Driven by many market demands and product factors, HTC One A9 came into being. It adopts a brand-new industrial design, giving up the iconic BoomSound front dual speakers and the iconic double chin. The 2.5D glass design, which is very popular at this stage, also appeared in HTC mobile phones for the first time. At the same time, the curve of the back of the fuselage has also become smooth, rather than the middle bulge to cater to the palm. It really takes a lot of courage to make such a mobile phone that completely subverts its product ID. It is also difficult to predict whether we can get positive feedback from the market. But what HTC is currently facing is that it is really difficult to win the favor of users without changing.
"Basic parameters of HTC One A9
Screen characteristics
5 inches 1920* 1080 pixels, Samsung AMOLED, 2.5D glass.
Fuselage size
145.75x70.8x7.26mm
Fuselage weight
143g
processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 17
Network mode
Mobile, Unicom dual 4G, dual card dual standby
Body memory
16GB, supporting 2T expansion.
Random access memory
2GB
Camera characteristics
Rear 13 megapixel/front 4 megapixel UltraPixel camera
Characteristic part
Touch the fingerprint identification button on the front, and charge quickly.
Battery capacity
2 150mAh
operating system
China Sense Based on Android 6.0
Fuselage color
Black, white, red and gold
retail price
Not yet listed.
In terms of body size, HTC One A9 chose a 5-inch Samsung AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1920x 1080 pixels, which is just suitable for one-handed holding. As for the core hardware, the machine adopts Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 17 platform, supplemented by 2GB of running memory and 16GB of body storage, which can support 2 T memory card expansion at most. The built-in battery capacity of 2 150mAh can only be said to be quite satisfactory. However, due to the small screen size and relatively low power consumption of AMOLED material, it is no problem to maintain normal use for one day. In addition, the front 4 megapixel UltraPixel camera is also a highlight, and the high-sensitivity camera can also get good imaging results in dim environment.
"1.What is the biggest selling point of HTC One A9?
▲HTC One A9 is suitable for one-handed operation.
As we all know, HTC's application and grasp of metal materials have reached the point of incisively and vividly. Throughout its flagship mobile phone, whether it reflects the brushed texture of metal or the grip of metal material, it can achieve the top level in the industry. However, the unchangeable industrial design has caused consumers' aesthetic fatigue, making HTC products unable to win the favor of the market. However, the appearance of HTC One A9 can be said to completely subvert the family design concept of HTC. Let's integrate the current mainstream 2.5D glass screen and fingerprint identification buttons; At the same time, it also abandoned the "double chin" that was cut to pieces. In addition, at the system level, HTC is also the first mobile phone to let consumers experience Android 6.0 in addition to Nexus mobile phones. First, it is equipped with Qualcomm's latest mid-range chip Snapdragon 6 17 processor.
"second, why did you choose Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 17 processor?
Judging from Qualcomm's naming rules, Snapdragon 6 17 processor is not a flagship chip, nor does it have powerful hardware parameters. HTC chose it for four main reasons:
" 1、
After all, HTC One A9 is a revolutionary product, and whether the market feedback can meet the expectations is still unknown, so its birth has a certain testing nature. We can see that HTC is trying to avoid risks and is not desperate to use top-level hardware. After all, next year's HTC One M 10 is the core product.
"2、
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 10 processor has a bad reputation in the market due to power consumption and heat generation. At the same time, the mobile phone equipped with Xiaolong 820 processor will be launched early next year, and Snapdragon 8 10 mobile phone will soon be eliminated from the market.
" 3、
In addition, MediaTek Helio X 10 is nominally positioned at the high end, but its comprehensive performance is still not as good as Snapdragon 6 17. Moreover, due to Red Rice Note2, the chip will give people the impression that it is cheaper than 1,000 yuan, which does not meet the product positioning of HTC One A9.
"4、
Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 17 was just released in June. Compared with 6 15 and 6 16, it has obvious upgrade, and follows the principle of replacing the old with the new to ensure the product life cycle. As for its performance, it will be covered in a later processor article.
"Third, does it really look like an iphone?
Since the release of HTC One A9 abroad, many media and netizens think that the appearance of this phone is very similar to that of iPhone6. When I got this mobile phone, I did have the same opinion. There are several similarities with iPhone6: both of them adopt the basic design concept of front 2.5D glass+integrated metal body, relatively rounded body chamfer, circular protruding rear camera and dual color temperature flash on the right side of the camera. However, if it imitates the iPhone6 with these points, then many domestic mobile phone manufacturers will also lie down.
After a period of use, in fact, HTC has a lot of its own design essence than iPhone6. For example, a more concise design concept: only two nano-injection signal overflow zones are used on the back (there are four for iPhone6), and only the brand LOGO is reserved on the back, without online registration information.
"Fourth, what are the highlights of HTC One A9?
"Cancel the' double chin' design.
HTC's mobile phone products have been constantly pursuing multimedia playback, which can always bring users a better listening experience, such as BoomSound front dual speakers, iBeats headphones that have been standard in many products, and so on. However, it is also the reason of BoomSound. HTC has to make room for its front panel. As a result, the "double chin" appeared, which also lagged behind other mobile phone manufacturers' products in screen ratio.
This time, HTC One A9 cancelled the front dual speakers and took off the "double chin". Although it sacrifices some external experience, it is more in line with the public aesthetic in appearance. In addition, due to the cancellation of BoomSound, the positions of various components in the HTC One A9 motherboard have to be redesigned. It can be seen that HTC has made a lot of efforts for this product.
"Add 2.5D glass elements.
The "A" in HTC One A9 stands for AERO, and its main meaning lies in the glass texture that people can see through at a glance. Obviously, this time HTC should work hard on the face value, dilute the tough metal style before, and turn to a more refined and rounded glass texture. 2.5D glass is a rising design element in recent years. Its greatest advantage is that it can bring a jade-like visual impression and give people a crystal clear feeling.
In addition, the application of 2.5D glass in improving the grip of mobile phones is also very obvious. The phenomenon that the joint between the glass panel and the metal middle frame is easy to prick hands is alleviated. Holding it in your hand, whether you hold it forward or backward, can bring a round and comfortable feel. This is also the main reason why more and more mobile phone manufacturers are willing to integrate it into their own products.
"Add a fingerprint identification button.
The fingerprint button of HTC One A9 is touch, which is similar to HTC One M9+ and one plus mobile phone 2. Can't press, will affect the user experience to a certain extent. The root cause is that HTC has some concerns about patents. After all, as an international manufacturer, it needs to face the global mobile phone market. Apple has a patent for a round front-pressing fingerprint identification button, while Samsung has an oval button. HTC, which is already dying, can no longer pay high patent fees for this. So HTC can only do this, using fingerprint keys that cannot be pressed. However, according to the author's understanding, because HTC's Sense system has built-in virtual buttons and does not need the function of the front Home button, it is completely possible to put the fingerprint button on the back of the fuselage to increase the screen ratio as much as possible.
"There are still' slots'.
In fact, the redesigned A9 still has some slots. Perhaps it is to make this phone more like HTC, so even without a double chin, HTC's LOGO is still placed under the A9 screen. This makes the fingerprint identification button not in the center of the lower panel, which is a bit abrupt and easy to make obsessive-compulsive patients have strong dissatisfaction. In addition, the screen ratio of HTC One A9 is only 66.78%, which is only a little higher than the 65.62% of iPhone6. Compared with the current domestic mobile phones, it is really inferior.
"Five,13 million pixels, can bring excellent shooting results?
Compared with HTC One M9, A9 still chooses the 4-megapixel UltraPixel super-sensitive front camera, which can get excellent imaging effect even if it is really dark. However, compared with the flagship product HTC One M9, the rear camera has shrunk to a certain extent, from 20 million pixels to130,000 pixels, with a dual color temperature flash. As for the specific performance of the camera, let's take a look at the following sample.
Note: The following proofs are taken in automatic mode, and no post-processing will be done except cutting.
First of all, please forgive the foggy weather in Beijing ... Thanks to13 megapixel camera, HTC One A9 can have more delicate details after 100% image restoration. In terms of white balance, the imaging effect of HTC One A9 is gorgeous and pleasing to the eye. IPhone6 Plus is more realistic and restores the original color of things. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages.
▲
HTC One
Outdoor comparison proofs of A9 and iPhone6 plus
▲HTC One
A9 and iPhone6 plus
Indoor comparison sample
By comparing the proofs of HTC One A9 and iPhone6 Plus, we can see that the camera effect of HTC has been obviously improved, almost comparable to that of iPhone6 Plus. Especially the white balance debugging in outdoor environment, the two are almost the same. However, in the indoor environment, the iPhone6 Plus has a very good color reproduction ability, while the HTC One A9 is obviously cold.
Let's take a look at the usage of HTC One A9 in life. (Click on the sample to view the original picture)
"6. How is the experience of 6.Android 6.0 different?
As a mobile phone manufacturer facing the international market, HTC is not active in the development of software system, but the biggest surprise for HTC fans in mainland China this year is the addition of localization function, which is a sense of China for the domestic market. As far as HTC One A9 is concerned, based on the latest Android 6.0 development platform, it has slightly adjusted and upgraded the user interface and built-in software, and basically has no change in appearance, preferring the original style as a whole and ensuring the fluency and stability of the system.
Although there is almost no change in appearance, the details of the software are still worthy of our recognition. For example, this upgrade adds a self-made theme function, similar to the theme element collocation function in domestic ROM; At the same time, HTC security assistant software is added, which can obtain practical functions such as harassment interception and network control. Although these functions are not surprising in Flyeme/MIUI, HTC can optimize the localization requirements of these details. It can be seen that HTC really pays close attention to the China market, and gradually moves closer to the domestic ROM in terms of functions.
The fingerprint identification and input of HTC One A9 are very convenient. Users only need to change the position several times according to the prompts on the screen to input fingerprints. According to the author's test, a * * * probably needs to input 16 times, and the probability of prompting the input error is very small. Unfortunately, however, mobile phone fingerprints only have the function of unlocking the screen. As for the functions such as locking app and fingerprint payment, it cannot be realized and its practicability is not strong. But the recognition rate is very accurate and the response time is very fast. It is worth mentioning that no matter from which angle your finger presses the fingerprint recognition area, the mobile phone will recognize your fingerprint. Even if you press the fingerprint recognition area backwards, you can quickly and accurately enter the main interface, and the user experience is very good.
Generally speaking, the software system of HTC One A9 is still in the initial stage of customization, and most UI elements are the native style of Android 6.0. However, in the upgrade of localization, HTC has made great efforts, not only the yellow pages of life, surrounding facilities and so on. And the customized theme and safety management center that domestic users like are also brought together in this update. However, as an international big-name manufacturer, HTC has invested too little in software. Looking at mobile phone manufacturers at home and abroad, they can make the software experience perfect, have a wide range of fans and sell well. I hope HTC can discover this objective fact as soon as possible.
"seven. What is the upgrade of Snapdragon 6 17 processor?
At present, most mid-range models on the market are Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 15 and Snapdragon 6 16 processor platforms. There is not much difference in performance between the two CPUs. Comparatively speaking, Snapdragon 6 16 only upgraded four low-frequency cores from 1.0GHz to 1.2GHz. Snapdragon 6 17 abandoned the quad-core+quad-core architecture of Snapdragon 61615 and adopted the parallel eight nuclear architecture. At the same time, in addition to the core architecture upgrade, Snapdragon 6 17 processor has been upgraded in baseband, DSP (digital signal processing), storage and memory, and it also supports Qualcomm Qucik Charge 3.0 (fast charge) protocol. Generally speaking, the new processor brings faster signal transmission speed and memory reading and writing speed, lower power consumption, better audio parsing ability and so on. Although the performance is far less than that of Snapdragon 8 10 processor, it may not be lost in actual experience.
▲HTC One A9 has stronger performance.
HTC One A9 adopts Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 17 processor, integrates Adeno 405 graphics chip, and is equipped with 2GB of running memory and 16GB of body storage (supporting 2T expansion at most). The screen resolution level is 1080P, and it is equipped with 2 150mAh battery. Running score is similar to other Snapdragon 6 15 devices, Ann Bunny scores about 40,000, and Geekbench 3 also gives 735 points for single thread and 3027 points for multi-thread, which is also the standard of mainstream mobile phones at present, and can cope with any daily software and general large-scale 3D games.
"8. If you comment on HTC One A9, is it worth buying?
On the whole, HTC One A9 is a transitional product launched by HTC at the end of the year, because the mobile phone equipped with Qualcomm Xiaolong 820 chip will not be available until March next year. HTC urgently needs to launch a product. First, you can improve the exposure of your own brand. Second, it is necessary to test the water for the next generation of flagship products and study new industrial designs in order to gain market recognition. Therefore, the life cycle of HTC One A9 will be very short, and the development prospect of the future product line is not clear.
However, although HTC One A9 is a transitional work, it is rigorous in workmanship, popular in design elements and mainstream in hardware performance. For example, 2.5D curved glass, all-metal integrated fuselage, fingerprint identification function and fast charging technology are all its plus points. As far as the product itself is concerned, it has broken through the traditional design concept of HTC, and has a very exquisite appearance and mainstream hardware performance. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in software, which is also a common problem of international mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung and Sony. This is also the key point for HTC to break through the rebirth.
If you are a big fan of HTC and are using flagship products such as HTC One M8/M9, then I don't recommend you to buy this phone. After all, its performance is not as good as the above two models. However, if you have never used an HTC mobile phone before, pay more attention to the appearance of the mobile phone and are used to using the mobile phone as a multimedia player, then HTC One A9 can still be considered.