Towards the end of last year, HTC announced the One X9, yet another variant of the One M9 line. The device was announced primarily for the Chinese market, as we noted in our coverage, but during this past week at Mobile World Congress it appears as though HTC is announcing the One X9 for the international market. This isn’t 100% clear, but we were able to track down the One X9 on the show floor at HTC’s booth to get some hands-on time with HTC’s curious phablet.
With a 5.5-inch Full HD display and onscreen buttons, this is a fairly large device overall, but the thin bezels either side of the display help to keep the overall footprint fairly small for such a device. There’s definitely some HTC One A9 DNA in here, but not quite as much as you’d think, and the stereo BoomSound speakers make a return as well. Typically for an HTC device of this sort of price, the One X9 has a rear-facing 13-megapixel camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. There’s a 3,000 mAh battery running the show here, and a range of HTC accessories are available for this Marshmallow-packing phablet.
What helps to set this HTC flagship aside from the others is what keeps everything chugging along; its MediaTek Helio X10 processor. This is an octa-core 64-bit CPU, much like the Snapdragon 810 from last year as well, but it’s not something you’d see from a brand that’s as well-known in the West like HTC. This is because the One X9 is still very much something designed for the Asian market, one where HTC hopes to be able to hold its own against the likes of Huawei’s Honor brand, ZTE, Xiaomi and other upstarts. It is a shame that it seems like the One X9 won’t be made available outside of those markets though, as it appears to offer more than the One A9 or One M9, offering an arguably better processor than the latter, and a larger display than the former. Regardless, those looking to see what HTC can do in their home markets in the Asian region, can take a look at the gallery below to see the HTC One that could be.
