HTC One A9 review: fast fingerprint reader, great sound, but unimpressive camera and battery; easy to recommend at $399, but not at $499
Vlad Savov / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
HTC spent early 2015 taking camera criticism on its flagship: the One M9 review flagged a disappointing shooter despite strong design and battery life, and Ars Technica found the throttled Snapdragon 810 running hot enough to drag down performance. The One A9 reads as HTC's response — a slimmer, cheaper phone built around a fast fingerprint reader, good sound, and a clean Android experience rather than camera bragging rights.
The catch is price. Vlad Savov's verdict splits cleanly: easy to recommend at $399, hard to defend at $499, which makes the launch price the whole story for whether this device finds an audience. The camera-weakness pattern itself isn't new — it resurfaces three years later in the U12 Plus review, by which point HTC's attention has largely shifted to VR headsets like the Vive line.
First-order effects
- Buyers face a binary call that hinges entirely on $100: at $399 the A9 is a value pick whose fingerprint reader and audio justify the purchase, while at $499 it competes against phones with better cameras and loses.
- For HTC, the review confirms its recurring weak spot — camera quality — now appearing across the M9, A9, and eventually the U12 Plus, meaning no price adjustment fixes the spec gap reviewers keep naming.
Second-order effects
- At $399, the A9 pressures the mid-premium tier where players like Huawei were building their case — Tom's Guide later praised the Mate 9's battery over iPhone and Pixel flagships at aggressive prices — forcing incumbents to compete on value rather than just specs.
- If HTC launches at $499 anyway, it hands reviewers and rivals an easy comparison: same money buys stronger cameras elsewhere, deepening the perception that HTC's hardware strengths (design, audio, sensors) don't close the deal alone.
Third-order effects
- A pattern of camera deficits plus razor-thin pricing power points toward HTC's structural exit from flagship phones altogether — consistent with the company's later repositioning around Vive VR hardware and leadership changes under Yves Maitre.
- The review also previews the market's split into value-flagships and true flagships, where a $399 device with one or two standout features becomes a viable category rather than a compromise.
The trend: Phone makers without camera differentiation are being pushed down-market into value pricing, with HTC's A9 an early data point in the slide that ends in its pivot to VR.