[Review] HTC One X: eXtreme performance
After a pretty lazy last half of 2011, with HTC visibly focusing on smartphones for everyone, we are witnessing a shift in the vision and direction of the new products being launched. HTC is now trying to focus on creating a masterpiece instead of trying to create a phone for every taste like before. Result of there amazing efforts is the HTC One X, which happens to be one of the company’s and industry’s first Quadcore powered device.
The quad-core monster, HTC One X has been launched by Mobilink in Pakistan, the price is Rs. 55,499
Lets start the review.
Retail Packaging
HTC just took a big leap into manufacturing eco friendly phone boxes showing that the company does care about the environment. Unlike the standard paper/cardboard boxes, HTC One X comes in an eco friendly box made from a hard foam type material, wrapped in a small paper printed with environment friendly ink which makes this box completely recyclable. Despite of the new cool box, there is nothing new in the box, following are the contents:
- HTC One X
- Hands Free
- Standard wall charger
- microUSB cable
- Manuals
Two things that really disappointed us were, that even though the phone is labelled with Beats Audio but no beats hands-free is provided with it. Secondly, it was really odd to see a black phone coming out of that cool new white packaging, at least packaging of the black HTC One X should have been black. Here is the un-boxing video:
Design & Construction
Marvellous! That’s the word that came to our minds when held the monster for the first time. Although made in China but build quality still feels a lot better than other phones on the market. HTC One X has pretty compact dimensions (134.4 x 69.9) for a phone with 4.7″ display. Not only that but it is quite thin (8.9mm) and it also feels pretty light for all the punch packed in it.
On the front of the phone, near the top is the speaker grill with a small notification LED hidden in it. To its left is a 1.3MP front camera. Just underneath is the 4.7″ (720×1280 pixels) Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors and near the bottom are the three (back, home, recent apps) touch sensitive controls.
On the back of the phone, centred near the top is the 8MP camera with single LED flash and to its left is the microSD SIM card slot. Near the bottom of the phone is the loud speaker grill with Beats Audio logo on its top. On right a little above the bottom is a set of 4 dots aligned vertically (something like the HTC Rhyme which had 3 dots horizontally under the camera), so maybe we can expect a charging dock released later in optional accessories for the phone (just like the one with the HTC Rhyme).
On the top of the phone is located the power button & its 3.5mm headphone jack. On the left of the phone, a little towards top from the center is the microUSB port, while the bottom of the phone is completely empty and just has a microphone. The volume rocker is located on the right of the phone. Here are some snaps:
Software & User Interface
HTC One X comes with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich loaded with Sense 4.0. Sense is an HTC designed UI for there Android phones which places HTC’s smartphones head and shoulders above the others. Sense 4.0 just took the HTC Sense to a whole new level. Following is a list of some new features introduced by HTC in Sense 4.0 and there are some screenshots right after the list.
- Add/Remove Home-screen Panels
- Folders on Home-screen Panels
- Dedicated Market soft-button in the App Drawer
- Horizontally scrolling App Drawer
- Cube Effect while changing in between tabs
- New soft-button to display the running app’s menu, if any
- Menu items start to break apart when you can’t scroll further down/up
- New Music Player with capability to integrate other Music Apps (e.g. Sound Hound, 7digital, TuneIn Radio, etc)
- Beats/Other Hands-free model specific Beats Audio Effect in the Music Player app
- Mini contact card pops up when you click a contact icon
- Recent Apps has applications horizontally tile
- Slide up gesture to remove an app from recent apps
- And much more for you to find out…
Beats Audio by Dr. Dre
Even though marked with Beats Audio™ logo, unfortunately HTC One X doesn’t come with a Beats hands-free which is a major disappointment. The standard handsfree included does not make any sense as no clear difference between sound quality can be felt with the standard handsfree.
Camera & Video Recording
I must say that HTC One X has a pretty good Camera results. It doesn’t fail to provide the picture & video quality that a 8MP Camera. If HTC claim that HTC One X has the best camera HTC ever produced, it just might be right. Few of the shots taken from its camera are given below:
Specifications
- 1.5 GHz, quad-core
- Android™ 4.0 with HTC Sense™ 4
- Total storage : 32 GB
- RAM:1 GB
- Gyro sensor
- G-Sensor
- Digital compass
- Proximity sensor
- Ambient light sensor
- 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
- NFC3
- Bluetooth with aptX™ enabled (Bluetooth® 4.0)
- Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n
- DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer
- micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection
- Camera with HTC ImageSense™
- 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, smart LED flash, and BSI sensor (for better low-light captures)
- F2.0 aperture and 28mm lens
- 1080p HD video recording
- 1.3 megapixel front camera (720p for video chat)
- Dedicated imaging chip
- Capture a photo in the midst of recording HD video
- Continuous shooting mode captures multiple snapshots
- Auto flash smartly determined by distance from your subject
- Video stabilization feature removes annoying, shaky motion
- High quality slow motion video capture and playback
- Beats Audio™
- Capacity :1800 mAh
Conclusion
Summary: HTC One X is a pretty awesome phone and a must buy for every smartphone or HTC enthusiast. On the other hand if we look at the Android market there is no application that needs a Quadcore processor to run, besides there are only a few apps that use the full potential of a Dual Core phone.
4.5
About the Author
Haseeb Ahmed is a technology enthusiast who has been writing IT Blogs for over an year now. He comes from a Computer Sciences background & has been developing Websites, Web-based Applications, PC or Mobile Applications from a long time. He also writes at the White Rabbit Blog, and is the founder & lead developer of White Rabbit (a pakistan based startup) & can be reached at haseebahmed (at) rabbitwhite (dot) co
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HTC One X is really amazing but the price of Rs. 55,499 is a little bit high.
Which movie Bilal bhai? ;) :P
Poor battery
Not quite. I watched a movie on One X, when I started it the battery was 97% and when the movie was finished it was around 70%. Not bad!