GADGET WATCH: HTC One X

The Mobile World Congress has been underway in Barcelona this week, and that means one thing – plenty of new mobiles on display. This year every manufacturer has announced some major releases and, along with them, HTC has confirmed the One X.

This hefty piece of hardware won’t be available on the market just yet, so a full review is impossible. But plenty of people have had a first look and it’s a good time to gauge first impressions.

Hardware and Features

The One X is a thin phone, measuring just 8.9mm thick and weighing just 130 grams. Its screen is 4.7 inches, with a resolution of 1280×720.

It features a dual core 1.5Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage – it has no SD capability.

The X uses a 4G connection and a pretty powerful battery, although reviewers have noted 4G phones haven’t had the best battery life so far. However, the camera is impressive with 8MP capable of shooting video at 1080p.

What’s the consensus?

HTC is putting a lot of effort into this phone, making it the flagship product. And thankfully, the early impressions tend to be quite favourable.

Over at Engadget, the publication goes so far to say that it’s “blown away”, noting it feels comfortable to hold, it has an impressive list of specs and especially notes the speed of the camera.

“The device flies — in fact, we’d be amiss not to mention the fact that the vendor’s ICS-backed Sense UI is much lighter than any of its predecessors and doesn’t bog down the performance at all,” it said, and even better, the device is probably running on early firmware versions.

Wired was a little bit mixed. Although it said the device is blazing fast, it said the unibody shell is dull and the Sense UI is a disappointment.

“It’s not as bad as Samsung’s ugly TouchWiz, but it falls far short of Sony’s thoughtfully designed UI improvements,” it said.

However, it also said the camera performed well – moreso than other devices – and it can capture brighter pictures. All in all, it said, “a mixed bag”.

Gizmodo was quite favourable, praising the vibrant colours and the ability to view the device clearly from many different angles. It disagreed with Wired on the body, saying the back was curved to make it feel comfortable.

It also said the camera performed very well and praised the processor saying the phone could “absolutely fly”.

“Obviously, much more testing will be required, but the Tegra 3 is the same guts that powers the Transformer Prime tablet and if it performs similarly, things will be looking good.”

And lastly, Uber Gizmo had a few more nice things to say, saying the design was sleek and elegant, and noted the user interface with a specific mode for in-car usage.

Who’s it for?

It’s very early days for these pieces of hardware as changes could be made that ruin the entire build. But these first impressions have a lot to say. If you’re looking for a new Android phone, it may very well be worth waiting for this one.