HTC One A9 Review: Unlocked With Android Marshmallow
Performance & Benchmarks
To get a feel for how the HTC One A9 compares to other smartphones on the market, we ran a few benchmarks that are currently available on the web and in the Android Marketplace.
As you can see from the benchmark charts above, the One A9 routinely landed in the middle of the pack for CPU performance. In GPU tests, the One A9 doesn’t keep up with today’s flagship devices. In real-world testing the One A9 performed well and we didn’t experience any major hiccups or delays in everyday use even with multiple applications open, but if you're a hardcore mobile gamers, the device's GPU clearly isn't as powerful as some higher-end offerings.
Battery Life
The One A9 uses a relatively low-power Snapdragon 617 chip that is paired with a 2150 mAh battery. This phone is also equipped with Quick Charge 2.0 support and is forward compatible with Quick Charge 3.0. The One A9 does not support wireless charging, however.
HTC claims you’ll get up to 12 hours of HD video playback or up to 9 hours of Internet use on Wi-Fi with this phone. Talk time on a 3G network is rated at up to 16 hours. To get a better feel for how the One A9’s battery compares to other smartphones on the market, we ran our two standard battery benchmarks.
The first test, AnTuTu's Battery Test, is a high-load benchmark that aims to drain the battery as quickly as possible, setting the display brightness to high and cranking up workload for the processor, graphics core, and memory.
To offer a "best-case scenario" result, we ran our own HotHardware web browsing test where we cycle a page ever few minutes with screen brightness set to 50% and Wi-Fi enabled. All other radios such as Bluetooth, NFC and geo-location are turned off and the phone is forced to keep the display on for the entire test. Phones are then monitored for uptime duration.
In light usage scenarios which included browsing the web, checking email, taking pictures, etc., we were able to enjoy all-day battery life with the One A9, but our web browser test had the device trailing the rest. We should also mention that HTC offers an Extreme saver mode as well as Android’s new Doze standby app to help maximize battery life, should you need it, but for common use cases, getting a full day out of the One A9 shouldn't be a problem.
