HTC One A9

The HTC One A9 is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by HTC. It was officially announced on October 20, 2015.^[2][3] It is the successor to the One M9 in the United States; but in global markets, it was sold alongside the One M9 as a mid-range offering.^[4] It was launched as an effort to improve the revenue of HTC's smartphone business after the failure of the One M9.^[5]

It features a unibody aluminum frame with a Super AMOLED HD display and Dolby Surround sound for headphones. It also features a fingerprint sensor which can be used to unlock the phone. It is the first non-Nexus device to be pre-installed with Android Marshmallow and the first non-CDMA phone that is compatible to work with the Verizon network in the United States.^[6][7]

It received mixed reviews following its release. While many critics lent specific praise to its construction and fingerprint scanner, other aspects have generally received indifferent or mixed reception. Some thought that its price point was too high, while others thought it was a clone of the iPhone 6. In November 2015, HTC reported a 15 percent increase in overall revenue

Software[edit]

The device is pre-installed with a customized version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow along with a lighter version of the Sense 7 as the user interface utilizing stock android experience which is known as Sense 7G.^[25] Unlike the Sense 6 and 7 used on other devices, the Sense 7G utilizes the material design as the default color scheme, the stock notification and recent apps menu are used instead of the HTC's own design of notification and recent apps menu.^[25] The color schemes, icons, sounds, and fonts throughout the operating system can be customized by using HTC Themes where the users can create their own themes or download additional themes.^[26] It is also the first non-Nexus device to come pre-installed with Android Marshmallow.^[27]

Pre-loaded applications on the A9 provide access to Google’s various services, including Google Play, which can be used to download and purchase apps, music, movies, and e-books. The phone also features HTC's software suite such as BlinkFeed, Gallery which supports to display and edit images in RAW format and Zoe which allows users to collaborate on highlight reels but it no longer features the HTC's Music app and instead comes pre-installed with Google Play Music.^[25][28] The phone utilizes the Marshmallow features such as Google Now on Tap which allows users to perform searches within the context of information currently being displayed in an app, a new power management system that reduces background activity when a device is not being physically handled which is known as "Doze", native support for fingerprint recognition and the ability to migrate data to a microSD card and use it as primary storage, as well as other internal changes.^[25]

HTC has committed to provide software updates for the unlocked variant of the phone within 15 days after the software update for the Nexus devices released byGoogle.^[a][29][30] They have also mentioned that the users of the unlocked variant of the device can unlock the bootloader without voiding the warranty of the phone