“Drawing on HTC’s iconic design pedigree and world-renowned technological innovation, the One A9s is created to inspire a new generation of phones that offers impeccable precision craftsmanship and quality at remarkably affordable value,” said HTC.
HTC One A9s release date and price
Sadly, HTC hasn’t been very specific with the HTC One A9s, saying it will be available in the UK later this year with “availability, colours and stockists will be confirmed in due course”. We’ve not heard from any retailers on the HTC One A9s price just yet but it’s not going to be a budget phone. The original One A9 launched with prices as high as £479 so we’re hoping that HTC will be able to undercut this and make it more affordable, especially when you look at the specs below.
HTC One A9s specs and features: HTC One A9 vs HTC One A9s
Although Apple’s iPhones which have a ‘s’ tagged on the end are an upgraded model, albeit sometimes minor things, HTC’s done the opposite with the HTC One A9s. It’s actually a downgrade in some areas. Although the screen remains at 5in, the resolution drops from 1080p to 720p and the tech is now Super LCD instead of Super AMOLED. Mainly, this means a fall from 441ppi to 294ppi in the pixel density department.
In the engine room is a MediaTek MT6755 Helio P10 octa-core processor and a Mali-T860MP2 which means a move away from Qualcomm with the One A9 featuring a Snapdragon 617. One thing which has stayed the same is the combination of 16GB storage with 2GB of RAM and 32GB with 3GB. There’s still a Micro-SD card slot for adding up to 256GB more with a memory card. Other downgrades include a lack of 11ac Wi-Fi and even though the camera remains at 13Mp, it has lower specs such as an f/2.2 aperture and no optical image stabilisation (OIS). The front camera switches from 4Mp UltraPixel to a regular 5Mp camera with smaller 1.12µm pixels and f/2.8 aperture. It’s also worth noting the phone doesn’t support 24-bit/192kHz audio playback. Not everything is downgraded, though, with Bluetooth 4.2 and a larger battery at 2300mAh – a small increase of 150mAh. The One A9s still features Micro-USB, NFC and the fingerprint scanner on the front. Tech Advisor’s Reviews Editor, Chris has been reviewing all kinds of tech for over 10 years and specialises in audio. He also covers a range of topics including home entertainment, phones, laptops, tablets and more.
