HTC One X

Editor's Review of the One X

After a promising start in the smartphone game with its once-revolutionary HTC Desire back in 2010, the Korean phone manufacturer has lost the pace slightly in recent times. Its trademark Sense interface has been left looking clunky compared to Samsung's decidedly slicker TouchWiz, and the company's fall in revenues in Q4 2011 can be partly attributed to a lack of a worthy flagship phone to rival Samsung's Galaxy S II.

The game could be set to change, however, as the HTC One X has arrived on the scene with a bang. With an overhauled, more streamlined design, a neater Sense interface, and daunting processor power, the One X is the new flagship phone that HTC loyalists have been waiting for.

Design & Build

The One X has overhauled the relatively generic shells that have housed the likes of the HTC Desire and Sensation. The phone's powerful insides are surrounded by a resilient polycarbonate unibody that has a white, matte texture around the back and sides, while the front is a traditional glossy black.This look makes the One X stand out aesthetically from the crowd in the best possible way, and you certainly won't be ashamed to whip it out in public.

The substantial 4.7" screen features a crispy-clean 720p resolution HD resolution, making it great for viewing video content, playing games, and just about anything else that involves using your eyes. The Super LCD 2 display panel could yet prove a rival to the Galaxy Nexus' Super AMOLED displays, boasting great viewing angles and good readability in bright conditions. Size-wise the One X comes in at an 8.9mm thickness which, considering the power contained inside, shouldn't scare off too many prospective buyers.

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated innovation of the One X is its Quad-core Tegra 3 processor, which doesn't disappoint. It can handle the most graphically-intense games and videos with ease, switching between tasks smoothly and effortlessly.

OS & Interface

The One X comes freshly infused with the latest version of the HTC Sense UI and Android's Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 software. It's little secret that ICS is a wonderfully refined update, giving the smoothest, most swipe-friendly Android experience to date. The Sense 4 UI, meanwhile, fully justifies the slick OS behind it. It's the most user-friendly HTC UI to date, and offers a good balance of innovation - ICS-optimised navigation bar, Android beam/NFC - with familiarity - the home-screen and widgets.

Multimedia & Storage

The camera on the One X features flashy HTC ImageSense technology, and is one of the better offerings on the market. It's an 8MP camera featuring an F2.0 aperture and 28mm lens, as well as smart LED flash and a BSI sensor for low-light conditions. It recharges quickly, and also has the nifty feature of continuous shooting (at 4fps) if you hold down the button. The video recorder captures up to 1080p resolutions and the front-facing camera allows video chats at resolutions of up to 720p.

Everything Else

Browsing the internet is as smooth as can be on the One X, without any noticeable tiling on even the more graphic-intensive sites at optimal speeds (thank the Quad-core processor for that). An understated - but very impressive - feature on this phone is Beats audio enhancement (brought to you by none other than hip-hop veteran Dr. Dre), which markedly improves audio quality. To make the most of it, you'll have to invest in some pricey Beat - or other high-quality - headphones, but this'll be well worth it for audio enthusiasts.

With the sheer quantity and quality of features on the One X, one of its solitary shortcomings is its 1800 mAh battery, which translates to about 6 hours of video-viewing (two less than the One S). What's more, even when you're not being particularly resource-intensive, the Tegra 3 processor drains your phone of its battery like a Halal butcher drains a cow of blood i.e. pretty damn swiftly. You'd do well to get 12 hours moderate use of this phone before needing to recharge it.

Conclusion

This is the phone that has finally made the kind of impression that the original HTC Desire made when it first came out. From the design, to the OS, interface and camera, the One X has improved upon and ironed out many of the issues of recent HTC phones. Its only noticeable shortcoming is its battery life, but its features and processing power - which will easily accommodate any software coming out in the foreseeable future - make this minor hiccup easily forgivable. HTC is back at the top of its game.