Review
placing a fingerprint scanner on the front. This
design departure has been a success and the
A9 looks like a sleek, premium device. It feels
top quality too, encased in an all-metal unibody
that screams class.
On the other hand, that fingerprint sensor
heralds the end of one of HTC’s major selling
points. The dual front-facing speakers have gone
and have been replaced by a single speaker on
the bottom of the handset. Nevertheless, the A9
has lost none of its audio quality as BoomSound
technology is still to be found inside the device
with Dolby Audio surround sound and 24-bit
lossless audio. The sound quality is staggering,
even through earphones where you can really
feel thumping bass and pure high notes. If you
love listening to music through your phone, this
could be the one for you.
HTC has always had a bit of a love-hate
relationship with its camera technology. It tried
to shift the goalposts with UltraPixel in the M8,
but that really didn’t take off as much as it had
hoped. As with the M9, the UltraPixel camera
remains, but only on the front; the A9 also
sports a 13MP camera on the rear with an f/2.0
aperture. Now this is one of the most impressive
camera apps we’ve seen. The pro settings are
easytouseand,onceyou’vegotthehangof
them, they can produce superbly detailed
images. When compared to the LG G3, the A9’s
detailing on clouds was superior and much truer.
Theautosettingsaren’tthebestsoyouprobably
will find yourself playing around with the settings
a little more than you’d like, but the fi nal result
can be stunning.
While the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 is a few
steps behind the 810 or Samsung’s Exynos
range, this is still a nippy device and you notice
very little lag or waiting time. Videos and games
play smoothly, even when there are other apps
running in the background, so the 2GB RAM
clearly isn’t having to work overtime. It does heat
up quite quickly, but it doesn’t reach the
uncomfortable levels that we found with the
Sony Xperia Z5.
While the fi ve-inch FHD screen is fantastically
clear and pixel-free, it is lacking a bit of
brightness. While the likes of the Galaxy S6 and
G4 can almost hurt your eyes at their top
setting, even at full whack the A9 can’t get a
terribly vibrant screen.
HTC has dragged itself kicking and screaming
into the upper mid-range war, but whether it is
quite worth the price tag remains to be seen.
This is a really smartly packaged
phone with only a few minor flaws,
including its large price
HTC A9
£419/$499.99
»More informationwww.htc.com
»Supplied byHTC
»^ Operating system ............. Android 6.0 Marshmallow
»^ Processor ................................^ Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
1.5GHz octa-core
»^ Memory ..................................... 16GB storage / 2GB RAM
»^ Dimensions ............................ 145.8 x 70.8 x 7.3 mm
»^ Weight .........................................143g
»^ Display size ............................5-inch
»^ Display resolution .............1080 x 1920 pixels (441 ppi)
»^ Front camera ........................4MP with UltraPixel
»^ Rear camera..........................13MP
»^ Connectivity .......................... 4G, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC
»^ Expansion slot .....................microSD up to 2TB
Te c h n i c a l s p e c s
The 2,150mAh battery is small and will only just last a
day,butitdoessupportQuickCharge2.0
Battery life
Verdict
Good for
Bad for
This is one of the best looking and best feeling HTCs
we’ve ever used
Build quality
Shipping with Android 6.0 is a great selling point as
everything is optimised for the new OS
Android Marshmallow
We would have liked a battery that could comfortably see
out the day and then some more
Battery life
It really is noticeable that the screen doesn’t have the
razzle dazzle of its rivals
Screen brightness
£32
per month
(contract)
£32.50
per month
(contract)
£32.49
per month
(contract)
Best deal
“HTC has dragged itself kicking and
screaming into the upper mid-range war”
Extra stability
HTC has included OIS in its
camera app so your photos
will be a lot more stable and
shake-free than in previous
HTC models. This feature is
only on the rear camera,
which also has auto focus
Make some Sense
HTC’s Sense skin is as good
asever.Itisclean,lightand
the ability to alter your
homescreen based on your
location is a great feature. It is
still one of the best Android
skins out there
Hyperlapse mode
Any videos you take can be
sped up thanks to the A9’s
Hyperlapse mode. You can
whizz through videos at up to
12 times the normal speed
with the slider and then save
it to create a high-energy
video clip. This also works for
downloaded videos