If the reported specifications pan out, the sequel for the disappointing One M9 looks ready to take on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Apple iPhone 6s Plus.
Could it be too late for HTC to stage a spectacular high-end mobile comeback? Not if the Taiwanese OEM’s designers started from scratch when devising the One A9, aka Aero looming flagship. That doesn’t appear to be the case based on a series of leaked live pics starring a gadget much too similar to rival iPhones, though at least the specs are purportedly radically improved.
For one thing, we’re pretty sure the Full HD screen resolution will get a nice lift to Quad HD, also known as 2K, or simply 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. The higher-res panel should grow in actual size as well, from 5 to 5.5 inches, so naturally, you need a faster, more stable and energy-efficient chip than Qualcomm’s oft-plagued Snapdragon 810 to keep everything running smoothly.
Enter MediaTek’s spanking new, avant-garde deca-core Helio X20, clocked at up to 2.5 GHz, and comprised of three different clusters with various and very specific functions. The 20nm-based silicon is due for a commercial rollout in December, so if the One A9 indeed breaks cover on September 29 with the monster CPU inside, it may keep us waiting a while.
Besides common sense, which tells us there’s no way HTC will go the SD810 path again, a preliminary benchmark is currently floating around the interwebs, listing the A9’s processor as an ARM MT6797T with 10 cores.
Check that, we don’t have access to the actual benchmark, if real, just a screen capture, which is so easy to fake, even a trained monkey could do it. Assuming nonetheless the image is legit, we can see the “Aero” runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and packs 4 GB RAM, the current ultra-high-end memory standard, and 1 gig north of M9’s capacity. Promising stuff, huh?
