HTC have a new device that they are set to officially announce to the world later on the month, on the 20 October to be precise. Meanwhile, the industry believes that this will be the HTC One A9 smartphone, which is set to be an upper mid-range ‘phone, also known as a supermid device. It’s likely to be based around a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, probably the Snapdragon 617, with 2 GB of RAM and a 5.0-inch, 1080p AMOLED panel rather than a QHD. HTC have been calling this a “hero device,” which for many meant that it would have an eyeball-bleeding specification, but it seems that the meaning of hero here is for something somewhat more realistic. Of course, the advantage of the device being a supermid range handset is that it will be considerably more affordable than a high end model.
Serial Twitter leaker, @OnLeaks, has published an image that shows the dummy One A9 to be used in AT&T stores, which appears to show a unibody design, presumably constructed of aluminum, complete with plastic antenna lines not so dissimilar to the theory behind the HTC One M7, subsequently used for later HTC models and copied by Apple. The One A9 appears to have the SIM and MicroSD tray on the side of the device and on the bottom, we have machined holes that appear to be for the speaker rather than HTC using their established front facing, dual stereo BoomSound setup. Instead, there’s what appears to be a fingerprint sensor below the screen at the bottom, looking very much like something Samsung would put onto their devices. It remains to be seen if HTC have replicated the separate amplifiers for the rear speaker(s) as their BoomSound technology includes, or if the One A9 simply has a speaker(s) assembly at the bottom of the device. The device is also set to come with a 13MP rear camera, a 4MP front facing camera (which utilizes HTC’s UltraPixel technology) and a relatively small capacity battery, at 2,150 mAh.
It would certainly be an interesting marketing strategy if the One A9 were set up to compete with the iPhone, because for a great many customers, they will pay a lot of money for the Apple logo regardless of the device it is included on. However, with HTC reputedly selling the device in six colors, this could very well be happening. We will need to wait until the device is officially announced to understand availability and pricing, and to glean a better understanding of what HTC means when it comes to the “hero” moniker they have applied to the One A9.
