This is gonna be long-winded, but I've wanted to say this for a while.
I'm coming up on a year in June (got it on my birthday actually!). I was so close to getting the S3, but once I saw the screens side-by-side at Best Buy there was no contest. I've had no physical problems with the phone the whole time, except last week a little piece of the curved black ridge alongside my lcd chipped off, so now there's a slightly sharp bit there, but it's not noticeable. My volume rocker's a bit wiggly too.
However, the software problems with this phone have been very frustrating.
The multitasking issue can be annoying in a few applications The most egregious was probably with the Run, Zombies! running app. I took a phonecall a little while after starting my run, when I came back to the running app, it had reloaded and I had to restart. Fortunately I'd just started, but still. It'll clear your fields when trying to login to an app if you have to do something else.
HTC Smart Sync (aka the wireless shutoff problem). What's smart about this? Turn wireless off after a few minutes of activity. Downloading a file from your much-touted, much-relied-upon cloud storage? Better keep touching that screen once a minute, cuz if you let your phone just sit there and do it's job you'll lose that download, all the download progress, the worst is if you're like
90% into a large file.
US model storage cut in half, no dropbox promo through AT&T. Yup.
HTC have done things like take out wallpaper scrolling, and added a persistent power saver notification that cannot be removed. You cannot set a third-party browser as your standard browser, it will open the webkit browser or ask you every time. These are all either in an effort to not get sued, or just plain bad design decisions.
Every exploit method made in an attempt to utilize the hardware we purchased in the way that we want has been viciously attacked and squashed, developers jerked around, jumping through hoops just to be able to root and ROM. Now having to wait for a root method for the Jellybean update (which may never come if a lot of devs jump ship for the One) and an extra step just to be able to USE THE TOUCHSCREEN on an AOSP-based ROM. HTC filing takedown requests against sites hosting RUUs (god forbid).The S-OFF nightmare.
I've also run into various little things that this phone specifically, out of all other phones, cannot do for whatever reason. You cannot do an ADB backup with the HTC One X. There's no USB OTG support, so you can't use a wired controller, you must spend money on a bluetooth one. HDMI out does not just work as it should, because of HTC's need to implement its proprietary wireless display tech. Having to do extra work (as a consumer) when trying to install ROMs with 1.14 HBOOT, etc., and from a developer standpoint to have to work with such frustrating restrictions and such disrespect from HTC.
HTC have absolutely spat in the face of the developer community for this phone as well as the consumers who spent $200 or more for this device (on AT&T). Maybe all that was influence and pressure from AT&T, but which is worse? Them doing it of their own accord, or bending their policies to please AT&T just to get their device sold? AND only doing it in one market? How messed up is that?! If you buy the phone in Canada it's fine, if you buy it in America it's a nightmare.
This has been a good phone for the last year, but this was my first Android device. Fortunately I have been reading about and interested in Android for a long time, and have a lot of tech experience, but if I was a "regular" consumer who ran into all this, I'd probably never buy another Android device again. I understand that this device is a different case than most phones. For me, I will be voting with my dollar. I'm afraid that, unless I hear testimonials from owners that these things are not present in the future, I cannot purchase another HTC smartphone.
I know people smear products and corporations on tech forums like crazy. The above is my personal experience as an owner of this phone. I believe every consumer can and should voice legitimate criticism for products they purchase. I have enjoyed many aspects of the HTC One X, I do not regret buying it, we've had a good run together, but I will not do the last year over again. I really do wish every issue with this phone could be eliminated from future HTC devices. I'd buy them. People would be happier. HTC Sense is beautiful, but is it worth the hassle? For me, it is not.
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