HTC One X+ Pro Reviews

A great mid-range phone with an excellent battery life but there's better-value phones with similar specifications

Even the HTC One X+ doesn't represent the perfect smartphone. Our extensive review shows, however, that it can certainly compete with the best cell phones currently on the market. The well-manufactured One X+ with its attractive design is complemented by its potent Tegra 3+ quadcore SoC and the resulting powerful application and graphics performance. The bright SLCD2 IPS panel with sharp imaging, crisp colors and high viewing-angle stability is also winsome. On the whole we also like the smartphone's fluid and simple operation with the current Android operating system, including the intuitive HTC Sense user interface. The mass storage is sufficiently large with 64 GB (net 55 GB), though unfortunately it can't be supplemented by a memory card. Instead HTC offers 25 GB of additional storage space in the cloud via Dropbox. The short distance radio NFC is also on board. In general the wireless modules have a respectable signal strength. Worthy of mention are also the device's low energy consumption and therefore long battery life, the low weight of 140 grams considering its size and the smartphone's comfortable feel. Another plus is the great camera module, which can take excellent photos and video recordings in good lighting situations. Negatives are the tonally-weak stereo headset and the power button with a somewhat spongy feel. If you can do without LTE and a card reader, you can currently find the HTC One X+ and its whole package for a street price of around 550 euros (~740 dollars) -- which means it doesn't have to fear many competitors. Alternatives in the flagship battle are the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Apple iPhone 5. HTC One X owners will have to thoughtfully weigh whether the slight improvements are worth a new purchase.

The One X+ is just about the best phone on AT&T right now. When it comes to specs, it outshines the competition, and in almost every way, it’s the best value you can get for your $200 (with a two-year contract). The battery life isn’t impressive and the design of HTC’s interface is beginning to show some age, but for anyone shopping, what you need to know is that this is a great phone with as much storage as you’ll find on a $400 iPhone 5.

There's no question that with the One X+, HTC is offering more to Android power users outside of the US. What's less clear is whether it brings more in the areas that actually matter to you. The answer is "yes" -- but only if you meet some rather narrow criteria. If you loved the physical design and excellent display on the original global One X but were put off by its 32GB storage cap and second-best performance, then this new flagship is definitely worthy of consideration. It's extremely snappy, beating rivals phones on certain computation-heavy tests, and its graphics engine delivers a perfectly smooth experience even on the most visually-demanding tasks and games. What's more, the phone achieves all of this without making battery life any worse than it was before.

So the HTC One X+ is more powerful, better looking and more musically gifted than its predecessor. It also offers more storage, a larger battery and the power of Jelly Bean and Sense 4+ out of the box. None of the updates is ground-breaking, but when you add them together you get a package that is way more desirable than the One X. Had the One X+ came to the market back when HTC released its predecessor, the story might have been different. We probably wouldn't be talking about a Galaxy S III-dominated Android landscape, but about a market split between that and the HTC flagship. There's no need to dwell on the past, though. The present is all it matters in this business, so what's important is what are the HTC One X+ chances in the current market. HTC's advantage over the competition is the solid unibody build and the powerful Sense launcher. With the 64GB of internal storage negating the Galaxy S III advantage of featuring a microSD slot, the Samsung flagship finds itself in a significantly weaker position this time.

The design and looks of the One X+ haven’t changed a whole lot since the One X, so if you were hoping for a cosmetic change of some sort with this updated model, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, the real upgrades are on the inside, and while they may not be extremely significant (think Apple upgrading from 3G to 3GS, or 4 to 4S), they’re compelling enough that we’d easily recommend the One X+ if you don’t already have a HTC One device.The presence of LTE alone can make this phone a true competitor against the Nexus 4, even if it is just a slightly faster handset than the One X+. Other devices, like the Galaxy S III and the Optimus G are powerhouses, but if you’re not a big fan of their user interfaces, you wouldn’t be sacrificing much of anything performance-wise if you ended up going with the One X+, except maybe the removable battery if that’s a concern for you. Other than the company’s flagship DROID DNA, the One X+ is certainly one of HTC’s best devices on the market right now.

I know there are many who will complain about the lack of an SD card slot for extra expansion. The same goes for the embedded battery, which you can't swap out in a pinch. That said, I think the handsomely styled $199.99 HTC One X+ more than makes up for this with its ridiculously vast 64GB of internal storage. It's the most I've seen available on a mobile phone save the iPhone, and unheard of at this price. Throw in Android Jelly Bean, quad-core computing, an outstanding camera, and 4G LTE, and the One X+ is the best bargain to be had on AT&T's current roster. Sure you could opt for the $199.99 Samsung Galaxy S3, but I don't think its removable battery and SD card slot offset its slower dual-core CPU and less attractive design.

The choice is clear cut here – if you can't live without a larger display and the associated supersize media consumption, the HTC One X+ offers a good HD screen, fast processor and copious amounts of internal storage with decent battery life. If a more compact designer handset with excellent display and battery life rocks your boat, or if you are heavily invested in the iOS ecosystem, the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone created so far, so it is an easy pick, hough a 64 GB version runs pretty steep if we are to compare apples to apples. It has one very notable advantage before the HTC One X+, too, and that is in photos and especially video capture.

We can't say that HTC “took a sad song and made it better” by upgrading to the One X+, as the One X handset is pretty capable. HTC, however, changed the specs where it most counts, and as a result we have a handset that can go neck and neck with the seasonal Android flagships in everything but camera performance. The overclocked quad-core processor might be still a 40nm affair, but it delivers benchmarks on par with the Optimus G and Note II, and, unlike the G, the HTC One X+ ships with Jelly Bean out of the box. The HTS Sense 4+ doesn't get in the way of the unique Jelly Bean features, like Voice Search and Google Now, and the company even leaves users the choice whether to go with the Chrome browser, or use the HTC one, which has a full Adobe Flash support with a handy switch to turn it off at will. Considering the generous 64 GB of storage the One X+ comes with – more than any other flagship at launch – we would've wholeheartedly recommended it as one of the best Android handsets out there right now, if it wasn't for the subpar camera results. The fly in the ointment is that the camera has stayed unchanged from the One X, so you can expect some questionable white balance measurements and video artifacts.

Is it substantially better than the HTC One X? While many of the key elements of the phone are the same, it's the battery that makes the biggest difference to us. It was the weakest element of the previous device and it's now a better performer. If you're a One X owner, this is the thing you should be envious of. How does it compare to something like the Samsung Galaxy S III? We'd happily take either phone and the One X+ narrows the gap with the SGS3 that was there previously from the original model. Much will come down to preference in software: Samsung has a great range of innovative software features that HTC doesn't, as well as the flexibility of a changeable battery and microSD card. But what the One X+ might lack is the je ne sais quoi that has people talking about it in the street, which Samsung does. And that's not quite fair, because the HTC One X+ is an excellent handset. There's little to complain about, save a minor gripe with HTC Locations, and nothing is insurmountable. The hardware, the power, the build and the design of the HTC One X+ make this a phone we'd highly recommend.

Given all of its qualities, HTC deserves to gain some traction with its One X+ when it finally ships