So this is a bit of a tricky one. HTC announced their One A9 this morning in New York City. They also announced that it would be available from their website unlocked for $399. Sounds pretty decent right? And sounds like they have a lot of competition as well. The interesting thing here is that if you look at the technical specs, the HTC One A9 has support for Verizon’s network. Their 4G LTE network, which is a GSM technology. However, their Voice network and 3G network are on CDMA, and there is no CDMA support. So the HTC One A9 does technically work on Verizon, however if you are in area that doesn’t have 4G LTE, or you don’t have VoLTE, then you’re out of luck as your phone just won’t work.
The interesting thing here is that it does support CDMA on Sprint’s network, thus why Sprint is going to be carrying it in their stores. So if you’re looking to pick up the HTC One A9, you can grab the unlocked version of the device, and throw your Verizon SIM card inside and it’ll work, but when it comes to calls over the legacy CDMA network, it won’t. Not a huge deal for many people, as there is VoLTE and VoIP (for WiFi connections) that will work just fine for calls as well.
HTC has thrown on a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display on the One A9. Additionally it runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (at least in the US, other regions will likely get the 2GB/16GB combination) along with a 13MP camera on the back which HTC is touting again as a fantastic camera. HTC added a microSD card slot on the HTC One A9, so you can add up to 128GB of storage as well. And there’s a 2150mAh battery inside powering the show. All this for $399 unlocked and SIM free is pretty fantastic, actually. And it’s up for pre-order today. Sprint and AT&T have announced availability as well, so far no word from T-Mobile or Verizon though.