Today over at the HTC store, they have a great promotion for those looking to pick up the HTC One M9. Today only (November 17th) you can pick up an unlocked M9 for $649.99 and with it you will get an unlocked HTC Desire 626. That’s a $179.99 value for two phones that are solid performers and remember that the One M9 is expected to receive the Android Marshmallow update by the end of this year.
Earlier today we saw the announcement of the HTC One A9, the next Android flagship phone from the company that will be running Android Marshmallow out-of-the-box. Part of the announcement today also dealt with upgrades to Marshmallow and HTC made a bold statement. In effect, if you have an unlocked One A9, you can expect an update to your device within 15 days of it being available for Nexus devices.
Let that sink in for a minute. 15 days. Not weeks, not months. Days. This in light of devices running out there right now that still don’t have the Android Lollipop update. This update is huge.
HTC this morning launched their next flagship devices, the One A9. The 5″ Full HD display device is squarely aimed at the mid-market with a comfortable pre-order $399.99 price tag for the 32GB storage model. Overall it is not a bad specifications on this device and obviously it is important for HTC that the One A9 does well given the lackluster performance of the One M9 last year.
The One A9 sports a fingerprint sensor which is rapidly become a standard issue for any Android device and equally as important, it comes with Android Marshmallow, making it the first non-Nexus device to come with the latest version of Android out-of-the-box. The One A9 will come in two configurations: a 2GB RAM/16GB Storage variety and a 3GB RAM/32GB Storage version while it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor. As mentioned, it has a 5″ Full HD display covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
If you are the owner of an HTC One M8 or One M9, today is a good day for you too. HTC’s Jason Mackenzie has tweeted that both of these devices will be the first to receive the Android Marshmallow update and that will happen before the end of 2015.
Serving up Marshmallow sweetness real soon. Android 6.0 to start hitting HTC before the end of the year: pic.twitter.com/axITsYSyn9
— Jason Mackenzie (@JasonMacHTC) September 29, 2015
This is great news and while it will lag behind the Google Nexus devices which will get Android Marshmallow next week, it is good to know that HTC is committed and putting a timeline for when users can expect the update.
With Android Marshmallow expected to be released tomorrow at the Google event in San Francisco, the inevitable question is which devices that are out there today will get the update. Because of the way that Google handles updates – letting the OEMs do it – The timing and even if a device will see an update is a bit nebulous at best and painful at worst. As we are less than 24 hours away from the event, the list of devices that will be getting Android Marshmallow is starting to become a bit clearer.
Yesterday HTC announced that starting today the HTC One M9 would start receiving the Lollipop 5.1 update via an OTA (Over-the-air) update starting today. It looks like they have kept to their word. Users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa have started receiving the update to their devices and all the benefits of the latest version of Android. It’s good news for owners of the device as it brings them inline with the North America which has already seen the Lollipop rollout start.
Today only over at HTC, they have a huge sale going on their most popular devices and accessories that are really impressive. While supplies last or the end of the day today, you can get 25% off the M9 Android Phone, 40% off the Nexus 9 Android tablet, 50% off the RE Camera and 50% off accessories for these devices. That means you can pick up the Nexus 9 tablet for example for as low as $239.40.
While HTC as a whole has been struggling, they do make some outstanding devices and their build quality is great. I’ve had plenty of their devices over the years and they always held up well to my daily wear-and-tear.
If you have been waiting to get Windows Phone 8.1 on your HTC 8X as a T-Mobile customer, your wait is over. According to a Tweet from the T-Mobile USA Twitter account, the company has no plans of releasing any future updates to this device. It’s sad news but it shouldn’t come as a complete shock to many Windows Phone fans. The 8x was released in November 2012 so at just over 2 years old and with HTC still not fully committed to Windows Phone, it is hardly a surprise