HTC One X+

HTC ONE X+ REVIEW

We were very impressed with the original One X when it was released earlier this year, and it managed to clock up 4.5 out of 5 in our in-depth review and snaffle second place in our 20 best smartphones in the world. The big screen of the One X has been transferred over to the HTC One X+, giving you a 4.7-inch Super LCD 2 display with an HD 720 x 1280 resolution. It's still wonderfully crisp and clear, providing an excellent viewing experience with text and images appearing sharp and bright. Size wise the One X+ keeps the same dimensions from the original (134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm), which while large, especially for those of you looking to trade up from a 3.5-inch or below device. Below the large screen there's the three Android touch buttons back, home and multi-tasking sporting that pleasing red accent which glows nicely when illuminated, while above the display you get the traditional HTC elongated earpiece grill and a 1.6MP camera up from 1.3MP on the One X. The other keys, volume rocker on the right plus the power/lock key on top are the same as on the One X, as too are the left side mounted USB port (which doubles as a Mobile HDL to hook up to a TV) and 3.5mm jack up top. Once again we'll highlight out frustration with the USB port being located on the side rather than the base of the handset, as it makes the One X+ difficult to hold if plugged in. Round the back of the One X+ is an 8MP camera, which protrudes quite a lot from the handset, but thanks to the slightly curved nature of the chassis, doesn't affect the phone too much when resting on a table. On the software side, the One X+ ships with Android 4.1 and Sense 4+, which means you get Google Now with a long-press of the home button and a few minor software tweaks over the previous version of Sense. Nitpickers won't like the persistent and non-removable "Power saver" toggle in the notification area, and for some reason Android 4.1's expanded notifications don't work either. On the bright side, HTC has finally made its own Twitter and Facebook integration sane, so you won't have doubled-up options for those in your settings. Like any custom Android build, Sense 4+ is divisive and it's still not really my cup of tea, but the big-button aesthetics of Sense 4+ are at least consistent and don't slow the phone down. The original One X+ came in for some justified stick on account of its underpowered battery, which seemed barely able to support its high-powered performance for a single day. Now beefed up to 2,100mAh from the previous 1,800mAh it should at least get you through the day, but not much more (the beefed-up processor is likely to blame), and you may find yourself compromising its performance by turning down the screen brightness and switching off Wi-Fi and location services. Overall, this is probably the best HTC phone so far. The powerful processor shows no sign of weakness no matter how many apps its running, the large screen is well nigh excellent and it's sporting HTC's best camera. But the competition is gathering, and with Google's Nexus 4 offering a clutch of similar features for roughly half the price, it starts to seem quite the world-beater it otherwise might have.

SPECIFICATION & FEATURES

HTC ONE X+ PRICE

Price in USA $538

Price in UK £305

Price in EURO €390

Price in PAK Rs.58,500

Price in INDIA Rs.30,999