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This article was published on November 28, 2015 at 15:29.
The last change is the November 28, 2015 at 15:43.
The HTC One A9, newest member of the Taiwanese, has a face that will accompany us a lot of time. Its design will inspire in fact even the new top models (M series), it refers to the president of HTC North Asia Jack Tong. And this is perhaps the main reason why it is worth to draw attention to this mid-range model, which we tested. We are long-time users of the HTC models, having appreciated the choice of metallic design of the first “One”, which in fact has then become a real trend in the competition.
Not that HTC has an advantage of being very It was the precursor of the trend “full metal”. Or rather, its market share is constantly declining, much to disappear now in the ranking of the top vendors. HTC is now firmly represented in “Others” in the estimates of the market (recently Gartner believes that its share is around 2 percent in the world in smartphone sales). This explains the need to change everything with the A9, from the design, and the choice to make the flag of a new course for HTC. A course from which the house is hoping to get out of the crisis: in the second quarter of 2015 has experienced for the first time the red in the financial statements, after the (small and declining) profit of the year and the previous quarter.
But the paradox that all reviewers have noted international, and that is also evident in our hands, which is the importance of design to the aims of HTC is inversely proportional to its originality. The A9 is highly reminiscent of the iPhone 6 (in fact the same size), although HTC claims to have taken a path of evolution starting from One M9, the current top of the line.
To be objective, it would not even be a problem of the similarity with the iPhone 6S. Maybe it is for some purists, but it is certainly for the general public who aspires HTC. A smartphone with a nice design (like the iPhone 6 / 6s, in fact), thin, lightweight, ergonomic, but cheaper iPhone 6; with Android (6.0) and a 5-inch display, differentiating factors compared to Apple (whose sizes are 4.7 and 5.5 we remember). The problems of the A9 are others. And mainly: its introductory price (579 euro, even if it is already at 560 Euros online) undergoes a lot of competition from other models. And now that is a sensitive issue for the general public.
In particular, the A9 suffers compared with the Google Nexus 5X, but also with the “old” top of the range Samsung Galaxy S6, now respectively 430 and 460 Euros (online stores). The cheapest of the A9, but with superior characteristics, all things considered (here a comparison point to point). The display Hct is full hd, like the Nexus (against which, however, has a higher pixel density) but worse than the Samsung. The A9 has a good rear camera, but Samsung does best (with 100 euro less, remember).
The two rival models have a front camera and also more powerful processors.
Nexus is worse of the A9 just for the amount of RAM (2 GB 3G against the other two). The real strength of the A9 is perhaps support microSD (absent in the other, although with 128 GB dell’S6 they feel less need, compared to 32 GB of the other two).
The real disappointing aspect, in our test, in itself is the battery. Only 2150 mAh: hardly comes late in the day (the Nexus has 2700), as confirmed by several tests of specialized magazines. Of course, the duration is less than the HTC One M9 (2840 mAh). Unfortunately confirms a downward trend on the battery capacity, by producers, that at this stage prefer to sacrifice it in the name of the slim design (the same happened with the S6 towards Samsung S5).
Overall, the A9 is a valid mobile, but compared to the competition and for its costs too much. More in perspective, if the choice of design will be confirmed on the next flagship (M series), fans of HTC may be concerned by the disappearance of the main distinguishing feature of this brand: double speaker front. The top of the line HTC were the best phones on the market for listening to music or phone calls hands-free. The A9 has a mono speaker of good quality, to make room for a fingerprint reader that affects the speed and accuracy, the level of the iPhone, if not faster.
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