back to article HTC peeves punters with One X woes

HTC's new flagship smartphone, the One X, is apparently dogged by issues, with annoyed customers venting their frustration over faults from burning smells to flickering screens. A fair few peeved punters have posted their bad experiences with the five-core powerhouse over on the XDA Developers forums. HTC One X quad-core …

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  1. Durdy
    Trollface

    Is this why you guys are looking to off load 8 of them?

    HTC have always had poor quality control, I'm currently using a Desire S that has a gap just above the screen that shouldn't be there and just gets dirty. It's my first and last HTC device..

    1. dotslash
      FAIL

      yep, indeed

      HTC are worst builders of technology to have ever existed which I've said many times on these el comments...

      I thought they were trying to turn a corner, oh well, they failed.

      Bye Bye HTC!

      1. Steve Evans

        Re: yep, indeed

        This would be my main concern with HTC. Their after sales support is terrible.

        When I got my Desire Z I discovered a software bug. I did a bit of digging and found it was a known issue with the version of Froyo they had.

        I reported it to hopefully get them to release an update... Instead I was told by the guy on support that the problem must be a faulty microSD card. He asked if I had another to try. I didn't. He said they would send one out to me.

        Weeks turned into months. Every time I messaged them they said they were out of stock of microSDs... An item so common I could buy one from half a dozen shops in the nearest highstreet.

        Their big problem is that every support reply they make has "We trust this has resolved your problem. Please open a new bug if it does not". So all their bugs are resolved in 48 hours (the time it takes to get a reply).

        This makes their stats look great, but the end user experience terrible.

        If I tried this stunt at work I would get shot! If a resolution doesn't fix a bug, the bug is reopened, you don't get a brand new one. So the boss can see bugs which have been unresolved for a long period of time and shout at us!

        I never did get the microSD card. I resolved the problem myself with Cyanogenmod.

        So to anyone who has an HTC One with a fault, I say don't bother with their support. If you can, use the EU distance selling regulations and just send it straight back.

        1. NinjasFTW

          Re: yep, indeed

          @steve evens.

          I think I had the same issue by the sounds of it as you with my desire Z. Once you filled up over 1/2 of the sd card anything over that woud intermittantly disappear and have I would have to run SD rescan to get access to it for a few minutes until it would disapear again.

          I logged a problem ticket and never actually heard back from them.

          Cyanogenmod fixed my issues as well and my phone runs much better now. I'm actually happy with it for the first time :)

          1. bluesxman
            Meh

            Re: yep, indeed

            Hmmm I might have encountered that, though only seems to affect photos for me (not much else on my SD card to be fair) and it seemed to be more about number of files in a directory. Once I'd breached a certain amount new ones wouldn't appear in the gallery without a rescan (and then vanished again later). I worked around the issue by moving my old pics into "/sdcard/old_pics".

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: yep, indeed

        That's a shame if true. I bought an HTC SDA a while ago after it was discontinued for around $100 as an unlocked phone for traveling.

        Despite some bugs with Windows Mobile it seemed like a very high-quality, well-designed device. I enjoyed many hours of playing Jawbreaker on it while in hostels.

      3. Stephen 27
        Thumb Up

        Re: yep, indeed... not

        Not my personal experience. I bought my wife a Touch Pro 2 a couple of years ago and its the best mechanical keyboard phone ever! (although a little over weight by today's standards) So I've just bought a Desire S and absolutely love it. Solid hardware, only the wifi is a little dodgy if I hold it in the wrong place. I'd buy HTC again.

        1. Bassey

          Re: yep, indeed... not

          Defeinitely not my experience either. I've owned HTC devices for many years. Must have had six or seven and the build quality has always been stupidly good. Sure, many of them were big, heavy and cumbersome but they felt like you could bludgeon someone to death with them without leaving any tell-tale signs.

      4. Andy Miller

        "worst builders of technology to have ever existed"

        Clearly you don't remember Amstrad hi-fis...

    2. David Gosnell

      We're safe. If I remember rightly, one of the questions didn't have a correct option.

  2. Colin Millar
    Facepalm

    There's one born every minute

    People who buy something knowing that it will "inevitably break down" - is there a clinical term for this condition? Brain dead maybe?

    Smartphones - its the new heroin.

    1. The Jase

      Re: There's one born every minute

      Its an electronic device, it will inevitably break down, just like a mechanical device like a car.

  3. Patrick O'Reilly

    WebSQL

    I tried one of the One X's in Edinburgh recently and was shocked to find it's browser did not support WebDB/SQL

  4. Daf L

    Return Policy

    "Customers have also griped over HTC's 28-day returns policy "

    If it's faulty, it's faulty - your statutory rights give you an absolute minimum of a year but up to 6 or so depending on the term "reasonable".

    1. Seanmon
      Thumb Up

      Re: Return Policy

      Yep. Just say "Sale Of Goods Act" to the store manager, watch him quail. More people should know about it.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    .....says

    men on the internet trying to sell a not so good phones.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: .....says

      Did the unit HTC sent you for review exhibit these problems, Barry? Or do they just send you Windows Phones?

      1. Silverburn
        Happy

        Re: .....says

        I await Barry's explanation as to why this is Apple's fault with interest...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: .....says

        HTC never gave me any phone. It came from a large online retailer.. If you are going to stalk my post history, at least get it right....

        I think I pissed off quite a few cyberturfers in Reading the other morning when I worked out their game... I'm guessing El-Reg already know their games from ip addresses, it's just a shame they don't crack down on it, I guess it makes them money no to...

        1. Arctic fox

          Re: .....says

          I doubt very much that Lord Sauron of Redmond thinks that you are important enough to send his ring wraiths out after you any time soon Barry.

  6. KrisM
    Happy

    so far...

    On my second HOX - the first had GPS problems, making satnav nigh on impossible to use, and if using a tracker app, displayed a route on Google maps that look I was drunk, 30 ft tall (to stagger, in one step, from one side of the street to the other), and had a mobile teleporter to transport me half a mile into a field, before dumping me back on the road!

    However other than that issue, the phone was great. Went back to CPW and they swapped for a new one without fuss, and so far (touch wood) new one is absolutely fine. With the software upgrade, I'm sure I'm getting a day and half out of fairly active use, and that's apparently without the known problem of a certain file not being in the right folder (preventing the 5th core from helping with battery issues) being fixed - so even better performance to come hopefully!

    Sure there have been some issues, but all phones have it. Build quality of mine is fine, and no other issues to report!

  7. ChapmanDan
    WTF?

    I'm sure there are issues out there but to provide a bit of balance I've got one and I'm perfectly happy with it. No bugs, no errors and the build quality is superb...

  8. Anonymous John

    Mine is fine and is my fourth HTC phone. The first had a stuck pixel and was replaced without any fuss. That was the only problem.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The only problem...

    No problems with mine at all, apart from one thing. Since its release the phone has had two OTA software updates which have reportedly fixed many of the issues people have had, but I'm with Orange and they've not released any of the updates for their branded handsets - in fact they deny their existence at all. All in all for me it's been a great phone on a woeful network.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    AHaha

    Ok this is quite amusing, all these posts going along the lines of, Ive got an HTC (insert android or android generation with other OS phone name here) and it sucks

    HTC has been around a long time guys, and if we go back before Android was released the vast majority of their phones are solid as a rock. Now before you android fans start jumping up and down I don't mean to say or suggest that Android phones suck, im saying that before HTC started punting hundreds of phones most of them clones around the time they started shipping android there wasn't really a QA issue, at least on this scale.

    HTC, go find who designed the HD2, then fix the buttons that were not supposed to be pressed and the digitiser cable that gets disconnected when the glue holding the LCD panel to the case losses its stickiness allowing the layers of the phone separate apart a fraction of a mil and thus the cable can fall out, fix those issues and you have a perfect template on how to make a phone. Hear me, Cheap is NOT good, it pisses people off, quality of devices far outweighs quantity of devices, and when android came on the scene you seem to have gone a bit mental.

    So anyhow, go get the HD2 team together again if they haven't already been picked off by other firms and get them on the case to make something good again. you want some proof of the HD2s dominance? go look at ebay and find 3 year old phones that sell for almost the full RRP, there isn't that many, but the HD2 is one of them. Also note that its very customizable, WM, WP, android, they all work on the thing, you can even buy HD2s new, with the OS of your choice on it!

    Think about it.

  11. Sean Timarco Baggaley
    WTF?

    @Dazzza:

    "HTC has been around a long time guys, and if we go back before Android was released the vast majority of their phones are solid as a rock"

    Oh? The three TyTN II models I went through—In the end, I just told Vodafone to take the bloody thing away, give me a cheap Nokia, and refund the difference instead—say otherwise.

    On two of the occasions I was there in the Vodafone showroom, I had to join a queue... of other disgruntled HTC handset owners who had come in for similar reasons. Which strongly suggests my experiences were far from unique.

    Still, anecdata, eh? Like facts, you can use it to prove anything you like.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: @Dazzza:

      Listen, im not saying they were all perfect, but from my experience I never had an issue, not once, other than lack of drivers for the graphics hardware from Polaris onwards, hardware wise, they were solid, this includes:

      Wallaby (aka, XDA)

      Himalaya (aka XDA!!)

      Alpine (aka XDA IIi)

      HTC Universal (aka xda exec)

      HTC Artemis (aka O2 Orbit)

      HTC Polaris (aka O2 Orbit 2)

      HTC Touch Diamond

      HTC Touch HD

      HTC HD2

      3 years and counting im still on that one and have no intention on changing as it does everything I want it to do. All the other ones performed amazingly well, never had an issue other than it getting superseded with better tech, in fact I still have the Touch HD, the Polaris and the Alpine all working flawlessly to this day. Did I get all of the HTC devices, no, because some of them were lemons, that's why I did a lot of research before making my choices

  12. Sean Timarco Baggaley
    FAIL

    What happened to the traditional appending of "-gate" to such issues?

    From the list in the article, the media should be screaming about: "Burngate"; "Discolourationgate", "Flickergate"; "Sensorgate"; "GPSgate", and, of course, "Antennagate II: Payback's a Bitch!" (Apple have only been selling mobile phones since 2007. What's HTC's excuse?)

    And that's just one phone, running the OS with the largest market share in the smartphone sector.

    Double standards, much?

  13. Jelliphiish

    the better ninety percent has one..

    she thinks it's ace. no fault found. and she can be quite critical when a phone is poo.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    My first HTC phone was an HP HW6915 (HTC Sable), the second was the HTC Touch Pro 2, the third (my current phone) is the HTC Sensation. aside from the TP2 having a somewhat deaf GPS receiver at times, I've had no real problems with any of them.

    Poor quality control? Not from where I'm sitting.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just get an iPhone

    Mine's worked perfectly, as has every iPhone I've owned.

    1. Linker3000
      FAIL

      Re: Just get an iPhone

      I received 14 iPhone 4s' for teams at work about 2 months ago. 4 faulty ones replaced so far.

      -- posted from my rooted HTC Desire

  16. Sampler

    Surprised

    It seems HTC have a reputation for poor quality reading the comments, I never knew that and I've been using them some seven years:

    Prophet (Orange M600)

    Kaiser (TyTnII/O2 XDA Stellar)

    Rhodium (Touch Pro2)

    Desire

    DesireZ

    OneX

    Still have most of them (sold the Desire to fund the DesireZ which I've now given my old man) and they all still work - as the OneX is a little large to fit in my TriBag (http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/105957.html) including the Overboard water proof cover I tend to use the Kaiser or Rhodium (whichever's got enough power at the moment) for GPS tracking when out cycling.

    Have many friends and colleagues whom have HTC devices and never heard anything bad either - I know they can't make every device prefect (would be nice) but didn't realise they were supposedly this bad, probably won't stop me getting another one after the onex though as my experience has been great so far.

    (though definitely not going Orange again, or T-Mobile I guess now they've bought them out)

  17. mrfill
    Joke

    Are you sure...

    they're not just holding it wrongly?

  18. UncleJam

    Re: Just get an iPhone

    On my third personal HTC phone (Hero, Desire, Sensation) and have not had a problem with any of them. Use iPhones for work . Nice interface but unpredictable for phone calls (Isn't that the main purpose of a phone?) . My Sensation, on the same network, is much better and the HTC Sense interface is much more intuitive.

  19. Steve Oliver
    Thumb Up

    And i have 4 of them...

    Yep as the title.. i have 4 of them (for my business) and have no real issues with any of them, Battery life is better than my legend (ok not a great example) and when it has little use can easily acheive 6 days standby with around 45 minutes of screen time. XDA is a forum and as such attracts people with something negative to say. Personally i think the phone looks feels and performs great but appreciate there will be some faulty ones.

    To put it into context, look at the tranformer, the LG, the motorola, the galaxy nexus launches.. they also (and in some cases still do) have issues. For most users the One X isnt a bad launch and after a month they are just rolling the second software update.. keep going with the software updates and all will be good fairly quickly! Oh and they are also reliant on Nvidia for a lot of the fixes...

    Just my 5c worth (2c doesnt exist down under)

  20. Bodhi

    Can't say I'm surprised HTC QC always seemed a bit flaky in my (completely anecdotal) experience. I don't know anyone with a Desire who didn't have to send it back at some point (Power Key issues, overheating, and a bizarre SD Card failure), and the only HTC phone I've had (a SonyEricsson X1i manufactured for SE by HTC) wasn't great, with case cracking issues and a flaky keyboard. HTC also insisted SE used Windows Mobile, which was a bag of sh*t. It still works, but not the best phone I've had.

    1. KrisM
      Happy

      I had a HTC Desire, and never had to send it back for repair :)

      Only problem I had with it was lack of memory for apps, and a dwindling battery life towards the end. Still works fine, but replaced by my HOX now..

  21. The Jase

    Dodgy build?

    I have an HTC 7 pro, its a bit meaty, but it has a full keyboard and I've had no issues with it.

    Dropped it a few times and not had the screen crack (hello iPhone).

    I took it to Gambia and no issues with the GPS and offline maps.

    No complaints about the phone from me.

  22. Daz555

    Let's hope their UK repair centre has improved

    The Desire HD was so badly chucked together I'd have hoped HTC learned some lessons - it would appear not. Their UK repair centre is also a complete shambles in my experience. Following the disaster I had with the Desire HD - it took 3 returns for me to get a properly assembIed phone, which then packed up 6 months later needing a repair which took 2 months - I will never buy HTC again.

  23. jason 7

    I've had a few HTC phones.

    C500 types and the like. They were okay, bit slow.

    The one however that was a total nightmare and lasted about 3 weeks of use before it was dumped on the dinosaur shelf was the HTC Touch 3G.

    Awful, just awful.

  24. Rob Thorley
    Thumb Up

    My One X is Okay

    I've got a One X on O2, it's working fine, except for the battery monitoring, it seems a bit stuttery - i.e., the device stays on xx% for ages and then drops like a stone. If it did this smoothly I would have no issue.

    I'm hoping O2 release the updates soon, maybe this is due to be fixed.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nokia Nokia Nokia

    As everyone has pointed out the HTC quality control is substandard to say the least. Everyone knows that the Nokia hardware is of excellent quality and very few of their handsets develop faults on the scale of HTC devices.

    I bet there will be many unhappy punters conned into buying a HTC One X by the staff in phone shops that will go on to fault. Hopefully they'll return them promptly and get their Lumia's while they can

    1. cs94njw

      Re: Nokia Nokia Nokia

      It's just a shame that Nokia handsets are so boring.

    2. Bodhi

      Re: Nokia Nokia Nokia

      Having worked for Vodafone in the past I can tell you this is completely wrong, Nokia have had their fair share of duff handsets over the years. Just off the top of my head

      6280

      N73

      N95

      N80

      Anything N-Series really

      7110

      6110 Navigator

      All with various hardware and software issues, all kept Voda's repairs department busy. Sure the more basic ones were solid, but anything high-end? Nah.

  26. Barry Scott Here
    Meh

    Had a HTC Desire for 2 years been repaired once, which is an improvement on previous phones

    Nokia N95 repaired 3 times in 2 years

    Motorola v3x repaired 5 times in 14 months. In the end Vodafone refused to repair it anymore!

  27. Chris McFaul
    FAIL

    I am now on my FOURTH HTC One X... having had to return three faulty units - all with screen problems (the second one also had loose internals that rattled around and other problems too).

    This one seems ok but i will be ebaying this and getting a Galaxy S3 as soon as its out.

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