IFA 2016: HTC's new One A9S doesn't add much new at all

The HTC One A9S is a curious phone. Last year's One A9 was strikingly similar to Apple's iPhone 6, and it seems HTC has taken the idea of 'adding an S to the name and just tweaking the spec' straight out of the Cupertino playbook.

In fact, it seems to have doubled down on that strategy by not only offering very few spec upgrades, but actually dialling down the performance in some areas.

Gone is the 1080p AMOLED screen, the Snapdragon chipset and the 13MP f2.0 camera - in its place is a 720p LCD display with a Mediatek octacore chipset and the same 13MP camera resolution but now at f2.2, so lower light photos will be slightly harder to come by.

The battery has been pushed upwards to 2300mAh - still low, but combined with HTC's Boost+ may be able to outperform the smaller size. That's especially true if it comes with Android Nougat, which promises to be even kinder to batteries than Marshmallow and its decent Doze mode - but it's likely that HTC will launch this with the previous version of Android and upgrade it later in the year.

Still looks beautiful

However, it's unfair to only focus on the specs, because the HTC One A9 was a well-made, all-metal phone for a little less cash than other flagship models, and the A9S continues that tradition. It'll be a well-crafted handset for less money - although some regions will get a 16GB+2GB RAM version, where others will be offered the 32GB+3GB RAM option.

There are no front-facing speakers here to shout about, although the 5-inch screen fits well in the hand - the wrapped metal chassis feels pleasing under the fingers in the One A9 and should continue here. Storage can be expanded through microSD, and that's all the way up to 2TB, something not a huge amount of phones can do right now.

The real sticking point here is the HTC One A9S price... or lack of one, with the brand simply telling us "[The One A9S] will be very competitively priced at the mid-tier".

Without that right now, it's hard to say whether this is a phone worth checking out - if it lands around £175 / $250, then HTC could have a real power play in the mid-tier market, one that's filling up fast with the likes of OnePlus 3 and ZTE Axon 7 kicking around in there.

We'll update this story with any more information on the phone as soon as we get it - fingers crossed it's got a half-decent price.

• The HTC 10 is an underrated phone with excellent sound quality

from TechRadar: Phone and communications news http://www.techradar.com/1327584