HTC One X review: eXtra special

12 April 2012
How about this for a rebound after a rather quiet second half of last year. A massive change of game plan sees HTC focus on a special few products instead of trying to create a smartphone for every taste. An outstanding result of this effort...

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  • D
  • AnonD-48660
  • Rfx
  • 13 Apr 2012

AnonD-44164, 13 Apr 2012stop with your stupidity I checked myself maxing out the br... morebut the nexus does take better pics than the htc one X according to the comparisons.

    • D
    • AnonD-48660
    • Rfx
    • 13 Apr 2012

    AnonD-21645, 13 Apr 2012I need to step in here... because although you make some go... more"Anyway it's pointless still cause putting 808 in the camera arena with other phones will only turn into a blood bath."

    "Well, it will and it won't... if you're talking picture quality - then yes.. but with that you have to take a terrible screen resolution, poor plasticy build and with a dying OS that Nokia are about to turn the life support machine off - in fact very similar to the N8..."
    Obviously he was talking about the camera quality as he said, 'in the camera arena' so there is no need to bring in the rest of the phone specs unless you wan't to prove a point irrelevant to the argument.

    Same as with the n8, he was talking about camera quality not the overall phone, so there is no need to bring in specs

    And yes I do agree that both the pureview and image sense are gimmicks. however to very different gimmicks if you look at the meaning of the word.
    A:"An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget" which both camera techs are.
    However
    B:"the special feature is typically thought to be of little relevance or use." The htc sense falls into this category. lets be honest the quality of the oneX pics don't compare to a gs2,4s,xperia arc or the n8. what it claims to do is take pics faster. in comparison to the devices mention the speed improvement isn't really monumental and something that might go unoticed, hence its a gimmick in the other sense of the word.

    The 808 obviously makes huge improvements on smartphone camera tech. There are more details in the pics and the shutter speed is faster. So its a gimmick in terms of an innovative and market grabbing feature but not a gimmick in terms of an irrelevant special feature that has little use; which he was obviously referring to.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • gDE
      • 13 Apr 2012

      I think the camera on One X is great, a bit of tweaking and a software update will prove me right. As for horsepower is't "futureproof", the battery is solid and the design is downright beautiful... and I hope they dont make a super-version of this one in 6 months but rather in a year.

        • D
        • AnonD-44164
        • w7i
        • 13 Apr 2012

        RejZoR, 13 Apr 2012For such price you don't expect anything but the best. This... moreGet real friend if you don't want the phone don't buy it every phone these days gets a price tag like the one X has and they possibly doesn't have the best In every department for instance galaxy s2 , galaxy note, iPhone 4s can you call any of these the best ? The iPhone 4s the crappiest of all has the biggest price tag still people buy it. If u don't like it just stop commenting on it if you have no intention or whatsoever to buy it.

          • D
          • AnonD-21645
          • Gjj
          • 13 Apr 2012

          Anonymous, 13 Apr 2012Stop telling people to buy cameras. Why don't you also go b... moreI need to step in here... because although you make some good points, there's a lot wrong with your statement...
          Let's break it down..

          "Stop telling people to buy cameras. Why don't you also go buy separate gadgets? Buy a psp for games, a feature phone, a dslr for imaging, an ipod etc. People want convergence and right now Htc cams just don't make the cut."

          Agreed. Can't argue with that, but, there is no one device that incorporates all of these features really well - gaming on a touchscreen, whether android or ipad just doesn't cut it... I have a Vita for that and it's peerless... what we're talking here is having a product that is jack of all trades, master of none...

          "Anyway it's pointless still cause putting 808 in the camera arena with other phones will only turn into a blood bath."

          Well, it will and it won't... if you're talking picture quality - then yes.. but with that you have to take a terrible screen resolution, poor plasticy build and with a dying OS that Nokia are about to turn the life support machine off - in fact very similar to the N8...

          "Even the xperia s with it's great camera still can't beat N8."

          I think you're wearing Nokia-tinted glasses here... There are many facets to a 'good picture' - the N8's pictures are excellent, but the N8 was a doomed phone and a failure to boot (laggy OS, etc. etc.) so again, like you say at the start - people want convergence - ON BALANCE - the N8 is only good at pictures, the rest of the package is pretty much broken...

          "But my point is Htc shouldn't have hyped the image sense so much. Apparently it was just a gimmick"

          Unlike the Nokia 808? Because that's ultimately all that phone is - one large gimmick... it's Nokia showing new technology to grab some headlines, so that they can incorporate it into Windows phones next year... The 808 isn't a serious phone - look at the specs of it... All manufacturers are going to big up their phones and features, everyone does it... so why are you so bothered about HTC doing it?

          And before you say "oooh, he's obviously a Nokia hater..." I may well be first in line for a Pureview Lumia next year if they get it right... I've got a GS2 now, who knows what'll be out by the end of the year?! Broaden your mind and horizon!

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • fnF
            • 13 Apr 2012

            Wow some people really can't see positivity in criticism. I hope htc will do and use it to better their gadgets

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • TCs
              • 13 Apr 2012

              This is the best Android phone I've used. It's fast, well build and look good.

              The only problem I'm facing is with ICS 4.0, which is so different from 2.3. Although ICS is much more advanced, it is also a lot more complicated!

              On standby, the battery is excellent, but once the screen is on, the battery exhaust fast! Charging the battery from empty also take a long time (approx. 3 hours).

              Overall, I'll give this phone a 8.5/10.


                • D
                • AnonD-21645
                • Gjj
                • 13 Apr 2012

                There is nothing worse than someone pretending to own one, say it's rubbish by making up an issue and then stating that another manufacturer is better...

                You know who you all are...

                Come on people, grow up, get a life, if you don't like the phone, don't comment, unless it's constructive, if you have no interest in buying it, then why are you even posting a comment?

                I've said why I don't like it, even why I won't be purchasing it... I've also pointed out what I love about it... The more I hear about it, the more I like it, but I'm convinced they'll bring out a super-version in about 6 months... and if so... then it could well be worthwhile... even with no extra storage / average camera...

                Be fair and balanced, or don't bother!

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • fnF
                  • 13 Apr 2012

                  Stop telling people to buy cameras. Why don't you also go buy separate gadgets? Buy a psp for games, a feature phone, a dslr for imaging, an ipod etc. People want convergence and right now Htc cams just don't make the cut.

                  Anyway it's pointless still cause putting 808 in the camera arena with other phones will only turn into a blood bath. Even the xperia s with it's great camera still can't beat N8. But my point is Htc shouldn't have hyped the image sense so much. Apparently it was just a gimmick

                    • R
                    • RejZoR
                    • 3pt
                    • 13 Apr 2012

                    AnonD-44164, 13 Apr 2012I wonder why most of the reviews this phone has had got cam... moreFor such price you don't expect anything but the best. This one's camera clearly isn't.

                      • D
                      • AnonD-44164
                      • w7i
                      • 13 Apr 2012

                      TwiblacK, 13 Apr 2012I am confused in which is better to buy the htc one x or th... moreif you are looking for gaming then look to none other then tegra 3 quad core beast one x. nvidia has a tegra zone specialized for tegra devices in it there's plenty of cool tegra 3 optimized HD games. and in terms of sound quality the sensation XE has the worst loud speaker the one X has a much better loud speaker but the one S has a slight edge here but not much difference. so I wud say combining the 2 elements gaming and sound quality the ONE X is the way to go for you.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • pnY
                        • 13 Apr 2012

                        You didnt mention the battery life in the review

                          • M
                          • Michael
                          • uGy
                          • 13 Apr 2012

                          One very important factor that was not covered by GSMARENA in this review was how the new contact booklet was pretty much set up to use either Google,Facebook or Twitter and integrate all contacts online. What ever happened to the old classic where one had the option to add a contact via first name,last name or company name and sort or search that way without needing to add a contact ready to sync with either Twitter,Facbook or Google Contacts via Google's Gmail account?? HTC used to allow people to add contacts to their own contact booklet which is now gone. That is not so good for those that care about their privacy.

                            • T
                            • TwiblacK
                            • fqf
                            • 13 Apr 2012

                            I am confused in which is better to buy the htc one x or the one s or the sensation xe in terms of gaming and sound quality ?

                              • l
                              • lem
                              • pKK
                              • 13 Apr 2012

                              no video via gsm. no thank you!

                                • D
                                • AnonD-44164
                                • w7i
                                • 13 Apr 2012

                                RejZoR, 13 Apr 2012This thing has the same problem with camera as HTC One S (t... moreI wonder why most of the reviews this phone has had got camera comparisions with the iphone 4s rather then those your so called best sony, samsung and nokia camera phones ? ill admit sony xperia S has got the better camera and the nokia pureview would have the better camera then this but samsung ? i dont think any of their devices has a better camera than the one on HTC One X. and why did you think galaxy s2 got the no1 spot last year cause of its awesome camera? dont try to pick out negatives if you can't point out proper ones. If you want the best pictures buy a real camera not a phone its not meant for it.

                                  • d
                                  • dave
                                  • Tkh
                                  • 13 Apr 2012

                                  good review.

                                  Phones arena review was terrible and biased. GSM arena shows how much more intelligent, knowledgeable and unbiased it is.

                                    • M
                                    • Misterio
                                    • m4Z
                                    • 13 Apr 2012

                                    Hmmm, One S shoots photo and video better. Interesting, why?

                                      • R
                                      • RejZoR
                                      • 3pt
                                      • 13 Apr 2012

                                      This thing has the same problem with camera as HTC One S (though maybe not as severe). Grainy and smudged images made by still camera. Seriously HTC, wtf were you thinking? Sony makes awesome images, Samsung makes awesome images, Nokia makes awesome images, just HTC is still back in the age where dinosaurs walk the earth. Seriously, can't they make a proper camera for once!?
                                      I mean you charge over 600 EUR for a device with such rubbish camera!?

                                        • d
                                        • dexteral
                                        • PSd
                                        • 13 Apr 2012

                                        1. Various popular launchers on Htc one x such as apex launcher, adw launcher, go launcher, Htc sense, ics 4.0 launcher, launcher7 and launcherpro:

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJu9Afmu5Dw

                                        2. Shadowgun

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4LYJRWakJE

                                        3. Games; Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Space, Bounce, Ceramic Destroyer, Fieldrunners

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzi0Bmxspfw

                                        4. Internet Browsing

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KATvmiBcXvw

                                        5. Just general overview on awesomness of the device

                                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0AsJZqv6aI

                                        I must say this is the most awesome device I have owned to date.