First off, forgive the length. I need an editor.
I just love all gadgets and I try not to do things halfway. I have been an all-out iPhone and iPad fanboy for years. After selling my Nexus One I had moved away from Android, turned off by the ugly skins and not-so-attractive devices of the past couple years. With the launch of ICS, Android started a turnaround for me. It looked good. Then the HTC One X came out. It looked GREAT. Then the Nexus 7 announcement came and I couldn?t ignore it anymore. I gave my wife my iPad 3 and sold my iPhone 4S and bought the One X and Nexus 7. I wanted to be fair when I judged the two platforms.
I?ve had my HTC One X for a few weeks now so I thought I would share my thoughts.
As nearly everyone in the tech world agrees, this is a beautiful phone. I love HTC?s choice of materials and finishes. I think if they had gone with the matte finish on the sides of the device they would?ve become discolored over time. Seeing as the sides of this rather large phone are the areas we are in contact with the most, oils and dirt from our hands could?ve built up and caused an eyesore. Being glossy allows a quick wipe to remove 99% of dirt. The one area I do question is the black bezel. I?ve seen some HTC phones done with the white bezel (EVO 4G LTE and HTC Radar WP7 phone) and they look really sharp. I think it would?ve just helped set the phone off a bit more.
Speaking of that large black bezel, underneath is quite possibly the industry?s best display. I come from an iPhone 4S and this Super LCD 2 display matches it. The colors are fantastic and (most) everything is sharp. If we could only get more developers to update their graphics for these newer hi-res displays. The beauty of this screen makes it a joy to use. I turn it on just to look at it? ok, not really, but it IS that good.
This is a well-built phone. I haven?t heard a single creak and the unibody polycarbonate is lightweight yet sturdy. The One X feels nearly as solid as my old iPhone 4S. I like the volume rocker being on the right side, right where my thumb naturally hits so volume adjustments are quick and easy. The sleep/wake button is on the top, where it should be? Samsung, are you listening? Both buttons are firm and responsive. The capacitive buttons are nearly perfect as well. I might prefer them to be spaced a little closer together; reaching that back button with one hand is nearly impossible. Their responsiveness, however, is spot-on and the haptic feedback is great.
Oh the camera. I feel like this camera has been praised to the heavens. I haven?t used it a whole lot but from what I?ve seen, I?ve not been blown away. I listen to tons of podcasts from different sites, read everything I can and nearly everyone gushed about this camera. It?s a great camera, no doubt, but maybe my expectations were too high. I?d put it just a small notch below the iPhone 4S. Low light gives it problems, as it does with every phone camera but all in all, it?s good given proper light.
What did blow me away? The speaker on this thing is LOUD. On my drive home from work I always have it turned up to the max (windows down on the turnpike, stereo blaring) and can still hear it pretty well. The problem comes when I get home. If I forget to turn it down my next notification causes me to nearly soil myself. The speakerphone works great and the alarm clock is more than sufficiently annoying when it wakes me up in the morning. I have no issues at all with this speaker. It simply blows away the iPhone 4S.
Overall, HTC Sense is a perfectly fine skin. I much prefer stock Android (especially Jelly Bean on my Nexus 7). I cut my Android teeth on the Nexus One way back in 2010 and after trying many other manufacturers, I just love stock Android. As for Sense itself, since this is a review, I think its additions are well done. The lockscreen is very convenient. Dragging the icons into the ring is quick and easy. What else can you say about a lockscreen? The weather is nice? Ok, it?s nice. The homescreen and dock are both well designed. It?s just much better looking than TouchWiz. One major gripe I have is the amount of wasted space with the 4x4 layout. I prefer 5x5. I don?t want to scroll screens any more than I have to. I installed Apex Launcher Pro and all is well with the world.
The app drawer is an app drawer, a little change from stock, nothing horrible. I prefer stock therefore I like the Apex Launcher drawer better. Contacts are well done. The dialer could use some Holo-fication. It?s a little cartoony for my taste but again, not horrible. Calendar? I don?t use it on this phone if I can avoid it, I just don?t like using it. It gives you no information in Month view. There?s no easily accessible Week view. Samsung and stock Android run circles around this calendar. Notifications are well done. I like Samsung?s in-notification screen toggles but I have HD Widgets for that so no issues there.
On the widget front, I think HTC has a great assortment. Their weather/clock widget is the widget every other weather/clock widget wants to be. Very useful toggles but I prefer HD Widgets for that (5 across instead of 4). It?s unfortunate the HTC widgets don?t work with Apex.
This phone is fast. When I have a good signal, I can get 6-7 Mbps down. My iPhone 4S never saw that unless I was somewhere no one else was using AT&T, like my old hometown who just got AT&T 3G this year so EVERYONE uses Verizon. Anyway, unfortunately I don?t live near AT&T LTE so I can?t speak to that. The problem comes in my office. I can?t get a good signal at my desk. I get 1 little bar and it doesn?t allow streaming of my Sirius radio or podcasts very well. In fact, when I connect it to my old Verizon 3G MiFi it streams better than on AT&T?s ?4G.? The iPhone 4S never had that problem on AT&T at my desk. Other than when in my office I get fantastic signal.
The GPS is similarly fantastic. It finds the satellites quickly and locks on well. Nothing much else to say about that. I don?t use it in the car for turn-by-turn since I have a TomTom.
I?m not quite sure how to review social networking for a phone. My social networking revolves around the apps I use. Built-in sharing pictures from within the phone might be a good way to speak on the social aspect. HTC has included sharing to nearly every service under the sun and it all works well. I can Tweet, Facebook, SMS, MMS, email, etc from many different places. I like it.
Like I said, I normally use the apps themselves for social networking. Email is the same. I use the Gmail app and widget. It?s a fantastic experience on the phone and I enjoy emailing from my Android devices.
Battery, battery, battery. I think maybe it could use a bigger battery. If I don?t use the thing it can last all day but as soon as I fire up that 4.7? screen it drops like a rock. Ok, maybe I?m exaggerating but it certainly drains quicker than I?d like. I don?t whine about it, I take Phil?s advice and just charge the damn thing. It?s on charge all day at work. When I?m in the car it?s on charge there. Be a man, charge your phone. I leave here at 4:30 and when I go to bed at 11:00 each night it?s in the 40% range. Works for me.
This phone is a beast. It lags here and there and that leaves me dreaming of stock Jelly Bean on this bad boy, but overall it?s just fine. Download speeds on cellular are great, wifi speeds are fantastic (luckily I?ve not been a victim of the wifi bug). In daily use I have no complaints with the speed of this phone. Playing Riptide GP is beautiful and fluid. Great job HTC.
Beats Audio. Yeah, I drank the damn Kool-Aid. I own a pair of Beats Studios (in white of course, to match my HOX) and initially I was underwhelmed with the headphones when I used them with my iPhone 4S. They had little bass and clarity suffered a bit too. Not so when I plug them in to my HOX. I try to watch out for the placebo effect and I?m telling you that?s not the case. Beats, whether it?s just an EQ setting or not, helps the audio sound better, in my opinion. Bass is firmer, not boomy and clarity is great. That?s not just with the Beats headphones, the sound coming through my Klipsch earbuds sounds better too. I don?t really watch movies on my phone but those I?ve seen, such as HD YouTube videos have been beautiful.
Of course for any avid social networker, texter or emailer, one of the main areas of contention in phones is the keyboard. The HTC One X has a decent keyboard. Given practice I can hammer out an email or text with no problem in seconds flat. That said, it?s not the best I?ve used on Android. I prefer SwiftKey 3. I find its prediction fantastic and error correction better than average. The stock HTC keyboard offers prediction and auto-correct as well, it?s just not as intuitive as SwiftKey?s implementation. If someone forced me to use the stock keyboard, however, I could do so without too much complaining.
In the past year I?ve used as my daily driver the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Torch 9810 and Samsung Focus. I?d say that?s a pretty fair cross-section of top-of-the-line competition. How does the HTC One X compare? Wonderfully. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 was probably the most elegant phone I?ve ever used. The keyboard was impeccable and the screen was really good. The problem? It?s a BlackBerry. Apps are horrible. Sure, lots of people use their phones with just the stock apps and more power to them, but I need more apps and BlackBerry?s were the worst of the bunch. The Torch 9810 suffered from the same problem. The Focus was a plastic Samsung phone but without Android?s expansive Play Store. Quality apps were a real problem. So the true competition comes from the iPhone 4S. Like it or not, Apple sets the bar when it comes to build quality, fit and finish. Like I said earlier however, the HOX is no slouch. It doesn?t feel QUITE as premium as the iPhone and I think I?ve figured out why. It?s the weight to size ratio. The iPhone 4S is 10 grams heavier in a much smaller package. I don?t mind a heavy phone. I?d actually prefer a little more weight to the HOX. Given its larger size, trying to use it one-handed would be assisted with a little more weight to anchor it in your palm. I picked up a coworker?s HTC Vivid and it shocked me. THAT phone has some weight to it. A weight somewhere between the Vivid and One X would be perfect for the size. The App Store on iOS is just a better market to me than the Google Play store. The odd thing is, I don?t miss any apps I used on my iPhone or iPad now that I?m using the HOX and Nexus 7. There?s just something about the quality of the apps. One example is Appigo?s Todo app on iOS which just felt and looked fantastic. I now use 2Do on my Android devices. It performs the same exact tasks as Todo I just don?t like using it as much. I know that?s because there are so many different resolutions Android app developers have to account for but it?s still an issue for me, however minor. I don?t really game on my devices, Riptide GP was a must buy since I had the $25 credit from the Nexus 7, but the HOX more than holds its own against the iPhone. I guess I kinda miss Infinity Blade 2 but not much. Overall, the HTC One X is beautiful, powerful and an unquestionable equal to the iPhone 4S. It blows away all BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices, sorry Kevin and Dan.
After spending all this time praising the wonderful HTC One X it?s only right to take a moment to say what?s not so wonderful. I?ve had a couple minor glitches with my HOX. I?ll start small. One time the phone just started vibrating and wouldn?t stop until I mashed a few buttons. It was odd and disconcerting but just a one-time occurrence. More upsetting to me is technically NOT an issue with the HTC One X in its stock form. I have an issue with the Chrome browser. At times when I have more than one tab open all content will disappear. Nothing will bring it back except killing the app and reopening it. I?m a multi-tasker and that gets really annoying really fast. I don?t know if that?s on Google or HTC but whoever it is needs to work it out. The other issue I?ve had is the screen flashing while I?m typing on the keyboard. Again, I?m not sure if this is SwiftKey?s problem or HTC?s but it?s annoying. When using the stock keyboard I couldn?t get the screen to flash, so I?m guessing it?s a SwiftKey bug. That said, I still use SwiftKey because I prefer so much over the stock keyboard. Given that 2 of those 3 issues might not even be HTC?s problem, I?d say that?s pretty darn good.
So that?s it. My quick little review of the HTC One X. I?m dying to use a Galaxy S III just to compare the two but I don?t have $550 right now so it will have to wait? a long time.
Given the opportunity, I?d buy it again in a heartbeat. Great phone.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram