HTC One X review

HTC's One X is a collection of firsts. It's the first HTC handset with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the first with a 720x1,280-pixel screen, and the first with a quad-core processor; its Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset even includes a GeForce graphics core and a "companion core" - a fifth processor core that takes over essential functions when the phone is idle to save power.


The huge 4.7in screen's IPS panel is bright and colourful, if not quite as punchy as the OLED screens on the Motorola RAZR or Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The screen's contrast also can't match that of its rivals. Blacks weren't as deep and whites not as bright in our side-by-side tests with those phones. Colours were on the vibrant rather than accurate side, although you may prefer this for gaming and reading websites. The 720p resolution is ideal for web browsing; we could easily read headline and summary text on the BBC News homepage in landscape mode, and then double-tap to zoom in to individual stories.
The One X's screen is rounded at the edges and sits proud of its white surround. There's very little space around the screen, except at the bottom where three touch-sensitive buttons handle Back, Home and the new Open Tasks function, which shows which apps are currently running. The handset is light and comfortable to hold, with the matt-white plastic providing adequate grip.


The phone's 1.5GHz quad-core processor makes it run smoothly, although we still noticed some jerkiness and lag when under heavy load - swiping through the home screens still isn't as buttery smooth as on the iPhone. The One X has no problems coping with heavy loads - we tested a few games and they all played smoothly, although the phone can get hot at the rear. In the JavaScript Sunspider benchmark it scored 1,746ms, that's around 100ms quicker than the Tegra 3-equipped Asus Transformer Prime, probably due to a higher clock speed.
With the Android 4.0 operating system comes HTC's own Sense 4.0, a collection of apps, widgets and customisations designed to improve on Android's own interface. We've mentioned previously how manufacturers and network operators often load phones with software that can't be uninstalled, and which duplicates or even removes Android's own functions, but Sense has always been one of the less intrusive examples. Sense 4.0 adds features that complement Android's own software.
For a start, Sense beefs up the camera app, adding plenty of extra features that take advantage of the One X's dedicated imaging chip. There's a fast multi-capture mode which you access by holding down the shutter button, and it saves these pictures as a collection so you can browse for the best one. Pictures can be snapped in 0.7 seconds, with a 0.2 second auto-focus, and you can go straight to the camera from the lock screen to speed things up.

 This may be the first phone that gives compact digital cameras a run for their money. It's got more options that we're used to seeing on a smartphone camera: face detection, auto smile capture (which works quite quickly), manual ISO settings and continuous shooting. You can adjust exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpness using sliders from the options menu, and you can even snap a quick shot while recording video.

 Our test shots were some of the best we've seen from a smartphone camera. There was bit of noise in our outdoor shots but details are reasonably smooth, without the smudged look you can get from heavy noise reduction. The fairly large-aperture f/2.0 lens helps indoors, and low-light shots without the flash were astoundingly good, with sensibly chosen settings (1/15s at ISO 1250) and noise kept reasonably in check for such a fast ISO speed. It's on par with a decent mid-price compact camera.


Sense also beefs up the music player, although here we're not so keen on its changes. It adds HTC's own Beats Audio processing and changes the default music player, adding links to the 7digital music store, the Soundhound music recognition service and the TuneIn internet radio app. You can click the Soundhound icon while listening to a song in TuneIn Radio to identify it, which is useful.
Beats is less impressive: sound quality was good enough without it, and we found it made the bass too boomy, although it also did a good job of brightening up mid-range sounds. As well as Beats, you can choose from a list of more traditional effects, such as Bass Boost or Live, and unlike on previous Beats-branded phones, you can use non-Beats headphones and still take advantage of the Beats effects. However we would have preferred more fine control over the effects rather than this all-or-nothing approach.

 Another Sense addition is the Car app. This interface shows the functions you might want while driving - phone, music player, internet radio and navigation - in a large format that's easy to access whilst keeping your eyes on the road. All menus and text are in a larger font for visibility, and there are larger icons and buttons too. The phone interface is designed for ease of use, with a large photo of the caller that you can swipe either left to decline the call, or right to answer. You can even customise which navigation app and music player to use.

HTC claims One X multitasking is working as intended

        Recently, owners of the HTC One X have taken to various forums to complain about how memory management and multitasking works on the device. Users have reported that the One X is overly aggressive in closing apps that run in the background compared to other devices that run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC offered a statement to The Verge on the matter claiming that the One X's memory management is working as designed, and that its Sense interface requires more resources than standard Android 4.0, resulting in the more aggressive management.

We have actually noticed the behavior on a few of the Sense 4.0 equipped devices that we have been testing, as it seems that heavy apps like the Chrome Beta browser close out of background processes much quicker than we would expect.

HTC's statement on the matter is as follows:
"HTC is aware of some questions in the enthusiast community about how the HTC One X handles multitasking and memory management for background apps. We value the community's input and are always looking for ways to enhance customers' experience with our devices. That said, right now multitasking is operating normally according to our custom memory management specifications which balance core ICS features with a consistent HTC Sense experience."
That may not sit all that well with power users, but them's the breaks, and HTC has decided to prioritize its Sense user interface experience over extended background multitasking. Of course, those who wish to tinker with their devices are free to attempt to fix the matter with various tweaks and custom software, but the rest of us will just have to live with it for now.