Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, whether HTC copied Apple with the One A9 doesn’t really matter here, no matter how much HTC protests it.

at matters— what HTC should focus on—is whether or not the One A9 is a good enough phone to help pull HTC’s business out of deep waters. The Taiwan-based smartphone maker desperately needs a hit, unfortunately, I don’t think the One A9 is it. It’s a decent, smaller-sized Android device, but it simply costs too much offers too little compared to other phones in its class. 

No more ione comparisons

HTC has always been a “design first” kind of smartphone company, it continues that tradition with the One A9. As I mentioned in my initial hs-on, HTC’s new phone is supposed to be the design convergence of the flat-stack Desire 816 three-year-old One M7. It definitely achieves that; the One A9 is flat dense like the best phones in the Desire line, it borrows the same rounded edges a metal unibody design as its flagship predecessor.

The One A9 also features a 5-inch, 1080p AMOD display, which is nice change from the I D displays of the past. It offers fantastic viewing angles rich color profiles. You’ll be comfortable staring at this phone in the dark before bed even in bright sunlight.

I’m enjoying my time with the Nexus 6/a>, but there’s not much elegance to its masculine build. The One A9 appears much more polished alongside it, it’s a hsome piece of industrial design. If you don’t like the slate gray coloring, you can also choose from gold, white, red.

HTC paid mind to the “little” things about the One A9, too. For instance, it features a power button with ridges on the side, so it’s easier for you to locate by feel. The antenna is also placed at the top of the device, so that your grip won’t interfere with the phone’s wireless connections. It also has a fingerprint reader on the front, which works really well. You can also use it as a Home button, though you can’t long press it to activate Now on Tap.

ke its older siblings, One A9 also has impressive stereo speakers, though you’ll have to be careful not to cover the bottom speaker. The top speaker funnels through the earpiece is not as well-amplified. 

Totally mid-range performance

ile the design is top-notch (if very familiar), the performance of the One A9 is as mid-range as mid-range phones get. Its fared well with daily tasks, but I would occasionally experience a bit of lag between entering in the pattern unlock, for instance, loading up the Home screen. I counted a few times I had to sit back wait for the interface to suss itself out.

Our performance benchmarks showed that the One A9 has some kick to it, however. Its 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor 3GB of RAM didn’t manage to keep up with competitors that cost less, including the Moto X re ition -made Nexus 5X. 

I was curious about how much I could get out of the One A9, so I loaded ’s Street View app then popped it in to Cardboard. My fiancé I had some fun for about twenty minutes virtually perusing through the Gr Canyon Yosemite. The One A9 was absurdly hot afterwards, but it managed to keep up with every slight head turn button press. 

I was surprised at the One A9’s battery life. I figured that with its 2150mAh battery pack it wouldn’t last as long as its competitors, but I was wrong. In the Geekbench battery test, the One A9 lasted just as long as the Nexus 5X, which boasts a larger 2,700mAh battery pack. In , it came in at about 40 minutes below the Nexus 5X. The One A9 lasted through the weekend on stby, too. It helps that it’s running Android 6.0 Marshmallow already, so that when it’s laying on the sidelines, it kicks into Doze mode. The slower Snapdragon 617 chip is partly responsible for going easy on the battery, too.

A very decent camera

were pretty disappointed by the One M9’s 20-megapixel camera. A flagship phone should act as your everyday point–shoot, but the One M9 simply didn’t cut it.

Fortunately, the One A9’s rear-facing 13-megapixel camera sensor is an improvement over its predecessor. The white balance is much better this time around the HDR works wonders in tough lighting situations. HTC also went in tweaked the low light performance issues, though it’s only marginally better than the One M9.

I’m concerned about how long it takes the One A9 to focus on a moving subject in dim lighting. I’m so used to snapping away with the Galaxy S6 ge the Nexus 6 but the One A9 couldn’t keep up with my cat. It was hard to capture a decent, still photo of her pacing around the living room. She was desperate hungry for food, but I needed a model. It took several tries before I could get a photo of her I had to act fast. I also noticed that although the One A9 has optical image stabilization, you still need to tap to focus on the subject before shooting.

The One A9 has a few camera tricks up its sleeve. It takes slow motion video, though you can’t adjust the frame rate for it. It also does Hyperlapse, though you’ll want to invest in a smartphone tripod setup to take advantage of that. And there’s a o mode of sorts that shoots in RA which I found is useful for taking long exposure nighttime shots. I wasn’t too impressed by the end result, however; it was too grainy fuzzy to bother transferring into a post-processing application like Adobe ghtroom. The o mode is nice for making neat Instagram shots, but it’s nothing like what the G4 can do. 

so, according to the Manual Camera Compatibility test, the One A9 does not support llipop’s Camera2 As at all. The o mode that’s on this phone is good for what it is, but if you’re looking to use one of the excellent manual camera apps in the ay Store, you’re going to be disappointed.

The front-facing camera is still a 4-megapixel Ultraxel sensor. It’s pretty good for selfies it’s capable of 1080p video, though I don’t like the way it took the green hue of my living room just ran with it. The One A9’s rear camera only shoots up to Full HD (1920×1080) video, however, so if you were hoping for some affordable 4K video shooting action, you’re out of luck here. And slow motion shooting is limited to a paltry 1024×576 resolution.

NonSense UI

In the past, HTC’s Sense UI was the least offensive version of Android out there. But since Android’s Material Design became a stard, it feels like a nuisance. 

Sense UI’s narrow typeface crowded application drawer is overdone. The interface is supposed to match the sleek, modern profile of the phone’s exterior design, but it’s just annoying to deal with. Sense’s theming engine isn’t too exciting, either, especially considering that any apps you install without corresponding icons will look out of place. I would have much rather preferred that HTC do what Asus did allow you to apply third-party icon packs from the ay Store. 

At least HTC kept some of the interface elements of Android Marshmallow. The Quick Settings drop down is similar to the one you’d experience on a Nexus device. The main Settings app also features quick toggles for things like -Fi Bluetooth, while stock Android requires a few extra taps to turn off on. You can also use the rsonalize feature to change the theme, accent colors, font style of the interface, so you don’t have to deal with the narrow typeface.

This is the worst part of HTC Sense, however:

If you want to get rid of those— subsequently, the BlinkFeed page that lives to the very left of the Home screen—you can load another launcher. Still, it’s ridiculous that you have to do all that maintenance after you take the phone out of the box. No phone that costs $500 should come with advertisements. That’s just wrong.

Is this phone really worth $500?

were led to believe the One A9 would cost $399, but it appears that price point is only for a very limited limited time. On November 7, after less than two weeks on the market, the phone’s price will jump to $500. That doesn’t seem fair to consumers.

This is a mid-range phone at best. It may look high-end on the outside, but that was the point: it’s supposed to be an affordable, middle-of-the-road, ione-like device that isn’t covered in plastic wrapping. But for less than $500, you could bring home your own custom, unlocked Moto X re ition with a better processor near-stock Android. Or a 32GB Nexus 5X with Nexus otect. For the same price, you can get a Nexus 6/a>. Or heck, a refurbished ione 6. There are so many other, better options at this price.

It’s really a bummer. HTC set the precedent for phone design so many years ago, but now it’s failing to find its niche in an increasingly saturated smartphone market. My hope for HTC is that it uses the feedback from this particular device as the blueprint for next year’s flagship, since this isn’t going to be the device that helps it out of its financial hole.

At the very least, the One A9 proves that HTC is capable of bundling a decent camera sensor, battery efficiency, stereo speakers into a premium-looking package. But it needs to kick Sense the the curb find a price point that doesn’t put its mid-range device in direct competition with higher-end flagships.