HTC is back with a real game changer after releasing devices like HTC Explorer to capture the mass market. It seems that going back to the drawing board and making an effort to produce a device of the highest quality has been successful. HTC One X is in a league of its own, there is no device available in the market which can even aim to challenge the monster.
HTC One X is the first quad-core device released in the Pakistani market and is exclusively launched by Mobilink.
Unboxing
HTC has gone green with the environmental friendly box of HTC One X. The box is a white cube with rounded edges and a removable paper cover slides aimlessly to hold the box together. Packaging has been made from eco-friendly material which can be recycled and shows the environmental concern from the Taiwanese manufacturer. Printing on the packaging has been done with an environmental friendly ink.
Despite being eco-friendly, the box in particular and the packaging in general is unspectacular to say the least. We didn’t expect that a black coloured phone will be unleashed from a white coloured package which neither goes with the theme of the phone nor with the ‘X’ in the name of device. Hence we felt a bit awkward when unboxing the phone and witnessing a terrible mix-up from HTC.
The box contains standard contents, which are:
- HTC One X
- Hands free
- Data cable (which can be plugged in the charger)
- Charger
- User manuals
- Build & Design
With HTC One X, HTC has taken a few bold steps in designing their phones. The phone cannot be termed as having a traditional HTC design while the sheer slimness and weightlessness of the device takes it to an entirely different level. The brilliant polycarbonate body adds to the first impression made by the phone as it offers a firm grip and the build of the phone seems solid, it seems dropping it a few times won’t hurt it much. (Try at your own risk!)
The front consists of tiny dots at the top which are for speaker, on its right sits the 1.3 megapixel camera. A minutiae notification LED is hidden under the speaker which is just over the “HTC” logo which is right at top of the screen; there is a sensor on the left of the logo. The 4.7 inches Super IPS second-generation LCD capacitive screen takes most of the real estate available on the front under which three touch-sensitive controls i.e. Back, Home & Recent Apps are present.
Let’s start the back side from the bottom. FCC and some other symbols accompanied by some narration lie on the bottom which is just under the beats audio logo. Sandwiched between the beats audio logo and the regulatory logos are three lines of dots which undoubtedly is the loudspeaker grill. On the top right of the beats logo are five connector dots aligned vertically, which, in our opinion, resemble to those on HTC One X and thus we can safely expect a dock being released in a series of optional accessories later. However, a dock in the current packaging would have made this phone simply awesome.
HTC logo lies on the middle of the back side. On the top is a protruded camera with a single LED flash on its right while on its top-right is the micro-SIM card slot which is really a turnoff, the slot can only be opened by inserting a pin in a hole lying by its side. The camera on-board is an 8 megapixel autofocus sharpshooter which supports face detection and geo-tagging.
Top side of the phone has a 3.5mm slot and the power button while the bottom features nothing except a tiny hole for mic. The right and left side of the phone are exceptionally slim and are armed with a comfortable volume rocker and microUSB port respectively; there is nothing else present on the sides.
The protruded camera is a concern as when the device is placed on any surface, it gets direct contact with the surface, hence making it prone to increased scratches on the camera.
User Interface
HTC One X features the latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) version 4.0.3 with HTC’s state of the art HTC Sense 4.0 UI. The lock screen consists of a ring which can be dragged anywhere on the screen to unlock the phone. Four shortcuts (which can be customized) on the lock screen can be dragged in the screen to go straight to that application and save precious time while on the go. On the top of the lock screen, time, date and network status is displayed.
There are seven screens present in the home by default, which can be customized as per requirement. Pinch gesture can be used to go to the helicopter view and view the screens together for re-arranging them, adding and even deleting panels. The Favorites shortcut is one of my favorite features as it brings together your favorite apps and thus decreases the clutter on your screen. App shortcuts can be dragged on each other to create folders, which are again really good in order to keep your screens clean.
On bottom of the screen 4 shortcuts with app drawer icon separating them are placed. App drawer displays all apps installed in the phone while pages can be flipped sideways if you have a large number of apps installed. App drawer has been further divided into three categories i.e. All, Frequent & Downloads which can be selected from the bottom.
The drop-down menu on the top of the home screen now features the settings icon as there is no touch sensitive control for this. Everything else remains the same. An additional “Dock Mode” option confirms our earlier assessment that a dock will later be released for HTC One X.
Screenshots of Interface
Calling
HTC One X boasts excellent call quality with no reception problems whatsoever. It supports both Smart Dialing and Voice dialing. Using the accelerometer the phone will stop ringing when turned over and loud speaker is automatically activated if phone is placed down during a phone call. The proximity sensor enables phone to use pocket mode which raises the ring volume when phone is in pocket or purse. Sense UI provides excellent integration between contacts from different social websites, it also synchronizes social updates and picture galleries with contacts, and you can filter contacts on basis of the origin of the contact.
There is no 3G video call out of the box, which does not affect us as we don’t have 3G in Pakistan. HTC custom keyboard is pretty easy to use and the dictionary can be customized to add Roman Urdu words and instantly churn texts in English as well as our national language.
Multimedia
HTC One X is equipped with 8MP camera with LED flash which is capable of taking snaps of resolution up to 3264×2448 pixels and shoots 1080p video @ 30fps. A lot of customization and effects are available for still picture and videos. HTC one X boasts a new feature which allows it to capture snaps while recording a video, this is also applicable when you are watching a movie, a simple tap on the relevant button will instantly save a screenshot in the Gallery.
The camera offers face detection, touch focus and autofocus but sadly dedicated hardware camera key is missing. Geo-tagging allows you u tag and upload pictures instantly on Facebook or flicker when connected with Wi-Fi. The picture quality could have been better and the video quality should have been better, a flagship phone should take better snaps than HTC One X. However, the speed with which a snap is taken and stored is incredible; it once again shows off the punch hidden in the slim and sleek One X
Misc
One X is as smooth as it gets, but use it for an hour or so with WiFi turned on, play a game with HD graphics or start taking some snaps, the result is a clearly over-heated One X which gets difficult to hold in your hand as the time passes by. We wonder it won’t be long before further problems associated with overheating are discovered.
We found that HTC One X battery lasts surprisingly long, it lasts for more than 24 hours of moderate usage but it’s performance can be expected to dwindle as time passes by.
Conclusion
HTC One X is the ultimate smartphone. Despite being surprisingly powerful due to the quad-core processor and having almost all possible connectivity options, the device is slim, sleek and stylish. HTC has done a good job with the build, design while keeping the weight of One X at bay. One X is the device for geeks, Tegra ensures exclusive access to games and the HD screen adds to the experience.
So, if you are a geek and love cutting edge technology or are looking to buy the ultimate smartphone and budget is not an issue, then HTC One X is the device to go for.
Pros
- 4.7″ 16M-color Super LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass
- HD resolution (720 x 1280 pixels)
- HTC Sense 4.0
- Ice Cream Sandwich i.e. Android 4.0
- 1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPUs
- Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset
- 1 GB RAM
- 32 GB storage
- 8 MP autofocus camera with LED, face detection, geo-tagging
- Polycarbonate body
- SLCD WVGA Capacitive touch screen
- Stereo Bluetooth 4.0
- Beats Audio
Cons
- Lack of dedicated camera key
- Non user replaceable battery
- MicroSIM card slot
- Protruded camera – prone to scratches
- Beats Hands free not included
- Gets over-heated easily
