HTC One X review

This may be the first phone that gives compact digital cameras a run for their money. It’s got more options that we’re used to seeing on a smartphone camera: face detection, auto smile capture (which works quite quickly), manual ISO settings and continuous shooting. You can adjust exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpness using sliders from the options menu, and you can even snap a quick shot while recording video.

Our test shots were some of the best we’ve seen from a smartphone camera. There was bit of noise in our outdoor shots but details are reasonably smooth, without the smudged look you can get from heavy noise reduction. The fairly large-aperture f/2.0 lens helps indoors, and low-light shots without the flash were astoundingly good, with sensibly chosen settings (1/15s at ISO 1250) and noise kept reasonably in check for such a fast ISO speed. It’s on par with a decent mid-price compact camera.

The sample image above is scaled down from the original and is a good example of the natural colours and decent sharpness across the frame. Below you can see a 1:1 pixel crop with decent detail for such a wide shot – click on either to enlarge

Sense also beefs up the music player, although here we’re not so keen on its changes. It adds HTC’s own Beats Audio processing and changes the default music player, adding links to the 7digital music store, the Soundhound music recognition service and the TuneIn internet radio app. You can click the Soundhound icon while listening to a song in TuneIn Radio to identify it, which is useful.

Beats is less impressive: sound quality was good enough without it, and we found it made the bass too boomy, although it also did a good job of brightening up mid-range sounds. As well as Beats, you can choose from a list of more traditional effects, such as Bass Boost or Live, and unlike on previous Beats-branded phones, you can use non-Beats headphones and still take advantage of the Beats effects. However we would have preferred more fine control over the effects rather than this all-or-nothing approach.

Another Sense addition is the Car app. This interface shows the functions you might want while driving – phone, music player, internet radio and navigation – in a large format that’s easy to access whilst keeping your eyes on the road. All menus and text are in a larger font for visibility, and there are larger icons and buttons too. The phone interface is designed for ease of use, with a large photo of the caller that you can swipe either left to decline the call, or right to answer. You can even customise which navigation app and music player to use.