HTC ONE X REVIEW

HTC One X - Design and Features
Read the review of the HTC One M8
After a few years churning out a whole host
of handsets, HTC has tightened-up its lineup,
with just three Android models arriving in
the coming few months. The first to arrive,
and the top of the line, is the HTC One X,
which packs in a 4.7in HD screen, 8-
megapixel camera and quad core Nvidia
Tegra 3 processor.
Available for pre-order now from most
providers and hitting shop shelves on April
5, the HTC One X will you set you back £459
SIM free or can be had for free on £36 a
month, 24-month contracts and upwards.
Design and Features
We were sent the grey version of the HTC
One X for review and upon taking it out its
box our first impression was one of slight
disappointment. When we first saw HTC's
handset, it was in its white livery and we
thought it looked great, feeling it resembled
an oversized Nokia Lumia 800 – the best
looking phone currently on the market in
our humble opinion. However, the look
hasn't transferred well to this grey finish.
It falls down in two ways. The first is simply
that grey isn't a particularly inspiring choice
of colour, even given the nice matt finish
used on most of the handset. The second is
the shiny strip HTC have chosen to run
round the edge. Without this the HTC One X
could've passed as maybe having a sand
blasted anodised metal finish, and looked a
bit more premium because of it, but the
shiny strip just screams "I'm plastic".
Let's be clear, the HTC One X isn't an ugly
phone. The clean overall styling looks great
and certainly surpasses the recent Sony
Xperia S , but we just can't get past that grey
back. Thankfully you should be able to opt
for the white version instead, which carries
off the look much better.
Style isn't, however, the only area where the
HTC One X trips up. For a start, the back
isn't removable so you can't easily swap the
battery. Then there's the lack of expandable
memory – you get 32GB built-in, which
should be plenty, but some users will still
want the option of adding in an microSD
card to their HTC.
Another bugbear we have with the HTC One
X, particularly on these larger phones
(dimensions are 134.4 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm), is
the continual use of a top-edge-mounted
power button. It's simply too much of a
stretch for comfortable one handed use. The
Samsung Galaxy S2 , for instance, got things
spot on when it put this button on the right
edge where it falls easily under your thumb/
finger. At 130g it is at least surprisingly
lightweight.
Fret not, though. While this may read like a
catalogue of critical errors for the HTC One
X, most are merely small niggles that simply
leave the design door slightly ajar, ready for
another upcoming phone – say the Samsung
Galaxy S3 – to sneak in and become our top
smartphone pick, assuming it gets the rest
of the basics right. Currently, though,
there's nothing else that can match what the
HTC One X offers.
Connectivity
First though, let's finish looking round the
HTC One X's exterior. On the left edge is the
microUSB (MHL) socket used for charging,
connecting to your computer, and with an
appropriate cable it can connect to your TVs
HDMI input. Meanwhile the right is home to
the volume rocker, which is also glossy grey
plastic, rather than the usual chrome we
expect of HTC. As for the headphone jack,
HTC have placed it up top, and the metal
SIM slot – which takes microSIMs – pops
out with the push of a paperclip just like the
iPhone.
On the back, alongside the Beats Audio and
HTC logo are a quintet of metal dots. These
are contacts that are used for charging and
data transfer when the phone is docked in
the various compatible accessories. These
include a simple desktop dock that holds the
HTC One X horizontally and there's also a
set of car accessories that includes a dash
mounted dock, a screen-visor-mounted
Bluetooth mic/speaker and wireless receiver
to plug into your stereo for playing back
your music.
Under the HTC's screen are the three
navigation buttons, which although touch
sensitive, are not part of the main
touchscreen. This breaks somewhat with
Google's rules, as it wanted to promote
moving to completely virtual touch buttons,
but most manufacturers have implemented
separate buttons. The ones on the HTC are
responsive and easy to use.

HTC ONE M8 REVIEW

HTC is back with the HTC One M8 , its new flagship smartphone for
2014. Here's our in-depth, full review of the new HTC One M8.
HTC's aim was to take the original HTC One , codename M7, and make
everything better – an all-round upgrade job. One thing's for sure:
there are no major leaps with the M8, but we're seeing a similar trend
with all new flagship smartphones this year. The Galaxy S5 , for
example, adds a couple of new features while the Sony Xperia Z2 is
barely different to the Z1.
Let's take a look at the new HTC One M8 in more depth.
HTC One M8 review: Design and build quality
As you can see, the HTC One M8 looks a lot like the original. However,
there are some differences.
Once again, the Taiwanese firm has used a uni-body aluminium design
but the metal wraps around to the front rather than having a plastic
strip around the edge. The corners of the phone are also more
rounded. It has a brushed look and has been treated to gain its glossy
finish. The device now uses around 90 percent metal compared to the
M7's 70 percent. See also: 18 best smartphones: The best phone
you can buy in 2014.
A larger screen (see hardware, below) means that the phone is both
taller and wider than its predecessor - predominantly taller - but it
doesn't feel too large in the hand. It's also a few grams heavier at
160g compared to 143g, making it one of the weightier flagship
smartphones but again, it doesn't feel overly weighty. Instead it has
that reassuringly heavy feel to it.
HTC puts design first and you can certainly tell that with the M8 in
your hand. It feels like a premium smartphone which is something
Samsung has failed to achieve, in our opinion, with the Galaxy S5. The
new HTC One is ergonomic, but also sturdy.
This is important because, as well as feeling like a device which has
been carefully designed and put together, it doesn't feel overly delicate
which is a downside to the iPhone 5S and previous metal versions.
Visit: New HTC One (m8) 2014 price and where to buy in UK
However, if you do want to protect you precious M8, then HTC has
come up with a rather cool flip-style case. It's called the DotView case
- for obvious reasons as you can see below. A nice feature is that the
time and notifications appear when you double tap on the case when
it's shut. You can also use other gestures to perform other tasks such
as answering a call.
Viewing the screen through the holes creates a cool LED dot-matrix
effect. The DotView case cost £35 and is available in seven different
colours.
From launch, the M8 itself is available in three different colours. The
most popular is likely to be 'Metal Grey' but there's also 'Artic Silver'
and 'Amber Gold' – a line-up reminiscent of the iPhone 5S colour
options.
The eagle-eyed will already have noticed that HTC has ditched the
dedicated navigation buttons in favour of on-screen alternatives. We'll
talk about this in more detail in the software on page two.
One thing to note compared to rivals (namely the Galaxy S5 and Xperia
Z1) is that the HTC One M8 doesn't come with any dust- or waterproof
credentials. This may or may not be an important feature to you.
HTC One M8 review: Duo Camera
With Sense 6.0 the camera app has had a redesign and we like the
stylish and minimalist approach. It's easy to use but there are plenty
of settings to play with if you're feeling adventurous. They're easy to
find if you're looking for them. HTC splits the camera app into
different modes with the front camera even labelled as 'selfie'.
The back of the HTC One M8 is home to two camera lenses. HTC calls
this the Duo Camera and it's one of the main new features of the
smartphone. You might think they are for taking 3D photos, like the
old LG Optimus 3D but that's not the case.
The first camera, the one closer to the middle of the phone, is the
Ultrapixel camera found on the M7 – with some improvements.
According to HTC, the ImageChip 2 means the camera can shoot faster
and capture sharper images. And this seems to be true from our
preliminary tests (click the images to enlarge).
At 4Mp, there isn't as much detail in photos compared to the M8's
rivals but becuase its pixels are bigger the phone is better suited to
low-light situations.
Here's our typical test shot of St.Pancras which has come out well in
automatic mode.
Here's a 100 percent crop of the above image
And here's a close up shot of a lightbulb using the Macro mode:
The second camera is an interesting addition and is there to capture
depth information. This 'metadata' is attached to the photo taken with
the main camera and can be used later on. Similar to the Lytro
camera, the HTC One M8 Duo Camera allows users to refocus a photo
after it's been taken.
Unlike the Galaxy S5, which offers three preset focal points, the M8's
second sensor means users can refocus anywhere they like. We've had
a play with this and it works pretty well, although it's quite difficult
not to cover the second les with you finger. Luckily a message pops up
on the screen to say you're blocking it. We've been playing around
with the Duo Camera and here's what it looks like.
Here's the initial photograph we took using default settings.
Tapping the refocus button means the background goes out of focus
making your subject stand out more. It gives an DSLR-style shallow
depth of field effect.
Here we've focused on the man standing in the background. The
software has effectively sectioned off the main subject (look
particularly at the hair to see how the agorithm has selected the
'object'). Rather than genuinely altering the focus of the image, it uses
the depth information to know which objects should be in or out of
focus. Unfortunately, it means edge detection has to be used to blur
objects and close scrutiny reveals it can't deal well with hair like this.
Similarly, in the photo below, it's easy to see that the software doesn't
feather the blur, leaving a nasty hard line across the decking (click to
see a bigger version).
However, with the right image, Ufocus can do a fine job as shown
below (the edited image is the bottom one, of course):
Refocusing is only available for still photos, not videos. The M8 can
record video in Full HD, not 4K. HTC's Zoe (now an separate app for
automatically editing video) has had an update with more of a social
aspect and will be made available for non-HTC phones later this year.
Video quality is unimpressive. There's no stabilisation and footage
wasn't as sharp or detailed as we'd have liked (and certainly not a
patch on the Samsung Galaxy S5's video quality).
The Foregrounder app allows you add effects in tandem with the
refocusing. A strange 3D effect makes photos come to life in a sort of
house of mirrors way – i.e. a gimmick - and you can also cut and paste
parts of photos, such as a person, with minimal hassle although again,
this is more for creativity than something genuinely handy you'll use
regularly.
Like the iPhone 5S, the HTC One M8 has a dual-LED flash. It works
reasonably well, but images are still obviously taken using a flash and -
in most cases - you won't need it as the Ultrapixel camera does a
grand job when there isn't much light around. The image below was lit
by only a cooker hood fluorescent bulb. It isn't the greatest photo in
the world, but it does show decent white balance and - importantly - a
lack of noise.
A cool feature which we've not seen elsewhere is the ability to not
only manually adjust settings, such as ISO, but then save them as
presets to use later. This means you can come up with your own
modes for different situations.
The front camera is a 5Mp f/2.2 shooter with a wide-angle lens so it
should be easier to fit several people into your selfie.