HTC One A9 launches with iPhone looks, Qualcomm’s new chipset

HTC has announced its new range bolstering phone in New York City, and some are calling it the biggest iPhone design rip-off since, well, practically since the iPhone launched back in 2007.

More importantly for HTC at least, the HTC One A9 seems to finally address some of the company’s lingering terrible design decisions on the likes of the HTC One M9, for instance.

Although it looks almost exactly like the iPhone 6, bar the HTC logo at the back and the centered rear camera mounting, the A9 is built from the ground up by its creator, and features a 5.0-inch Full HD screen, along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 and Android Marshmallow.

Read more: HTC One M9 review: the same, but better

The latter too points are rather important too: it’s one of the first phones to sport Qualcomm‘s new chipset, which will hopefully give an HTC machine the performance-to-battery life ration we’ve been sorely missing.

Key numbers:

Dimensions: 145.8mm x 70.8mm x 7.3mm
Weight: 143g
Display: 5.0-inch, 1920×1080, 441ppi
SIM type: Nano SIM
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core | quad-core 1.5GHz ARM Cortex A53 & quad-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A53 | Adreno 405 GPU | 2GB or 3GB RAM
Storage: 16GB or 32GB (128GB microSD card supported)
Imaging: Rear: 13MP with OIS, autofocus, f/2.0 lens, dual LED flash | Front: 4MP UltraPixel
Video recording: 1080p at 30fps
Battery: 2150mAh fixed
OS: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Another massive improvement comes courtesy of a revamped camera setup. Where the HTC One M9 lacked, the rear camera now features a f/2.0 aperture lens, and a 13MP sensor. The front camera boasts a 4MP UltraPixel sensor, which will likely give the owner some great looking selfies.

While the A9 doesn’t feature the dual rear camera setup as the M Series, The Verge’s Vlad Savov notes that it’s HTC’s best camera phone to date, which is quite a hat tip to this device.

No availability information is available for South Africa as yet, but the States should see the phone arrive in first week of November and retail for around US$399.