HTC One X gets 4.1 Jelly Bean update, 4.2 available for rooted phones (install guide)

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Posted on 28 Nov 2012 at 10:49, by Tom Morgan

The HTC One X Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update is available now for unlocked UK handsets. An unofficial 4.2 update also went live over the weekend, for adventurous owners of rooted phones.

Finally available after almost a full month after first going live in Taiwan and Singapore, HTC gave its global servers the nudge over the weekend and pushed the official 4.1 Jelly Bean update out to unlocked One X handsets. As well as the UK, reports are coming in from One X owners in Argentina, India, Russia, and Brazil that they have received the update.

The One X is a little late to the party with 4.1 - the Samsung Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean update went live last month. 4.1 Jelly Bean is a welcome step up from 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, having introduced the Google Now voice assistant and improving performance significantly over the previous version. If you're using an unlocked handset and haven't yet been notified of the update, you can check whether one is available by going into Settings – About – Software updates – Check now. The update itself is a massive 364.5MB, and will only download over Wi-Fi to avoid landing customers with huge data bills.

Unfortunately, you're out of luck if you own a branded handset - network operators usually test the files themselves to make sure they work with any custom software tweaks before allowing the updates to reach their customers. We checked on a Vodafone-branded device and were told no updates were available, meaning customers are probably in for a few more weeks of waiting before they can get their hands on the update.

Impatient One X owners don’t have to miss out, as the latest 4.2 version of Android also appeared online this weekend – but only for rooted phones. The unofficial ROM comes from XDA forum member Pabx and already supports most major features, including Wi-Fi, phone calls, GSM data, Audio output and GPS. As it’s still a work in progress, there are also several missing features including no camera support, no Bluetooth and no HD video playback. It’s not recommended for everyone, but if you want the latest features right now, read on for our step-by-step guide to installing it.

First, a word of warning: the following guide only applies to the One X, and shouldn’t be followed for rooting any other phone. As it's based on the stock AOSP version of Android, this ROM removes all HTC-branded apps and interface tweaks usually found on the One X, so you’ll lose out on the excellent burst photo mode, among other features. Finally, rooting and installing custom ROMs will void your warranty, so proceed at your own caution.

Over the page - our step-by-step install guide