Test report
HTC One X – a treat for the eyes and ears
from Peter Wolf, trend scout and journalist, Ringier Ltd
Incidentally, after switching it on, the first thing I did was attempt to remove a film from the screen – until I realised that this was the screen. Unlike many other screens where the display looks as if it is hidden behind a thick glass panel, with this phone, the content seems to have been painted directly onto the screen.
Maybe that's why photos look so good on it. Even the snaps taken yourself using the incredibly fast 8 mega pixel camera. You can select the best picture from a continuous series of shots, and you can even take photos while filming in HD.
It's just a shame that HTC haven't provided a shutter release button. You have to touch the right part of the screen (or install an app that transforms the volume button into a shutter release button).
Once you've found all the options – some of which are hidden – you can take surprisingly good photos with the camera. The high-speed HDR function provides an unbelievably high contrast range, even in backlit conditions. Panorama photos can be created easily using the spirit level. Portrait photos look much nicer thanks to “automatic smile recognition”. Another fantastic feature is that you can even create screenshots (by holding down the on button and then tapping the Home key).
There's even an option for uploading photos to Facebook or Flickr immediately, once a day or, when using W-LAN, automatically. The Dropbox online storage location provides a similar service – and thanks to HTC you also receive a generous 23 GB of memory free of charge for the next two years.
Although the screen is very large, and therefore so is every key on the virtual keyboard, it's still good that there are four extra keys are for navigating up, down, left or right within the text. This allows you to correct typos much faster than if you have to move the insert marker first using your finger.
The phone's casing is also impressive. I was given the white version to test and, despite my initial misgivings and rough handling, it still looks as good as new.
However, this smartphone is not only a joy in terms of appearance and photos, but acoustically too – thanks to sound optimisation from “Beats Audi (TM)”, music from this phone even sounds good when it's just lying on the table. With headphones, it's even better. The music app combines all manner of sources, including Internet radio (and, if they are installed, even third-party applications such as Spotify or the music recognition app Sound Hound).
In addition to all these great multi-media aspects, we shouldn't forget that this smartphone can be used for business purposes as well – of course, you can also add multiple Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync accounts.
The smartphone runs on Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 4.0. A nice feature is that, when apps are downloaded, a shortcut is automatically created on the desktop. Previously, you had to search for your apps in the directory and then position them. However, this way you can find your purchases quickly, grab them and move them. Or move them over one another, creating a folder.
The HTC One X is quite a large smartphone, but is still compact and lightweight. It provides a host of interesting functions – but unfortunately the built-in battery won't last the whole day if you continuously try them all. This is the only weak point.
