Before you go and take stinging jabs and distasteful remarks, let’s get the obvious fact out of the way. The new HTC One A9 looks almost exactly like the new iPhones. Design wise, it is 90% identical to the iPhone 6 or 6s. We left the other 10% out because of the placement of its rear camera, the fingerprint censor, home button and other minute details they changed to somehow become distinguishable compared to other flagships. Even the rear camera and flash are shaped the same. But, and this is a big “but,” it should be stated that this is a really good Android phone.
The looks
The most significant change, apart from the entire design, is the absence of its signature BoomSound speakers. They now have a single speaker. Guess where? And here’s the thing, other brands in the smartphone market have been copying or borrowing design elements from Apple for a very long time now. This is nothing new. However, almost perfectly cloning the iPhone can definitely throw the average consumer off a little. So much so, it’ll get more confusing because the phone weighs the same as the iPhone too. Again, you have a successfully cloned iPhone that is running Android. Some may argue that it’s a wannabe, while others will welcome the iPhone aesthetics with their more comfortable Android software.
Is it unoriginal? Sure. But it cannot go without comparison and we have to admit that it’s still an exquisite Android phone. In addition, the size of the new A9 is between the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. If you placed these three phones side by side, it’s literally choosing among small, medium or large; A9 being the medium option. It is 7.3mm thick and weighs 143g. It houses a 5-inch, AMOLED display with a 1080x1920 (441ppi pixel density) resolution. All of this protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
The works
It’s unfortunate how many will point out its design characteristics, blinding them from the fact that this is actually one of the best smartphones in the market right now. Straight out of the box, the A9 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617, quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 processor. It’s backed up by 3GB of RAM, which is now the market standard, on the 32GB model. The base 16GB model has only 2GB of RAM. In all honesty, we don’t know how many buyers would actually settle for the lower tier specs. In addition, there’s the 13-megapixel rear camera and the 4-megapixel front-facing camera.
Interestingly enough, HTC will not go as far as saying this is the best camera they have ever produced for a flagship. The truth is, many avid users and professionals have already stated it has the best camera HTC has provided for a smart device. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for its non-removable 2,150mAh battery. It’s not the best, but it will actually last the entire day. And yes, it’s actually smaller than the iPhone’s battery. But not to worry, just like all the other new Android devices, it has fast charging.
Another honest assessment is the phone actually performs quite well. It’s smooth and speedy. And even though it has the newest version of its Sense theme, you can easily remove or alter it to make it a more stock Android experience.
The verdict
Yes, it copied the iPhone, which is a shame because it diverts the attention away from a very good performing smartphone. This will turn off plenty of users who appreciated the unique approach HTC has taken with their devices. Unfortunately, the company’s profits have plunged over the past couple of quarters. This really isn’t helping with the overall image of their flagship line. Only time will tell if this somehow boosts their financial stance in the smartphone market.
What we have here is a pretty good phone, there is no denying that. And apart from its design, there’s another little snag. This might irk some of you, if not all of you. It has a premium price tag as well. $499 to be exact. At first, for a limited time in the States, they were offering the phone for $399. This move is to boost sales, but not knowing how the overall performance and outcome of its longevity might hurt HTC in the long-run. Yet again, we’re pretty sure many people out there wouldn’t mind buying a phone that looks like the iPhone but costs a little less. Not to mention it runs Android.
Whatever the overall number may be in sales, HTC has a tough mountain to climb. Sadly, they didn’t win too many points with their last One M9 model. Any tech enthusiast will tell you that this phone’s price is too high for what it is offering with its build and specs. It is better than all those knock-off clones of the iPhone, that’s for sure. But how long can these brands hold on to Apple’s coattails? Bold statement? Sure, but that’s not far from the truth at all.
