Earlier this week, we got a chance to check out the latest from HTC w/ the One A9. Before you call it an iPhone clone, HTC was doing aluminum unibody designs years before Apple made the switch. Now that we've got that out of the way on to more pressing matters.
It is the 1st device out of a Nexus to offer Android 6.0 Marshmallow at launch. So you'll get Google Now On Tap, Doze, app permissions w/ everything you love (or don't love) about Sense 7 out of the box. We spent a brief amount of time w/ it so we can tell you about it via our initial impressions on it.
- The design is simple yet still premium. It doesn't feel cheap at all. It has a nice weight to it w/o being a brick. HTC is gonna have to deal w/ the iPhone comparisons as Apple has a better hold on the public than they do.
- BoomSound is gone as they decided to focus on the audio you hear when plugged in. The new Dolby Audio Surround along w/ the built-in DAC to upscale sound quality makes for probably the best sound quality you will hear on a smartphone.
- HTC isn't known for having the best shooters in Android (they actually might be close to the worst), things are looking up w/ this f/2.0 13MP rear shooter onboard. I've seen some great shots and some not-so-great shots w/ this one. More better photos than not, though. From my short time w/ it, HTC looks to be improving their shooters finally. Having OIS is a big help but don't look for an option for 4K video here.
- HTC made sure to not to repeat the poor execution of fingerprint scanners they did w/ the One M8 Max. It is now on the Home button and appears to run a lot smoother and accurate. We saw it being used as we did not set up our fingerprints on it to truly test it out.
We'll see if we can get our hands on one (no pun intended) to see if this better than previous HTC endeavors as well as how well does it hold up against other devices within its price range.
