After several leaks this month, HTC has revealed its new midrange HTC One smartphone, the HTC One A9 – although the AMOLED display is actually an upgrade from the LCD screen used on the more expensive One M9.
Like other One-series models, the A9 is all metal, and 7.6mm thick. It has a flat back, unlike the One M9, with curved Gorilla Glass protecting the 5″ screen (1920 x 1080).
The Boomsound speakers from the M9 have been replaced by a single front-facing speaker, although HTC has included a fingerprint scanner in lieu. The 20MP camera sensor has also been replaced, this time with a 13MP sensor – although HTC hopes that the f/2.0 aperture, backside illumination and optical image stabilisation will keep image quality high. The camera can shoot images in RAW format.
Internally, the A9 runs Android 6.0 on an octa-core Snapdragon 617 SoC (4 x 1.5GHz, 4 x 1.2GHz). It has 3GB of RAM and can accept a micro-SD card (up to 2TB). The 2,150mAh battery is good for up to 12 hours of video playback.
HTC will begin selling the One A9 soon, for $400. It will be protected by HTC’s ‘Uh Oh’ no-questions-asked replacement policy for the first year of ownership.
