[ad#ad-1]AT&T has taken up the task of boosting its smartphone arsenal with top-tier 4G LTE devices, like the HTC Titian II and the Lumia 900 from Nokia. Now we have the carrier’s first Android 4.0 device: the HTC One X.
The HTC One X sports a 4.7-inch HD super LCD 1280×720 display, running Android 4.0 with Sense UI 4.0. As mentioned, it is a 4G LTE device on the AT&T network. Its got 1GB of RAM with 16GB of onboard storage (not expandable via microSD). This is all powered by a Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor at 1.5Ghz. Its also got Beats audio, a 2 megapixel front facing camera and an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and zero shutter lag for some really cool photos. You also have physical buttons instead of the on-screen buttons you typically find on the Galaxy Nexus. The physical buttons include your back, home, and multi-task buttons. Overall, the HTC One X is super slim and light weight for a 4.7-inch unibody device without a removable battery, which you can see more in detail in our video review below.
HTC Sense 4.0
Yes the HTC One X is an Android 4.0 device, but like with most Android devices, it still sports a custom U.I. Sense 4.0 has come a long way over the past year. Sense UI has been clunky, heavy, and down right slows a system down. HTC has gone back to the drawing board and retooled their UI to be more of a complimentary piece to Sense UI. It’s much smoother, faster, and more responsive. Some of the complimentary additions to Android 4.0 with Sense 4.0 is the music hub, which automatically aggregates all your music apps to that hub as soon as you download them. So you always know where all your music is. The Settings layout is a bit different, but still has a familiar look. Multitask has taken a different graphical look, with the multitask area being a separate window to kill or jump into a separate app. Overall, Sense 4.0 does not take away from Android 4.0; it tries to fill in the gaps where necessary.
Beats Audio
As you may know, all HTC smartphones will come with Beats audio (Android for the time being), which is to aid and give better sounding audio to your overall experience using the HTC One X as a multimedia device. What we have seen in the past is that this has done nothing to improve the audio quality in video recording off the camera or music quality. I can safely say that the audio quality of the camera recording is greatly improved, which you can get a sample of in our camera review & tips video review. Plus listening to music with Beats audio turned on adds and extra element to your listening experience which is welcomed.
Zero Shutter Lag 8 Megapixel Camera
HTC One X has an 8 Megapixel camera with a F2.2 lens at 28mm. It has several qualities and features which we describe in-depth in our camera review video. Its zero shutter lag feature works well, and its ability to take photos while recording video at the same time is great. Plus, you can take photos off your videos. Check out more details in our camera review here.
Conclusion
HTC has really changed its design philosophy and its software approach. No more clucky hardware, but now we have a smooth ceramic lightweight device. No more cluttered software in Sense, but a more robust and adaptive software with Sense 4.0 on top of ICS. You also have what can be considered one of the best, if not all around best, cameras on any smartphone with its software and hardware combo. Battery life with 4G LTE is at 14hrs Max, which is pretty good for an Android Device with is 1800mAh battery. It also has great voice call quality, and Beats audio has evolved past the gimmick stages on the device.
One area that HTC does drop the ball on this device is the lack of expandable storage via microSD card and no removable battery. Though HTC does supplement that with free 25GB cloud storage via dropbox for a year. With that being said, the HTC One X is a solid device and, dare I say, the best Android 4.0 device on the market as of today. You can pre-order yours at AT&T for a set release date of May 6th @$199 with 2 year contract in either white or black. It is definitely a worthy buy in our book.
