On a light day, the A9 has no trouble lasting well into the evening, averaging around 16 hours total.

Inside the frame is a petite 2150mAh battery that serves as one of the phone’s largest disappointments.

It’s striking how slight the device is, but the thinness comes at a hefty price. The One A9’s slender package comes in at 7.3mm, making it on trend for the current smartphone market. So often, in fact, it had me wishing HTC included flanking capacitive buttons and removed the on-screen navigation to utilize all five inches of the A9’s screen. It also works as a capacitive home button which I found myself using often over the on-screen home button. HTC does offer custom audio software from Dolby, but it only gives improvements to sound when using headphones. Often, particularly while gaming, I would forget the sound was even on because the speaker was obfuscated by my finger. It’s not very loud, offers thin sound and is easy to cover up while using the phone in landscape. The biggest downgrade is the lack of front-facing Boomsound speakers, replaced by a single, down firing speaker that pales by comparison. The phone’s overall symmetry is sightly, marred a touch by the new fingerprint scanner that sits on the lower chin.

It is, like many metal phones, slippery, and a case would likely be a necessary evil if you were to purchase the device. The star is the brushed aluminum back panel, which is soft, smooth and does a decent job masking fingerprints (at least in the Carbon Grey version I tested). It’s one of the best feeling phones I’ve ever experienced, and I found myself making excuses just to pick it up. I wouldn’t suggest dropping it purposefully, but the A9 doesn’t feel flimsy by any stretch. It’s not heavy enough to be uncomfortable, but offers plenty of heft for the phone to feel solid. The aluminum and glass feel fantastic in the hand, though the flat back makes it less comfortable to hold for long periods of time compared to its earlier, rounded brothers in the One series. HTC deserves credit for what its done here, the build is spectacular. Those claims are not without merit, but the fact remains that many consumers will look at the A9 and, unfairly, label it a rip off. The aforementioned design knocks are obvious, though HTC has defended its choice by reminding us it was a pioneer for metal, unibody design in smartphones.

Htc one a9 review