HTC One A9 vs HTC One M9

HTC One A9 vs HTC One M9




Earlier this year HTC released the HTC One M9, a gorgeous smartphone with a metal unibody. Now the company is back with a new phone dubbed the HTC One A9 and it's still packing strong design language, and is every bit as metal.
The name is also similar, but there are a lot of differences between these phones, from the processor, to the camera and beyond. Here's what you need to know.

Design

The HTC One A9 has a slim metal shell, with dimensions of 145.75 x 70.8 x 7.26mm. It's not entirely dissimilar to the metal-clad HTC One M9 and both phones have antenna lines running across the back, but the One M9 is a lot thicker at 144.6 x 69.7 x 9.6mm.
That extra thickness allows the back of the older phone to curve though, so it can sit comfortably in your hand.

There's more difference round the front, where the HTC One M9 has dual BoomSound speakers taking up space above and below the screen. The HTC One A9 doesn't have those but it does have a fingerprint scanner under the display, while the front of the M9 is a button free zone.
Both phones look distinctly stylish, but with its rounded shape the M9 is to our eyes a little nicer, though also chunkier.

Display

On paper there's nothing to choose between the screens on these two phones, as both have a 5.0-inch 1080 x 1920 display. They even have similar levels of protection, with Gorilla Glass 4 keeping them safe from scrapes and scratches.

We found the screen on the HTC One M9 to generally be pretty good, but sometimes a little dark, and with the Full HD Super AMOLED screen on offer, the One A9 is a much more impressive display.
Colors look richer, the contrast ratio is much improved and, generally, it's a nicer phone to use when watching Netflix, browsing the web or just looking at pictures you've just taken from the phone.

Power and performance

The HTC One A9 has an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor with four cores running at 1.5GHz and the other four at 1.2GHz.

The HTC One M9 on the other hand has an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip, with four cores clocked at 2.0GHz and the remaining four at 1.5GHz. So it should be a little faster than the A9, though both are backed up by 3GB of RAM.
They also both come with a maximum of 32GB of storage and a microSD card slot, but the HTC One A9 has the edge here as it supports cards of up to 2TB, while the HTC One M9 tops out at 128GB.
That being said, HTC is splitting its strategy with the internal capacity of the One A9 - as well as the RAM. Asia will get both 16GB and 32GB variants of the phone, with 2GB and 3GB of RAM respectively, but the UK will only get the former, with the US being 'stuck' with the higher-spec model.

Camera

There's a 13MP snapper on the back of the HTC One A9, complete with optical image stabilisation and support for filming video in 1080p. The HTC One M9 doesn't have optical image stabilisation but it ups the megapixels to 20.7MP and the video resolution to 2160p.

The M9's camera is highly competent, but not quite a rival for the best out there. As the HTC One A9 isn't quite a flagship we wouldn't expect its camera to be among the best either, but it does offer a decent performance in our early testing - bringing it alongside the impressive latest slew of Motorola phones, for instance.
Round the front both phones have UltraPixel snappers adept at capturing lots of light, so you should be able to take decent shots even in dim environments.

Operating system

Both the HTC One M9 and the HTC One A9 run Android overlaid with HTC Sense, but the A9 ships with Android Marshmallow, while the M9 currently runs Android Lollipop, which is the previous version of the OS.

An update to Marshmallow is expected for the M9, but until that arrives the HTC One A9 has the edge, with full permission control for apps, improvements to Google Now and more besides.
The HTC One A9 has a more simplified UI as well, taking a lot more cues from Android's stock interface and shedding a lot of the HTC-created apps in favor of the stock Google options to keep the internal storage more agile and sleeker.

Features

The big feature the HTC One A9 has which the HTC One M9 doesn't is a fingerprint scanner, giving you one more option for securing your phone and, perhaps more importantly, making the A9 fully equipped to use Android Pay.

It doesn't have the HTC One M9's dual front-facing speakers though, so don't expect audio quality from the phone to be as good from the mono speaker at the bottom.
The A9 is also offering hi-res audio at 24-bit sampling, so the output of even the tinniest tunes is enhanced. That said, it's not a new trick for today's smartphones, but it's a big step forward for HTC, a brand that prides itself on its audio performance.

Battery

The HTC One A9 has a 2150 mAh battery quoted for up to 16 hours of talk time, while the HTC One M9 has a larger 2840 mAh battery which can supposedly last for up to 21.7 hours of talk time.

That doesn't sound too promising for the HTC One A9, especially as in practice the M9 was often running on empty long before bed. At least both phones support Quick Charge 2.0, so you can get them back up and running fast.
The One A9 does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve, mostly coming from the improved efficiency of Doze mode from Android Marshmallow and the lower-power (and newer) Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chipset, so there's a good chance it could outlast the older model despite having nearly 25% less battery capacity.
Price and availability

The HTC One M9 has been out a while and can now be found from roughly £375 if you shop around. The HTC One A9 on the other hand is launching for £429.99, which puts it in the curious position of being more expensive, despite arguably being lower end.
In the US, the One A9 will confusingly be available for the $399.99, which means you'll be paying less for a phone that has better specs than that available in the UK.
No, we've no idea how HTC thought that was a good plan, either.

Verdict

The HTC One M9 might be older than the HTC One A9 but it's also higher spec, with a faster processor, a bigger battery and more megapixels.
Then again the HTC One A9 benefits from a fingerprint scanner and comes with Android Marshmallow from day one, so it's a strong alternative, especially if biometric security is important to you.
The M9 is still HTC's flagship, but the sleeker design, improved camera and all-round upgrades of the One A9 could sway a lot of people - although not in the UK, where the price is inexplicably high for a lower-spec model.