The final nail in the coffin for HTC. HTC One A9.

[cronos]

If you like the style I can't see why its a bad idea.

They got me on the 3GB RAM and microSD, or I would've gotten the 5X. With slightly cheaper price (with 32 GB) and 15-day update promise (which HTC never disappointed me regarding this since M7), it's kind of hard for me to choose the 5X instead of this. OIS is a bonus as well. Not to mention free replacement for a year for accidental damage.

Someone talk me out of this quick

 

[kaerflog]

If you like the style I can't see why its a bad idea.

Cause its still $400 for a mid range phone.
Brand new Moto X 2014 was just on sale for $200.

 

[postmortemIA]

Cause its still $400 for a mid range phone.
Brand new Moto X 2014 was just on sale for $200.

CPU specs wise sure it is mid range. But I wouldn't say it should be priced where moto x 2014 is. Many have given advantages of this device over other mid range and even some flagship devices.

Fingerprint sensor is advantage over all moto devices.
SD card and metal frame and 3Gb Ram is advantage over nexus 5x.

Sure it has many disadvantages as well.

 

[cronos]

Cause its still $400 for a mid range phone.
Brand new Moto X 2014 was just on sale for $200.

You're right, and I even agreed with you earlier, to not compare this with flagships, because it just wouldn't be fair. I can even put another one out there, the LG G Flex 2 is LG's 2015 'second flagship' and it's routinely being sold on eBay for $250. $400 for a mid-range is most definitely a high price. But then I found that I care about features, and not whether it's a flagship or not. The only thing I found mid-range about the A9 is the cpu.

I created a spreadsheet of phones available comparing features I wanted, and the only phone I want better than this is the Z5, and it's $150 more for the compact and another $100 on top of that for the regular). Not to mention those have to be imported, too, so they come without any kind of warranty. The Nexus 5X and the Moto X Pure are also in the running, but as I mentioned above, they're even more expensive and have at least a feature missing that I'm looking for that the A9 does have.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Cause its still $400 for a mid range phone.
Brand new Moto X 2014 was just on sale for $200.

That sale is over and now its not anywhere near that price. Plus that was for the 16GB model, and since the Moto X lacks a microsd that is the model you don't want to own. So $350 for a 32GB Moto X.

The Moto X is maybe faster on pure CPU and probably GPU, but it has less RAM (huge for me personally) a worse camera by a lot, and worse battery life despite a slightly larger battery. Oh and lets not forget the fingerprint reader, which is the "real" Android upgrade of 2015.

Bonus round is the fact that I actually still trust HTC for updates, but we can't trust Motonovo anymore. If you try to get a second-hand Moto X to try and match that deal price you might end up with a Verizon or AT&T version that will not get Marshmallow. Meanwhile HTC has been fairly solid in getting out updates to their devices quickly (they missed a self-imposed due date once), and they have cut down Sense on this phone to try to do even better. Their Google Play Edition devices have been getting updates a month after Nexuses, so I trust HTC about a hundred times more than the modern Moto when it comes to the all important updates category.

I would take this over a $350 Moto X all day.

 

[poofyhairguy]

They got me on the 3GB RAM and microSD, or I would've gotten the 5X. With slightly cheaper price (with 32 GB) and 15-day update promise (which HTC never disappointed me regarding this since M7), it's kind of hard for me to choose the 5X instead of this. OIS is a bonus as well. Not to mention free replacement for a year for accidental damage.

Someone talk me out of this quick

I agree with you on the 2GB Nexus 5X letdown. I burn through 2GB of RAM on my M8 way too quickly to upgrade to a phone with the same amount. Honestly I am kinda letdown more "flagship" phones didn't copy the Zenphone 2's 4GB of RAM.

 

[Megatomic]

So I went to my local AT&T store today and checked out the A9 in person. I am not gonna lie, it feels really nice to hold. The camera is fast. And the screen is gorgeous. The price with 2 year contract renewal is just $99 which my company will happily cover as they pay $199 for new iPhones. I will be getting one of these in January unless I can somehow get my manager to let me use someone else's unused upgrade early.

 

[zerogear]

5X 32GB with no external is around $500 isn it? -- This one has ext Storage as well as competitive pricing. Dunno what the stink is about.

 

[core2slow]

5X 32GB with no external is around $500 isn it? -- This one has ext Storage as well as competitive pricing. Dunno what the stink is about.

You can't be serious, right? You don't see anything wrong with pricing a midranger next to a flagship? Even if performance means squat to you, the 5X is a pure google phone, meaning that you'll get updates well after HTC go belly up and the fact that it has a much bigger battery.

 

[sweenish]

5X 32GB with no external is around $500 isn it? -- This one has ext Storage as well as competitive pricing. Dunno what the stink is about.

If storage is literally the only thing you care about, sure. But you have to know how ignorant that argument is.

And the A9's actual price is also $500. This promo price is temporary, HTC has botched their pre-orders, and backtracked on Verizon availability.

 

[cronos]

The 'stink' is real (mid-range cpu, tiny battery, actual price of $500, HTC's uncertain future, etc). The merit is real as well (3 GB RAM, microSD slot, free accidental damage protection). This is strictly comparing with the Nexus 5x. I do realize that all this comparison of this phone with Nexus 5x only matters under the assumption that you can get the A9 for $399. For its actual price of $100 more, I don't think it's worth the discussion.

Either way, there's no need to fight because I took one for the team and pre-ordered, so you all don't have to. I'll happily share my experience here when I get it.

HTC does botch the pre-orders and delayed shipping my order for about a week. Let's see if it actually ships this week. I don't really need it 'right now' so I'm not furious like a lot of people who actually preordered way back in the third week of October, but if they delay it again this week I may consider canceling.

 

[lopri]

:thumbsup:

 

[desura]

Is it just me...or do HTC phones do scrolling better than any other Android device? They seem to do as well as iPhones for scrolling responsiveness.

 

[cronos]

Is it just me...or do HTC phones do scrolling better than any other Android device? They seem to do as well as iPhones for scrolling responsiveness.

It's probably more related to hardware and Android version than the fact that it's an HTC phone (or Sense). Not sure about the newest M flagships, but on my M7 I still see those microstutters just the same.

Anyway, my A9 shipped today, with scheduled delivery date tomorrow, although I didn't pay extra for faster shipping. I guess I'm lucky that it turns out that they have a warehouse not five hours away (shipped from just outside Indianapolis).

 

[ChronoReverse]

Every Samsung phone I've owned also has slightly lower framerate and microstutters compared to equivalent level hardware from other manufacturers (LG and Htc are the comparators for me). Not sure why that is but I suspect the custom GPU driver Samsung uses (at least on Snapdragon).

Perhaps they've overcome this with the GS6 and Note 5? I know that as of the Note 4, this still persisted.

 

[mxnerd]

HTC drops One A9 price to $399 in store-wide sale

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/10/9703584/htc-sale-one-a9-price-399

The whole HTC management level should all be fired.

Its products are always announced, pre-ordered, then delayed.

It doesn't even know how to price a product properly and keep changing it.

 

[postmortemIA]

HTC drops One A9 price to $399 in store-wide sale

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/10/9703584/htc-sale-one-a9-price-399

The whole HTC management level should all be fired.

Its products are always announced, pre-ordered, then delayed.

It doesn't even know how to price a product properly and keep changing it.

or it was a ploy to get us to preorder? "Price is going up*"
* but there will be a sale if things don't go right

 

[senseamp]

No one believed that the $499 price will stick. They'll have never ending promotions and make themselves look like fools.

 

[Megatomic]

I hinted lightly to our IT/infrastructure manager that I'd like to upgrade early using an available upgrade on another company line but all I heard was crickets. lol I guess I am waiting until January after all.

 

[cronos]

Received my A9 today so here's the first hour TL;DR instant reaction:

Build is premium, there's no other way to say it. It's a smooth, exquisite piece.
But it's damn slippery.
I like the ridged power button in the side-middle.
It's a little too long for its width. If only the top/bottom bezels are smaller (sides are perfect).
Screen is fantastic. My eyes do agree more with AMOLED, so it's expected.
With the fingerprint set to protect the device, I found no way of turning off 'pin number to restart'.
No problem with snappiness for common operations. It's as quick as anything.
Battery life doesn't look too promising so far, but it's really really early.
It gets hot quite a bit right away after the first time adding a Google account and it was automatically updating like 10+ preloaded apps.
Camera seems okay, but haven't tested much.

 

[lopri]

Does it bend?

/jk

 

[Megatomic]

Received my A9 today so here's the first hour TL;DR instant reaction:

Build is premium, there's no other way to say it. It's a smooth, exquisite piece.
But it's damn slippery.
I like the ridged power button in the side-middle.
It's a little too long for its width. If only the top/bottom bezels are smaller (sides are perfect).
Screen is fantastic. My eyes do agree more with AMOLED, so it's expected.
With the fingerprint set to protect the device, I found no way of turning off 'pin number to restart'.
No problem with snappiness for common operations. It's as quick as anything.
Battery life doesn't look too promising so far, but it's really really early.
It gets hot quite a bit right away after the first time adding a Google account and it was automatically updating like 10+ preloaded apps.
Camera seems okay, but haven't tested much.

Keep the updates coming and thanks for taking one for the team. :thumbsup:

 

[poofyhairguy]

Received my A9 today so here's the first hour TL;DR instant reaction:

Build is premium, there's no other way to say it. It's a smooth, exquisite piece.
But it's damn slippery.
I like the ridged power button in the side-middle.
It's a little too long for its width. If only the top/bottom bezels are smaller (sides are perfect).
Screen is fantastic. My eyes do agree more with AMOLED, so it's expected.
With the fingerprint set to protect the device, I found no way of turning off 'pin number to restart'.
No problem with snappiness for common operations. It's as quick as anything.
Battery life doesn't look too promising so far, but it's really really early.
It gets hot quite a bit right away after the first time adding a Google account and it was automatically updating like 10+ preloaded apps.
Camera seems okay, but haven't tested much.

Awesome! I also can't wait for more updates. Would you mind running a benchmark or two? I would love to know the TX Rex Offscreen score in GFX Bench.

 

[Megatomic]

cronos, you said battery life looked not too promising. Can you elaborate at all, even initial observations would be of interest at this point.

 

[cronos]

Awesome! I also can't wait for more updates. Would you mind running a benchmark or two? I would love to know the TX Rex Offscreen score in GFX Bench.

I'll see what I can do. I don't think I've run a benchmark before, but it's just the GFX Bench app, right?

cronos, you said battery life looked not too promising. Can you elaborate at all, even initial observations would be of interest at this point.

That comment was just the initial reaction right after I turned it on, logged in, and it immediately updated like 15 preloaded Google apps while I mess around with it intensely looking at the settings, changing stuff, etc. It just felt like it's draining too fast in that one hour, although there are a lot of things happening in the background as it has just been turned on for the first time. The phone also gets hot quite a bit while doing this (which is probably related to the drain). I remember the M7 was like this as well in the first day.

One thing I could add is that over night, I don't think 'Doze' is working as good as I thought it would be. It lost maybe 5% in about 6 hours or so, not the amazing 2% in 5 hours like reported. I'll be closely monitoring this in the next few days, as this is essential to me.

Keep the updates coming and thanks for taking one for the team. :thumbsup:

No problem. I'm happy to report when I can. Hopefully kaerflog wouldn't mind that I sort of hijacked the thread with actual experience about the phone (that may be positive at times, possibly inconsistent with the title of the thread), but I think this is the right place to do it. We can have people bashing it (and HTC), praising it, and actual experience of the phone, all in one thread. It's going to be fun