HTC One X Review

HTC One X deals

The HTC One X is a very big phone – both in size and in specs. It's big, it's powerful, and if that's what you're looking for from a phone then you won't be disappointed with this top of the range Android smart phone. If you only have modest demands of a phone then you might have some difficulties with it, and it is on the pricey side, but there are some great phone deals out there if you like the sound of it.

Big Phone

Big is a relative term, so what do we mean by that? Well, its screen is 4.7 inches on the diagonal, which is not quite the biggest screen you can get on an Android, but it's close. It's over a full inch bigger than the iPhone screen. It has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, which is very good but because of the size of the screen it's not as impressive as it would be on most other phones. Still, there is certainly nothing to complain about when it comes to the quality of the display. When web browsing, for instance, if you have decent eyesight then you shouldn't have to zoom to be able to read the text.

With the screen being so big though, HTC made the decision to have very little bevel around the sides of the phone, meaning that the screen reaches almost to the edges. Which would be fine except that it means when you're holding the phone, it's easy to accidentally press something you didn't mean to, launching an application unintentionally for instance. The sheer size of the phone also makes it a little difficult to hold, unless you have very big hands yourself. The rounded corners and extreme smoothness of it doesn't help matters either. That said though, once you've found a way to actually get a good grip of it, it is comfortable to hold (good for long conversations).

If you're going to have a big screen though, you need a powerful processor for smooth running. There are absolutely no problems in that area with the HTC One X, it uses a 1.5GHz quad-core processor. This makes for quick web browsing and gaming, including the latest 3D games. It also supports tabbed browsing, having music play in the background and the ability to switch quickly between apps. However you can also do all of that with a dual-core processor, so there are some who wonder whether quad-cores at this point are strictly necessary.

You might say to yourself though, why not? Which is fair, except the thing is the more processing power there is, the harder the phone is going to be on the battery. Same goes for the size of the screen, the bigger it is the faster the battery is going to be drained. That's a double whammy against the HTC One X then, so as you would expect the battery life is problematic. You'd be lucky to get through a whole day without having to recharge if you go for anything close to moderate use.

Ice Cream Sandwich and Other Features

The HTC One X runs one of the latest versions of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. This makes for very smooth operations, especially with the One X's quad-core processor. There are also a couple of things new to ICS which are pretty impressive. Chrome for Android is one of them, which is Google's own web browser. This supports multi-tabbed browsing in a very nice design. There's also a face unlock feature with this, so you get to feel very futuristic by using your face to unlock your phone (and we don't mean running your nose across the screen)!

The device comes with 32GB internal storage, which is very good but you have to take in to account that there is no microSD card. However there is a bonus, in that you get two years free service from Dropbox, allowing you an extra 25GB space with them.

Another big selling point for the HTC One X is the camera. It's an 8 megapixel camera with a quality lens which produces very good colours and depth of field. It also has a variable LED flash, and a number of cool after effects you can add to your pics. For taking pictures of high speed occurrences you can hold the capture button and take up to 99 shots in a continuous burst, then either keep them all or choose the best. On top of that you can record Full HD 1080p video as well, and with excellent results.

Audio quality is also very good on this phone, both for playing music and for calling people. Even in noisy environments, it's easy to hear what is being said on the other end of the line, and they will be able to hear you easily as well.

You can find the full specs on the HTC website.

Phone Deals

If you like big phones, we're confident that you'll love this phone. The only downside really is the poor battery life, but if that's something you can live with then check out the excellent HTC One X monthly contract deals available online.  There are some great HTC One X black deals as well.