Few of HTC's offerings have threatened the smartphone industry's top table of late, with its somewhat safe offerings largely overtaken by fancier phones from Samsung and Apple. But HTC’s latest flagship handset, the One X, looks set to take back some of the ground lost to the Galaxy S II and iPhone 4S.
It isn’t a phone we’d ever accuse of playing safe. The white rear, with its protruding silver camera lens, looks and feels superb, and the gentle curves that appear at each end of the device lend a welcome dose of originality.
We can’t fault HTC for build quality, either. The One X is sturdy
despite its 8.9mm-thick, 130g frame – especially when compared to the
somewhat flimsy Galaxy S II, which was 8.7mm and weighed 116g – and
while there have been reports of the screen flexing when gripped
tightly, our sample seemed fine. The solid build can be put down to the
construction: the One X is milled from a single block of polycarbonate,
using a similar technique used by Nokia for its Lumia 800.
It’s that screen that steals the show. It’s a 4.7in IPS panel with a
resolution of 720 x 1,280 – a huge increase over the 480 x 800 of the
Galaxy S II and the iPhone’s 640 x 960 Retina display. That gives for a
pixel density of 312ppi – not far behind the iPhone’s 330ppi – and makes
for a consistently stunning experience. There’s plenty of space for
full-sized web pages, text is pin-sharp, and images and games leap from
the screen.
It isn’t only the increase in resolution; the quality is great too. Its 490cd/m2 maximum brightness can’t match the iPhone’s 581cd/m2, but it’s far ahead of the Galaxy S II’s 300cd/m2 – a low figure on paper thanks to the Samsung’s AMOLED panel, and a difference that will make itself known in bright sunlight. The contrast ratio of 1,138:1 helps to create deep blacks, bright white tones, and vivid, accurate colours in between. It’s a wonderfully vibrant and comfortable screen.
It isn’t only the increase in resolution; the quality is great too. Its 490cd/m2 maximum brightness can’t match the iPhone’s 581cd/m2, but it’s far ahead of the Galaxy S II’s 300cd/m2 – a low figure on paper thanks to the Samsung’s AMOLED panel, and a difference that will make itself known in bright sunlight. The contrast ratio of 1,138:1 helps to create deep blacks, bright white tones, and vivid, accurate colours in between. It’s a wonderfully vibrant and comfortable screen.
Processing power comes from Nvidia’s 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chip,
partnered with 1GB of RAM. Storage extends to 32GB, of which 26GB can be
used for data and apps, but there’s no micro SD card slot to add more.
For communications you get the choice of 3G, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
4, and the One X also has NFC.
The specification makes the One X the most powerful smartphone we’ve tested. Its Quadrant benchmark score of 4,927 streaks ahead of the 3,460 scored by the Galaxy S II, and it completed the SunSpider benchmark in 2,071ms. That’s a third quicker than the Samsung, and just ahead of the iPhone 4S.
No game stretched the HTC’s GPU. High-octane shooter Shadowgun ran flawlessly, 3D adventure title Dungeon Defenders was similarly slick, and Reckless Racing 2 also delivered rock-solid framerates. A word of warning, though: while things were fine away from the mains, running demanding games while charging saw the handset grow unbearably hot.
The specification makes the One X the most powerful smartphone we’ve tested. Its Quadrant benchmark score of 4,927 streaks ahead of the 3,460 scored by the Galaxy S II, and it completed the SunSpider benchmark in 2,071ms. That’s a third quicker than the Samsung, and just ahead of the iPhone 4S.
No game stretched the HTC’s GPU. High-octane shooter Shadowgun ran flawlessly, 3D adventure title Dungeon Defenders was similarly slick, and Reckless Racing 2 also delivered rock-solid framerates. A word of warning, though: while things were fine away from the mains, running demanding games while charging saw the handset grow unbearably hot.
That aside, battery life was decent, with 60% of the 1,800mAh power
pack left after our 24-hour rundown test. Just don’t expect such
longevity when gaming: a 30-minute stint during a train commute saw the
bar depleted by almost a third.
The One X comes with Android 4 onboard, partnered with the latest version of HTC’s Sense UI, which remains one of the most usable and least intrusive third-party overlays. It retains the ring-pull lockscreen with its four customisable app links that can also be used to directly open missed calls and received messages. HTC has ditched the curved graphics at the bottom of each home screen, replacing them with square icons, but it still looks and functions just as well, and widgets such as Friend Stream are as useful as ever.
The One X comes with Android 4 onboard, partnered with the latest version of HTC’s Sense UI, which remains one of the most usable and least intrusive third-party overlays. It retains the ring-pull lockscreen with its four customisable app links that can also be used to directly open missed calls and received messages. HTC has ditched the curved graphics at the bottom of each home screen, replacing them with square icons, but it still looks and functions just as well, and widgets such as Friend Stream are as useful as ever.
Third-party apps include 7digital, SoundHound, TuneIn Radio and
Polaris Office, and they’re well integrated. In HTC’s own Music app, for
instance, a discreet button allows for track identification via
SoundHound. HTC no longer bundles Beats-branded headphones with its
devices, however, the Beats audio kit inside the One X serves up
bass-heavy, good-quality sound. It’s easy to turn off if you’d prefer,
with a range of presets available within the phone’s Music application.
It isn’t all good news, though. HTC has ditched the physical Menu button, replacing it with one dedicated to its new app-switching interface. It’s a side-scrolling 3D affair that suffers from irritating delays when opening the switcher and then loading apps. The Notification drawer has vanished, and virtually every app has a separate menu button that takes up a 96-pixel chunk across the bottom of the screen.
The new 8-megapixel camera goes some way to making up for software idiosyncrasies. Quality is excellent, with sharp detail and accurate colours, and a flash is included. Pictures are taken almost instantly, colour options include the typical range of retro effects, and there are impressive panorama and burst modes. The former overlays the screen with consecutive frames to help stitch together a convincing panorama; the latter takes a burst of up to 99 shots as quickly as possible, evaluates them for sharpness, clarity and colours, and picks out the best one to keep.
The camera shoots 1080p video and, again, we’ve little to fault: quality is excellent, and the phone’s auto-focus quickly adjusts – and, when it does, detail is extremely sharp.
It’s a fine all-round package, then, but it’s impossible to ignore the shadow of Samsung’s Galaxy S III, set to be unveiled on May 3. It’s also said to have a 4.7in, 720 x 1,280 screen, a 1.5GHz, quad-core processor, and Ice Cream Sandwich. If past standards are any indication, it may be the phone to beat.
For now, though, no other phone can match the HTC One X. It offers stupendous speed, a stunning screen, and a strong, attractive design, all of which combine to make it the best smartphone on the block. After something of a barren patch it’s good to see HTC back.
It isn’t all good news, though. HTC has ditched the physical Menu button, replacing it with one dedicated to its new app-switching interface. It’s a side-scrolling 3D affair that suffers from irritating delays when opening the switcher and then loading apps. The Notification drawer has vanished, and virtually every app has a separate menu button that takes up a 96-pixel chunk across the bottom of the screen.
The new 8-megapixel camera goes some way to making up for software idiosyncrasies. Quality is excellent, with sharp detail and accurate colours, and a flash is included. Pictures are taken almost instantly, colour options include the typical range of retro effects, and there are impressive panorama and burst modes. The former overlays the screen with consecutive frames to help stitch together a convincing panorama; the latter takes a burst of up to 99 shots as quickly as possible, evaluates them for sharpness, clarity and colours, and picks out the best one to keep.
The camera shoots 1080p video and, again, we’ve little to fault: quality is excellent, and the phone’s auto-focus quickly adjusts – and, when it does, detail is extremely sharp.
It’s a fine all-round package, then, but it’s impossible to ignore the shadow of Samsung’s Galaxy S III, set to be unveiled on May 3. It’s also said to have a 4.7in, 720 x 1,280 screen, a 1.5GHz, quad-core processor, and Ice Cream Sandwich. If past standards are any indication, it may be the phone to beat.
For now, though, no other phone can match the HTC One X. It offers stupendous speed, a stunning screen, and a strong, attractive design, all of which combine to make it the best smartphone on the block. After something of a barren patch it’s good to see HTC back.
Author: Mike Jennings
