreno 430
Memory
2/3 GB RAM, 16/32 GB storage, slot microSD (up to 200 GB)
3 GB RAM, 32 GB of storage, a microSD slot (up to 200GB)
Mobile communication/data transmission
GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, HDSPA/HSUPA, LTE
GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, HDSPA/HSUPA, LTE
Screen
5 inches, 1080х1920 pixels, AMOLED, 441 ppi
5 inches, 1080х1920 pixels, Super LCD3, 441 ppi
Interfaces
USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS/GLONASS, NFC
USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS/GLONASS, NFC
Camera
primary – 13 MP, autofocus, flash, front – 4 MP, without autofocus and flash
primary – 20 MP, autofocus, flash, front – 4 MP, without autofocus and flash
Battery
2150 mAh, non-removable, lithium-polymer
2840 mAh, non-removable, lithium-polymer
The format of the SIM card
nano-SIM
nano-SIM
Dimensions, weight
146x71x7,3 mm, 143 g
145x70x9,6 mm, 157 g
Approximate price
40 000 rubles
41 000 rubles
HTC One A9 in Russia is sold in two colors, black and silver, and in two versions that differ in memory size (16 GB with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB with 3 GB RAM). Interestingly, in both cases there is a microSD slot that supports cards up to 200 GB. In other markets, the smartphone can be found in gold and Burgundy.
All of the available colors of HTC One A9
Included with the HTC One A9 comes charger with separate USB cable and a decent wired headset, which unambiguously suggests that the HTC appreciate the audio capabilities of the smartphone.
Design, construction
Agree, iPhone is a very good example to follow. It has a nice and convenient form the body, finished with glass and aluminum, and ergonomics in order. Due to the larger screen (4.7 inches vs. 5) A9 HTC One is slightly larger iPhone 6s, but the difference can only be noticed if you put two devices near each other.
General view of the HTC One A9
The front side of the body HTC One A9
The front side is completely covered with glass Gorilla Glass 4, the edges of which are rounded smoothly – now it is called 2,5 D. the solidity of the back side of the broken thin plastic inserts that perform the role of “Windows” for antennas located inside the enclosure. Both the iPhone executed perfectly as well. But if you look closely, you can see a lot of differences.
HTC One A9 in shooting mode
For example, instead of a round button with a fingerprint scanner under the screen HTC One A9 is a small frosted oval panel that responds to touch, but not physically pressed. Integrated scanner works surprisingly quickly and clearly – no worse than the iPhone 6.
Caseback HTC One A9
Case HTC One A9 is made of durable aluminum alloy, all my attempts to bend the smartphone was not successful. But the main thing is the texture of the surface is not so slippery as the iPhone; which means you never have to worry about accidently dropping the device, if it is used without a case.
HTC One A9 side view
Suddenly the easy solution is a power button located on the right side. The grooved surface allows for quick and grope her finger when the phone is in your pocket.
Unlike flagship smartphones series One M, HTC One A9 no two front speakers BoomSound. Does this mean that the smartphone began to sound worse? Unfortunately, Yes. However, it remains positioned as a solution for lovers of quality sound. Read more about this below.
HTC One A9 side view
And while I should add that the casing is the HTC One not folding A9. Access to the battery we do not have, and SIM and microSD card are inserted in metal trays located on the left side of the body.
Screen, camera, sound
The screen can be recorded in the list of the main advantages of the smartphone. This high-quality AMOLED-matrix with a diagonal of 5 inches and a resolution of 1080х1920. Obviously, this is not a fancy screen on the specifications, but HTC One A9 – not the most expensive smartphone on the market, so that the selected option is optimal.
The HTC One screen A9
AMOLED matrix has a high contrast, information is perfectly readable outdoors in bright sunlight. Viewing angles are maximum, in this regard, the display HTC One A9 can be compared with the best AMOLED-matrixes (for example, in Samsung flagships). But for those who are not happy with high color saturation such in settings profiles, which slightly change the color closer to what you can see on the LCD displays. But in my opinion, when you select any of the profiles except for the AMOLED, the picture becomes worse.
The built-in camera lens HTC One A9
HTC One A9 in shooting mode
The role of the main camera in the HTC One A9 uses a 13-megapixel sensor manufactured by Sony. In the official list of specifications it is not specified, but we know that’s Exmor IMX214 resolution 13 megapixels. The quality of shooting in daylight is quite high, but at dusk or in a poorly lit room with a characteristic noise. It is worth noting that automatic increases ISO to maximum unless necessary – the camera has optical stabilization, so getting clear pictures possible and at slow shutter speeds. Individual plus – the ability to shoot at close range (literally a couple inches). iPhone 6 and 6s, with whom I constantly have to compare A9 such possibility do not give. Below are some examples of photos taken with the main camera.
In place of the front camera is a long-standing “Ultrapolling” module HTC, which has a resolution of about 4 megapixels (2688х1520). The autofocus, but the viewing angle is very wide, so depth of field is enough for almost all scenarios.
The optical stabilization clearly visible in movie mode. Pay attention to the corners of the frame while moving the camera when viewing a test video. The possibility of shooting video in 4K smartphone offers, but the quality of video in Full HD at 30 frames per second no problems.
Instead of bother on the sound built-in speakers, the HTC One A9 more attention paid to sound in the headphones. The smartphone has a built-in DAC, and the box contains not the most modest headset – it sounds objectively better than any other standard headphones. However, for full disclosure of potential it is desirable to have more expensive headphones. I’ve happened to music on iPhone 6S A9 and with headphones AKG N20, and when playing the same tracks (in MP3 320 kbps and FLAC/ALAC) the sound in the performance of the TC I liked it more than the iPhone 6s. But I’m willing to bet that to catch such subtle differences most users will be simply unable.
Performance, autonomy
HTC did not want to prevent competition A9 with other smartphones, so on a truly flagship hardware base could not dream of. Instead of Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (or 808 at least) we have 617 Snapdragon chipset with four cores Cortex-A53 (1.5 GHz) and the same four cores with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. The CPU works in conjunction with a graphics accelerator Adreno 405 and 2/3 GB of RAM, depending on the modification.
The results of testing HTC One in AnTuTu A9
The results of testing HTC One A9 in Geekbench
In synthetic tests is no difference between 2 GB and 3 GB of RAM is not visible, so buy a model with a large amount of RAM is for the future. That is, the owners of One A9 processor with 3 GB RAM Android start to slow down and lag a bit later.
The results of testing HTC One A9 in 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
The results of testing the autonomy of HTC One A9 in PCMark
Package GeekBench 3 measuring the speed of the CPU shows not the most impressive result in single-core mode, but when the benchmark uses all cores, the performance is greatly improved.
In the tests, showing the performance of the overall platform (AnTuTu) and graphics performance (3DMark Ice Storm) significantly lag behind current flagships (Sony Xperia Z5 in particular), but for the smartphone mid-range HTC One A9 holds quite well.
HTC One A9
Game
2 hours 50 minutes
Video
7 hours and 20 minutes
Reading
8 hours 30 minutes
If A9 was superior to closest competitors in battery life, then its hardware would not be any issues. However, the results of the tests of “endurance” One A9 in different modes cannot be characterized otherwise than average. The best result in comparison with the HTC One M9 is the merit of a lower cost platform, but if A9 got the battery at least 3000 mAh the results could be amazing.
Conclusions
Obviously, HTC One A9 – not the smartphone that you can buy, coolly calculating the cost of each of gigahertz, inches and megapixels. For those advanced settings at the lowest price, there are Meizu, Xiaomi and Huawei. If you compare A9 with flagships A-brands (Samsung, Sony and Apple), it will be a little cheaper and more modest from the standpoint of performance, but the General level of performance he does is not inferior. This and superb screen, and excellent build and high quality materials. The design is unoriginal, but in the world there is no shortage of people who would like to get an iPhone running Android, so this controversial move by HTC may be justified.
HTC One A9 (all in white)
I think that A9 is also likely to appeal to longstanding fans of HTC who are still using flagship smartphones of the past years. Someone the cost of the smartphone may seem high in December he asked for 45 thousand rubles, but today it can be purchased for a smaller amount – less than 40 thousand rubles.
HTC One A9
Advantages:
- similar to iPhone 6
- perfect screen
- good sound
Disadvantages:
- too similar to iPhone 6
- modest performance
- a little expensive in the Russian realities