Ratings: 5/5
Price: $313 / $71 with 18-month contract, $6
per month
Website: www.handtec.co.uk (no SIM),
www.buymobilephones.net (contract)
HTC
One X
HTC One X is collection of the first things.
It is the first HTC mobile device with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, these first
things include 720x1,280 pixel screen and three-core processor. Nvidia Tegra 3 Chipset
also has a GeForce graphics core and a “partner core” – the fifth core processor
takes over the basic functions while the phone is idle to save energy.
Giant 4.7-inch IPS screen is quite bright
and has many colors, though it’s not as vivid as OLED screen on the Motorola
RAZR or Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The contrast of the screen cannot be compared
with its rivals. In direct test with the competition, black color is not deep and
white color is not bright as its competitors. The colors seem more vivid,
although you may use it to play games and read the websites. 720x1,280
resolution is ideal for browsing the web; we can easily read headlines and
summaries on BBC News home page in landscape mode, then double click to zoom in
separate articles.
One X screen is round at the edges and has
white border around. There is very little space around the screen, except at
the bottom where the sensor nodes of Back, Home and Open New Tasks, which show
the running applications. Mobile device is lightweight and comfortable, with a
layer of white plastic to handle.
1.5GHz quad-core processor of the phone helps
it run smoother, although we found a little shock and slow running under heavy
load; even swiping through the home screens is not as smoothing as in the
iPhone. However, One X does not encounter any problem when dealing with heavy
loads. The games we tested were smooth though the phone can be hot in the back.
Sense is working overtime
Android 4.0 OS comes with HTC Sense 4.0.
This is a collection of applications, utilities and customs designed to improve
the Android interface. Manufacturers and telecom companies often install software
that cannot be uninstalled in the phone, and duplicate applications or even
remove Android functions. However, Sense 4.0 adds features for the Android
software.
It enhances the camera application, adds
many features to take advantage of dedicated photographing chip of One X. There
is fast multi-capture mode, which allows you access by holding the shutter
button, it stores these images as a collection so you can browse to find the
best shot. The images can be captured in 0.7 seconds, with autofocus of 0.2
seconds, and you can move directly to the camera from the lock screen to increase
the speed.
This may be the first phone that makes
compact digital cameras to shame. It has many options that we often see on the
smartphone camera: face detection, auto-smile capture, the manual ISO setting
and continuous shooting. You can adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation and
sharpness by using sliders from the options menu, and snapping a photo while
recording video.
Our testing images are the best we've ever seen
from a camera smartphone. It has a little noise in outside pictures but has
smooth details, no blurry that you can see from the heavy noise reduction.
F/2.0 large aperture lens helps take photos indoors better, the low light shots
without flash are quite amazing, with the setting is selected sensibly (1/15
second at ISO 1250) and noises are kept at reasonable level for quick ISO speed.
It is equal to a good compact camera at average price.
Sense also improves the music player,
although we do not like these changes much. It adds the HTC Beats Audio
processing and changes the default media player, adds link to 7digital music
store, Soundhound music recognize service and TuneIn radio application. You can
click Soundhound icon while listening to a song in TuneIn Radio to identify it,
it’s quite useful.
Beats is not impressed. The sound quality
is still good without Beats, we feel it creates the bass resonance, although it
is also good at increase the middle sound. Besides Beats, you can choose from a
list of more traditional effects, such as Bass Boost or Live, and unlike the
previous Beats phones, you can use the headphones that are not Beats and still use
Beats effects. However, we prefer to have better control with the effects
rather than this method.
Another additional Sense is Car application.
This interface presents the features you may want when driving car - phone,
music player, internet radio and navigation - in a big format that is easy to
access while driving. All menus and text are in big font for easy reading, and
also have bigger icons and buttons. The phone interface is designed for easy using,
with a big picture of the caller that you can swipe to the left to cancel the
call, or swipe to the right to respond. You also can customize the navigation
and music player application in use.
HTC
One X
Carefulness
HTC Watch competes with Play Store of Google.
It is a movie store offering films to buy at $6.5 and to rent at $2.2. It has
the same selection as Play Store, although no store has unnamed movies that we
want to watch. Sense does not include ebook store, so you must use the Play
Store or download application of your favorite store. You have 32GB storage on
the phone, it’s quite useful because there is no Micro SD card slot.
Android 4.0 brings a few changes that people
will be familiar, such as a menu button in the upper right of this application
instead of the bottom right. Some applications do not follow this rule and set
the menu at the bottom of the screen, it uses 7mm in height with only 3 points.
We also found an error in which the phone
automatically switches to USB storage mode when plugged in via USB, even when
we chose Charge Only mode. It has done this several times, it was quite annoying
when we tried to download a large application update. Battery of video tests is
disappointing with less than 6.5 hours, and you cannot remove the battery.
It means, One X is an impressive phone, and
we like the way that latest version of Sense links to changes of Android 4.0.
You can purchase this mobile device for under $19.25/month with 24-month
contract, but if you want shorter contract or buy it without SIM, you must
spend lots of money. This quad-core phone with the smart camera is the best
Android phone you can buy - if you are affordable.
Summary
Comment: With quad-core processors, much storage capacity and a camera that
can compete to compact digital camera, this is the best Android phone now.
Smartphone: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 850/900/1900/2100, EDGE, HSPA, WCDMA, LCD
4.7-inch LCD 720x1280 resolution, 8MP camera, 32GB storage, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi,
USB, NFC, 8.9 hours of talking time, 24.8 standby days, 134x70x9mm, 130g.
