HTC One A9 first impressions

The new HTC One A9 has been available around the globe for a while now, but I finally got my hands on the phone 48 hours ago when a demo unit showed up at my door. I would have had the phone five days earlier if it wasn’t for some absurd import tax charge tacked on by the EU, but that’s a story for another time. My full review of the HTC One A9 isn’t going to be ready until next week, but I wanted to share my first impressions of the device.

Since the design of the HTC One A9 has been quite controversial, I think that’s the best place to start. There’s no denying that the HTC One A9 does look a bit like an iPhone. HTC tweaked its unibody aluminum design language a bit, but the device still looks and feels like an HTC One. The One A9 shares more design similarities with the One M8 than with the One M9, but that’s a good thing in my book. The phone is just the right size, fitting comfortably in my palm. I love the 2.5D glass which wraps around the front of the phone. It brings back memories of the HTC Droid DNA, one of the most gorgeous phones of 2012. Having the HTC logo crammed between the display and the fingerprint sensor feels a bit awkward, but its gray coloring makes it barely noticeable unless you’re looking at the phone in direct sunlight or in a well-lit room.

The fingerprint sensor on the One A9 is a delight. I still have to remind myself to use it every now and then, but it’s a lot more convenient to turn the phone on and unlock it in a single gesture than double tapping the screen to wake the phone and then swiping my thumb over the screen for my unlock pattern. So far, the fingerprint sensor has been very reliable, only twice asking me to “Try Again.” It would be nice if HTC had copied the design of the Sony Xperia Z5 and incorporated the fingerprint scanner into the power button on the side of the phone, but its placement on the One A9 will be quite familiar for anyone who’s used to Samsung or Apple phones.

As far as specs go, the HTC One A9 is inferior to the One M9. That being said, the only time that I’ve noticed that the phone has less horsepower under the hood is when I load up graphic intensive games. The gameplay itself is quite smooth on the One A9, but the Snapdragon 617 inside the phone does lead to slightly longer load times when games are initially launched or between levels. The difference is negligible and shouldn’t even be a factor to consider if you’re don’t play a lot of games on your phone. 

This brings us to the HTC One A9’s camera. After the HTC One M9 was introduced with less-than-stellar imaging capabilities, it appear as though HTC is again moving in the right direction with the camera on the HTC One A9. The phone’s 13 megapixel sensor has been paired with optical image stabilization (OIS), allowing the phone to capture better shots when the lighting isn’t perfect. The OIS also helps when capturing HDR images, taking the jitters out of standard video recording and those captured with the One A9’s new HyperLapse feature. The camera isn’t perfect, but its an improvement over the One M9.

There are still a lot of details to explore in my full review of the phone, but so far the HTC One A9 has been a stellar phone. I do miss HTC’s trademark BoomSound stereo speakers, but leaving them out isn’t going to alienate a lot of people, especially since HTC is pitching the HTC One A9 as an Android-powered iPhone alternative, not a replacement for the HTC One M9. It will be interesting to see how general public will react the HTC One A9 and if the phone can help steer HTC’s financials back in the right direction.