Hands On HTC One A9 India

HTC India launched the One A9 today. The phone famously criticised for its iPhone-like design will soon be available across the country.

The HTC One A9 sports a 5-inch full HD (1080p) display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. Under the hood, the phone is powered by Snapdragon 617 64-bit octa-core SoC paired with 3GB of RAM, 32 GB built-in storage, and a microSD card slot.

On the camera front, the One A9 features a 13-megapixel primary camera with OIS and a 4-Ultrapixel front camera. Other features include a 2,150 mAh battery with support for Quick Charge 2.0. Connectivity options include 4G support, Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth and GPS.

The first thing that comes to ones mind when holding the One A9 is that the device looks and feels exactly like the iPhone 6. The phone is light and the fingerprint sensor is highly sensitive. There is no denying the fact that HTC has explicitly ripped off the iPhone, and perhaps that’s not such a bad thing. For the one thing Apple does succeed in is create beautifully crafted devices, and HTC wants to bank on some of that magic to attract customers, albeit unabashedly.

The HTC One A9 is a good device, and yes, we’re including the design aspect as well. But it doesn’t come quite close to a flagship killer. You can’t hate on the looks here, the metal unibody frame is a winner no matter which brand sports it. The curved edges and curved glass screen gives the device a premium look. The team behind the design of the One A9 have stated that great amount of time and attention has gone into its design, which does feel true. The power button on the side is thoughtfully textured so that its easily distinguishable from the volume control.

Moving from design to functionality, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor won’t beat the flagship phones with faster 808 or 810 chips or even compare to the latter when it comes to 3D gaming, but it’s powerful enough for normal smartphone usage.

The 3GB RAM variant handles tons of apps well and the overall feel is quite smooth. The device comes with Android Marshmallow pre-loaded, which makes it one of the first phones outside the Nexus devices to do so. With the Marshmallow OS you get features like Now on Tap and Doze, among other things. The device also allows for storage expandability up to 2TB even though the capacity isn’t something easy to find in your local store.

Moving over to the camera department, the HTC One A9 along with the Desire 828 have been launched with the tag line ‘the ultra selfie phones’. Indeed, the camera of the One A9 is quite good and manages to take decent images in low light as well.

Although today’s event saw the launch of the One A9, the company is yet to announce the Indian pricing or availability of said device. Approximate pricing of the device is touted to be about Rs. 26,499. Follow this space for more on the launch of the HTC One A9.