When the HTC One A9 was first announced with a price of $399.99 in the United States, it seemed like a decent enough deal. The phone features a decent metal build (that looks suspiciously like an iPhone), mid-to-high-end specifications, and the latest version of Android.
Unfortunately, the attractive price HTC announced last week is only an introductory offer: after the "special promotional pre-sale" period concludes on November 7th, the price of the handset will jump up to $499.99.
This $100 jump in price will turn the HTC One A9 from an attractive proposition to a device that's far too expensive. To put things into perspective, the recently-released LG Nexus 5X is available for $429 in a 32 GB model, which is $80 cheaper than the A9 for the same amount of storage and better hardware across the board. The larger Nexus 6P is around the same price.
It gets even worse for those living outside of the United States. Despite HTC claiming that the cost of the One A9 is "the same worldwide to all distributors and operator partners", the phone is more expensive again in the United Kingdom, at £429.99. When factoring in the UK's sales tax, the phone is retailing for roughly US$550, and that's just for the 16 GB version.
If you're interested in purchasing a HTC One A9, it's definitely better to do so before HTC increases the price at the end of next week.