The HTC Endeavor is finally official and like the rumors stated, it’s now called the HTC One X, which is a part of HTC’s new strategy shift. The new “One” handset line will cover high-end to low-end, giving you a sense of a true branding outside of the usual Sense UI.
The first thing you’ll notice about the One X is just how beautifully it was designed. The screen border slightly pours out to the sides of the phone, making it look like it’s curved (and incidentally, making the Galaxy Nexus wet its digital pants), yet it’s completely flat. It has an extremely thin profile and part of this is achieved by having a non-removable battery. You also won’t find any expandable storage on the device but HTC is packaging 25GB of free DropBox storage with the purchase of any One device.
The One X has a monster 4.7 inch Super LCD 2 display and to say the thing is extremely crisp and clear is an understatement. Said to improve overall clarity across the board, as well as viewing angles, one of the best improvements of the SLCD 2 is that the handset should be significantly better in direct sunlight. Powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 3, the One X should take on just about any task you can throw at it without breaking a sweat. The One X is the first device HTC has shipped with a NVIDIA chipset and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t excited because of this.
As you’d expect with such a high-end handset, the One X ships with Beats Audio support but HTC has gone further with its audio enhancement software. Beats Audio support has now been put lower into the Android stack, which means that just about every piece of audio, including video playback, will have Beats Audio support. While audiophiles were likely jumping for joy with the previous implementations of Beats, it wasn’t something that the rest of us were going to be shelling out cash for. Now, however, having Beats support throughout the handset makes it sound much more appealing
What would a HTC phone be without Sense? While we have mixed feeling about HTC’s custom user interface, Sense 4.0 is a nice step in the right direction. Designed to streamline the experience, the latest version of Sense is refined in many good ways. Running on top of Ice Cream Sandwich, which sadly isn’t showcased as much as we’d like it to, Sense rids itself of some unnecessary customizations and makes it feel like you’re using an Android phone again. In a good way.
The large phone soft key is gone at the bottom of the homescreen in favor of a more standard dock. Like most other Android devices, the application launcher is now found in the middle of the dock, with two applications (or folders) on the left and the right of the launcher icon. Even better, whatever applications you place on your dock will appear on the lockscreen of the phone now. There’s a ton of new features within the latest version of Sense, so we’re going to have to dig in deeper before we can give our official opinion on HTC’s latest and greatest software.
Last but not least is The One X’ camera. The 8 megapixel shooter comes with a single LED flash, and while that sounds “so two years ago”, it’s not. HTC has not only placed a ridiculously great sensor within the One X’s camera, but it’s also rocking a new digital imaging sensor to make things even better. Capable of taking a shot in 0.7 seconds, the shot to shot time is superb, and we really wouldn’t expect anything less from HTC, given that previous handsets’ cameras have been top-notch. Oh, and if you’re wondering why the camera only has a single LED flash, worry not, as it actually has five different levels of brightness, which should provide an ample amount of options when snapping a photo.
Overall, the HTC One X is probably one of the most beautiful phones I’ve ever seen. The face of the device is fine but it’s when you see the attention to detail put in the profile and just the over all in-hand experience, you definitely get a feeling of, “HTC is back.”