HTC seems to be on the regular trial and error cycles, where the trials are done with the “One” series of devices, and the errors, or rather the disadvantages from there are removed and the better versions are released in the “Desire” series. Except the HTC One X, there is nothing that can represent the recent best from HTC, though they made a nice attempt by bringing in the similar beauty and reducing the specifications in the HTC Desire X mobile phone, which is their most recent launch. For people who couldn’t find the One X comfortable because of the large size, this alternative would be the best as the curvy design in white color is similarly carried, and it is the 4-inch touchscreen that you would find enough for the beautified HTC Sense 4.1 interface.
Going in-depth with the review of this device, we would discuss whether the 19000 INR priced device is worth it?
Design, Form Factor and Display
We liked the device on the first impression itself, and though it would look like a unibody device it has a removable back cover which can be removed to expose the battery, insert the SIM card and the MicroSD card for storage expansion. The curvy body has a similar polycarbonate shiny look to that of the HTC One X and the earpiece lies beautifully as a thin strip just above the HTC logo on the front top side. To add to the beauty, there is a dull aluminum bezel continuing along the white panel all around the front screen. The bottom touch-sensitive buttons are for Back, Home and the Active applications, and the touch response from them is limited to only when the exact icons are touched.
The camera on the back, and the entire back panel look extremely elegant but that is not something totally new for the HTC users, as this type of back cover design is common with the camera lens being surrounded by an oval stripes of metallic color in the oval fashion. The back cover is made in a way as to make the Desire X look like a unibody one, although the back cover can be opened. Opening the back cover would expose the battery which takes up the bottom half, while the top portion accommodates the camera lens and the area for inserting the MicroSD card. The SIM can be placed only after the battery is removed.
The left side has just the MicroUSB slot, and the right has the volume rocker keys. Had the volume keys been embedded a bit into the panel, then from the front, the phone would have looked totally sleek but the volume keys would show a little discontinuity to the side panel. The top has got the Lock / Power key on the slope, and just beside it on the left side is the 3.5 mm headset jack.
Overall with the design, HTC has always been on the lead when compared to the other brands too, and the same has been maintained with the Desire X, which has got an excellent feel and the body is pretty comfortable to hold, a little credit to the 4-inch screen too. The LED indicator on the top right side would indicate with the colored lights, when the phone is charging, or if there are any unread notifications.
The 4-inch Super LCD display which has a screen resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, would keep the Desire X still into the mid-range and we would have expected something better in the PPI aspect. Keep the specs aside, the actual display is quite sharp and looks pretty neat with enough brightness to show off the stuff in bright conditions too. The colors and graphics are vibrant, and looked neat and clear on the various viewing angles.
Software, Interface and Apps
HTC again is known for the best modifications and enhancements it has done always to the Android operating system and this is no surprise as the HTC Sense 4.1 totally mesmerizes with the interface in the HTC Desire X, which modifies the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The earlier Sense interfaces were a bit restrictive, but this one looks more open and has a touch response to a very lighter touch.
Everything, starting from the Lock screen has got a different and light feel. One of the home screens has got the Favorites icon, which would hold the various icons for the favorite apps which you can easily access. Some of the pre-loaded favorite apps include the Personalize app, Car mode, Facebook, Internet, Music and Settings. The lock screen would show a large icon of Air plane, if the mode is turned on. There are shortcut icons which can be pulled into the bottom semi-circle to open that particular app, helpful especially with the camera app.
The settings section as always in most of the HTC phones, has a lot of options, separated in sections like Wireless & Network, Personal, Security etc. The Personalize section is similar to the Personalize app which is again separately available as a pre-installed app in the app lists. The OS in particular is the Android 4.0.4 version, and we haven’t seen any update to the latest Android Jelly Bean OS, so the users would have to stick to the current version, which is good enough for the 1GHz processor that the Desire X has got.
Applications like the Phone app have got options on the front, and there was no need to search deep to reach any option. The notification panel doesn’t hold any shortcut to connectivity options, but there is a single shortcut to reach the settings. Although we would always recommend something like the Control Panel for Android to make the settings reached easier.
Camera, Battery and Performance
The 5-megapixel camera is quite appreciable in capturing pictures on a bright surrounding, but the video capture is not that good and the blur is quite clear when you are not holding it totally still to capture a video, and rightly, the specs say its a WVGA video capture. There is a BSI sensor which would assist in low-light capture, but the intensity and strength of the flash is not that high when you are in a totally dark room, and expect the light to be somewhere in the range of the Blackberry or Galaxy Note II’s flash light.
The camera though has a few options to play around with, like the VideoPic, using which you can capture a picture while the video is being recorded, i.e. if you are taking a video of something and wanted to have a few still pictures too of the same, just keep the recording on and hit the camera shutter icon on the screen and the picture too would be captured. Apart from that, there’s the Continuous shoot which would capture continuous photos if you hold the camera shutter icon continuously, at a rate of 2.5 photos per second.
The battery capacity of the HTC Desire X is 1650 mAh, and it’s not that high when considering a high-end usage but it won’t drain that fast when you are doing the normal daily stuff on the phone and not putting the camera, screen and the flash much into work.
The processor in the Desire X is a 1 GHz, Dual-core one which is strong enough to support multitasking but we have seen glitches and occasional lags when more than 3 apps are running on the background and you are trying to capture pictures using the camera, or are adding new contacts to the phone. But that is fine, considering that we were trying to test it hard purposely.
The internal memory that the phone comes with, is 4GB and that could be expanded to 32GB using a MicroSD card which the phone supports. There are all the general connectivity options available, including the 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. and the phone can act as a Mobile Hotspot to share the Data network with other wireless devices around you.
Final Verdict
HTC has kept the trials done already with the HTC One V, and we weren’t impressed with the design then. But now, the mid-range variant of the HTC One X is out, in the form of Desire X and it surely has all the factors to be considered as a phone worth buying at a price range of Rs. 19000 in the Indian market. The design is excellent, the interface with HTC Sense looks beautiful and productive, but we would have expected a bit more from the camera and the speaker volume levels.
Check out our Playlist on Youtube for all the tips, the unboxing and review of the HTC Desire X.
