HTC ONE X REVIEW

HTC One X - Design and Features
Read the review of the HTC One M8
After a few years churning out a whole host
of handsets, HTC has tightened-up its lineup,
with just three Android models arriving in
the coming few months. The first to arrive,
and the top of the line, is the HTC One X,
which packs in a 4.7in HD screen, 8-
megapixel camera and quad core Nvidia
Tegra 3 processor.
Available for pre-order now from most
providers and hitting shop shelves on April
5, the HTC One X will you set you back £459
SIM free or can be had for free on £36 a
month, 24-month contracts and upwards.
Design and Features
We were sent the grey version of the HTC
One X for review and upon taking it out its
box our first impression was one of slight
disappointment. When we first saw HTC's
handset, it was in its white livery and we
thought it looked great, feeling it resembled
an oversized Nokia Lumia 800 – the best
looking phone currently on the market in
our humble opinion. However, the look
hasn't transferred well to this grey finish.
It falls down in two ways. The first is simply
that grey isn't a particularly inspiring choice
of colour, even given the nice matt finish
used on most of the handset. The second is
the shiny strip HTC have chosen to run
round the edge. Without this the HTC One X
could've passed as maybe having a sand
blasted anodised metal finish, and looked a
bit more premium because of it, but the
shiny strip just screams "I'm plastic".
Let's be clear, the HTC One X isn't an ugly
phone. The clean overall styling looks great
and certainly surpasses the recent Sony
Xperia S , but we just can't get past that grey
back. Thankfully you should be able to opt
for the white version instead, which carries
off the look much better.
Style isn't, however, the only area where the
HTC One X trips up. For a start, the back
isn't removable so you can't easily swap the
battery. Then there's the lack of expandable
memory – you get 32GB built-in, which
should be plenty, but some users will still
want the option of adding in an microSD
card to their HTC.
Another bugbear we have with the HTC One
X, particularly on these larger phones
(dimensions are 134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm), is
the continual use of a top-edge-mounted
power button. It's simply too much of a
stretch for comfortable one handed use. The
Samsung Galaxy S2 , for instance, got things
spot on when it put this button on the right
edge where it falls easily under your thumb/
finger. At 130g it is at least surprisingly
lightweight.
Fret not, though. While this may read like a
catalogue of critical errors for the HTC One
X, most are merely small niggles that simply
leave the design door slightly ajar, ready for
another upcoming phone – say the Samsung
Galaxy S3 – to sneak in and become our top
smartphone pick, assuming it gets the rest
of the basics right. Currently, though,
there's nothing else that can match what the
HTC One X offers.
Connectivity
First though, let's finish looking round the
HTC One X's exterior. On the left edge is the
microUSB (MHL) socket used for charging,
connecting to your computer, and with an
appropriate cable it can connect to your TVs
HDMI input. Meanwhile the right is home to
the volume rocker, which is also glossy grey
plastic, rather than the usual chrome we
expect of HTC. As for the headphone jack,
HTC have placed it up top, and the metal
SIM slot – which takes microSIMs – pops
out with the push of a paperclip just like the
iPhone.
On the back, alongside the Beats Audio and
HTC logo are a quintet of metal dots. These
are contacts that are used for charging and
data transfer when the phone is docked in
the various compatible accessories. These
include a simple desktop dock that holds the
HTC One X horizontally and there's also a
set of car accessories that includes a dash
mounted dock, a screen-visor-mounted
Bluetooth mic/speaker and wireless receiver
to plug into your stereo for playing back
your music.
Under the HTC's screen are the three
navigation buttons, which although touch
sensitive, are not part of the main
touchscreen. This breaks somewhat with
Google's rules, as it wanted to promote
moving to completely virtual touch buttons,
but most manufacturers have implemented
separate buttons. The ones on the HTC are
responsive and easy to use.