back to article HTC stimulates Sense with snap-happy One series

Reg Hardware Mobile Week HTC has brought a fresh dollop of Sense to Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012, with the HTC One series, a collection of premium smartphones focused on audio and camera capabilities. HTC One X Top dog of the bunch is the HTC One X, a handset built into a polycarbonate unibody with the mighty five- …

COMMENTS

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  1. pip25
    Unhappy

    Yawn

    It's no surprise HTC is having problems these days, their phones are basically carbon copies of each other. To be fair, this is a problem with other Android manufacturers as well, but HTC seems to be an especially bad case.

    Come on people, come up with something new, the usual bigger CPU/camera/etc. variation is getting really, really stale.

    1. Ammaross Danan
      FAIL

      Re: Yawn

      HTC already announced their streamlining of phones down to variations of a single model type, similar to how Apple does it with the iPhone. This is their attempt at getting a distinction by design, similar to how an iPhone is readily recognizable (without even needing to see the apple on the back).

  2. Jim 59

    Battery Anxiety

    Five Cores ? The point of a mobile phone is to be mobile, not to be stuck in orbit around the nearest AC outlet.

    1. archengel46
      Thumb Down

      Re: Battery Anxiety

      Please read about how the cores will be used before posting...

      1. Jim 59

        Re: Re: Battery Anxiety

        And the battery life is ?

  3. archengel46
    FAIL

    Xenon flash

    No Xenon flash = fail

    1. tmTM

      Re: Xenon flash

      Absolutely, I've not had a Xenon flash phone since my old SE K750.

      The pictures that could take at night are still better than my SGSII can manage.

  4. Franners

    Ville?

    Wot no Ville?

  5. Franners

    Ville?

    Wot no HTC Ville?

    1. Alan Watson

      Re: Ville?

      The "S" is the Ville.

  6. Alan Watson
    FAIL

    User storage...

    No card slot in any of them, so just the built-in storage. Could probably cope with the X's 32GB, but 16GB for the S is too little (I'm using a 32GB card in my Desire), and 4GB in the V???

    They've cut a deal with dropbox, but that's not the same as having stuff actually on your phone (when you are in a weak signal area, have a limited data bundle, are abroad, or just plain don't want to wait while you shuffle music between phone and cloud). Seems to be a trend with a lot of recent androids, and not a good one.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: User storage...

      Apparently the One V does have a MicroSD slot. But otherwise I agree, the lack of expandable memory is a major disappointment and pretty much rules out the One X and S for me. Hope they're not planning on cloud storage becoming a replacement for memory cards, it's not the same thing at all.

    2. Andrew Jones 2
      Meh

      Re: User storage...

      From what I understand - this is not a manufacturer design but an Ice Cream sandwich one.

      Earlier versions of Android allowed for SD card storage but obviously the OS couldn't make full use of it - then the Google implementation of Apps2SD was released with Froyo (2.2). It went some way to helping to fix the problem - but introduced it's own new problems by only storing part of an app on the card and part in internal memory. It also introduced the problem of people removing or mounting the SD card while the phone was running apps that were largely stored on the card. As I understand it - in order to allow the OS to have access to the full storage - in Ice Cream Sandwich - they have done away with removable storage so that they don't have to deal with the hassle of apps that cannot be moved to SD, parts of the OS breaking when the SD card is mounted etc etc. So in the instance of the 32GB HTC One X (oh which 26GB is useable) - you can actually store 26GB of apps in it with no problem - and no worry of widgets not working when you connect the phone to the computer. Is it a good or bad idea? Time will tell - but Apple seem to have got away with it for years - so - let's just wait and see what happens.

      1. Ammaross Danan
        Boffin

        Re: Re: User storage...

        Last I checked, my 32GB microSD card has a grand total of 100MB of apps, and nearly 14GB of vids and pics I haven't cleaned/culled/copied-off yet. A phone, especially one boasting its camera/vid features should be REQUIRED to have a removable SD card. Oh, and ICS supports removable storage, just look at the ICS tablets with a microSD slot...

    3. Raz

      Re: User storage...

      I as well will not buy a phone with no microSD slot. Good by HTC, nice to know you, you made my last 2 phones, including the one I am using, but not the next one.

  7. BenR

    Polycarbonate?

    Hmm. Been looking for a new phone to replace my Desire for a while now, and the Edge / Supreme / One X seemed to be that phone, but now I'm left wondering....

    A polycarbonate body for the flagship phone, but a fancy-dan aluminium body for the mid-range? I've stuck with HTC over the likes of Motorola, Samsung and LG due to the build-quality and premium materials used. My Desire is, basically, bullet-proof, and has a pleasing heft to it. As opposed to both the original and current Samsung Galaxy, which both feel like they'd fly away with a swift breeze, and creak alarmingly when squeezed even lightly.

    Maybe I'm wrong, and the One X will still feel solid as a rock when it's released, but it's left me a bit underwhelmed.

    1. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Up

      Re: Polycarbonate?

      It DOES feel solid as a rock. I was at the HTC Elevate Meet-Up in Barcelona and got an early play with the One series while I was there. They are every inch OUTSTANDING in quality, feel, weight and performance.

      1. BenR
        Thumb Up

        Re: Polycarbonate?

        Thanks for the info- I wasn't discounting the phone entirely, I'd've had a play and a feel to see what it was like beforehand.

        Your comment makes me feel a bit more secure about it though - I was just concerned after having played with the SGS and other 'premium' phones that feel flimsy due to all-plastic construction.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I still think if you're buying a phone based on specs like processor speed and number of cores you're doing something wrong. It's the experience of using it that really matters.

    1. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Up

      RE: AC 27/2 @ 13:11

      Agreed - and the feel of these phones is outstanding.

  9. Simon B
    FAIL

    Flash Flash Flash

    Yes, so high range it has NO Xenon flash!! My Nokia N8 Symbian grandad STILL wipe the floor with super new phones on better O/S's(?) because it has a proper flash! I only had the N8 because nobody else could make a phone that takes pictures in low light/dark PROPERLY; i.e. wih a proper flash, and it was 100% the right move. My pics are way better because of it, and 12 months on still nothing has changed. Come on HTC! I'll need a replacement eventually and I need a proper flash! you can have a fantastic lense but without a xenon it'll never perform.

    1. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Down

      Re: Flash Flash Flash

      You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about until you have taken photos with this outstanding phone. The F2.0 lens alone increases the light into the phone by 44% - and the existing flash is more than adequate, even in the dark.

      I have taken pics with it, and I have seen the results.

  10. L.B.
    Alert

    The big question for a "phone"

    Are they any good for making telephone calls?

    I ask this as a number of bods at work have the HTC/iPhone/whatever... smart phones and when they are in a noisy environment (like being on the street with traffic or in a comm's room with lots of fans), they sound like they are talking while standing on their head in a bucket of water.

    Most real telephones and mobiles of the non-smart veriety don't seem to suffer from this.

  11. Pat 11
    FAIL

    Facepalm. Again.

    There is only one killer app that will make me upgrade my Desire:

    LONGER BATTERY LIFE.

    I couldn't give a toss about shaving a couple of mm off the thickness, fill that space with lovely battery and let me get more than a working day of intermittent usage (YMMV).

  12. Santonia
    FAIL

    Storage

    To add to the previous commenters: cloud storage does not = replacement for sd storage. Mobile phone, designed for use on the move, UK's 3G signal, designed for use in very few areas and absolutely not a network capable of streaming content to a mobile device. I want to replace iPod + phone with: phone. Local storage of 32gb minimum is a must.

    Sorry HTC (and Sony for that matter), no SD card, no sale. Seems only Samsung flying the storage flag now (and even they ditched it on the Galaxy Nexus). Maybe it's an ICS 'specification'?

  13. James Micallef Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Patent OMG

    "patented light-to-dark gradient fade"

    How is it remotely possible to patent a colour scheme??? And even if it's a typo and should read 'trademarked', how is it remotely possible to trademark a colour scheme with gazillions of prior uses???

  14. Insane Reindeer
    Stop

    Meanwhile...

    Nokia roll out the 808. Anyone wanting to get people to write about their camera centric smart phone, or for that matter pay any attention at all to the camera unit on their new devices, should just go home right now.

    1. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Down

      Re: Meanwhile...

      LMFAO you clearly have no clue. The Nokia has a 1.3GHz single core processor. The subject of your photo MIGHT be there by the time the camera app has started... and it has an F2.4 lens. It'll need to be sunlight to capture any kind of good photograph at all... and then the lens imperfections will wreck the quality of capture anyway.

  15. Daniel Hill
    FAIL

    Screen fail

    SLCD Panels again :-(

    I really want to upgrade my Desire to another HTC phone, but frankly the AMOLED screen in the (now pretty antique) Desire still knocks spots off the newer HTC phones in terms of brightness and clarity.

    Looks like it'll have to be a Samsung then...

    1. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Down

      Re: Screen fail

      That's SLCD *2*

      Until you've seen it, withhold judgement.

  16. Alan Watson

    Screen

    Actually the S has an AMOLED, at least according to the reports (HTCs own site seems not to want to discuss display technology), The X however is TFT.

    1. Daniel Hill
      Facepalm

      Re: Screen

      Interesting, I must confess I didn't think to look at the S, working on the basis that it would have the same, or worse, screen than the top-of-the-line X.

      Will have to see how it compares against the Galaxy S3 (as and when that's officially announced)

    2. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Down

      Re: Screen

      The X is SLCD 2. No idea where the hell you got TFT from.

  17. Raz

    Battery?

    What about the battery? I saw a spec for One that said that the battery is not user replaceable. If true, one less reason to buy HTC phones...

  18. Nathan 13
    FAIL

    Battery is non-removable

    Which = no sale for me.

    1. Tom Kelsall
      Thumb Down

      Re: Battery is non-removable

      Wait until you have seen the battery life before you judge - how the hell can you decide that if the phone lasts a day and a half? No idea if it does but until we know you're daft to chuck the phone in the bin.

  19. Tom Kelsall
    Thumb Down

    Fantastic phones

    I am astounded by the negativity on this article's comments. Quite blown away by it. I have used the phones, seen the display, seen the camera, played music...

    They are BLISTERINGLY fast. Sense 4.0 and Image Sense are unbelievable. Audio is unbeatable. The phones come with 25Gb of FREE Dropbox storage - with a bit of intelligent re-thinking, this can easily complement the onboard storage and make life VERY good. The displays on all 3 are absolutely fantastic - SLCD2 on the X, and AMOLED on the other two. The difference in quality on the displays is not noticeable at all (and having seen the SGS2 which display I HATE, I looked really hard).

    We can't know the battery life until the reviews start coming in.

    So - I have NO IDEA why you idiots are chucking these phones on the scrap-heap before you've even LOOKED.

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