Last week, we dropped by a top secret location for a play with HTC’s latest top of the range smartie. And the HTC OneX+ is a doozy, being basically a One X with a faster processor, Android Jelly Bean out of the box, a better battery, and a monster 64GB of storage.
Read on for our impressions of this Samsung Galaxy S3 killer.
If you thought the HTC One X was a beast of a smartphone (and it is), then feast your eyes on the HTC One X+. It takes the original’s form factor and crams in a ridiculous quad-core 1.7GHz processor, which is up from the 1.5GHz quad-core found in the original. The battery has been upped to a 2,100mAh model, which is up from the 1,800mAh on the HTC One X. And storage is up to a crazy 64GB, which is double the original’s, and matches the iPhone 5‘s.
So it’s not surprising that the One X+ is fatter than the One X. But it’s only ever so slightly so. You wouldn’t notice it, even holding it next to a One X – we’re not sure there’s a millimetre in it, though HTC can’t absolutely guarantee that One X cases will work on the One X+.
The other big news is it’ll come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box. HTC also confirmed to us that the rollout for Android 4.1 to the HTC One X and One S will take placed from October, and likely carry on to the end of the year.
The only real bad news is that it won’t be 4G in the UK, which is a bit of a bummer. Especially when you consider that the HTC One XL will be 4G on the EE network. So you’ll have the option of either an older phone, that’s lower specced but has faster internet connectivity, or a newer, whizzier model that’s slower online. Seems a bit of an oversight, especially when a 4G version of the HTC One X+ will ge going on sale in the US.
Now, the software. The HTC One X+ is PlayStation certified, just like the One X, One S, and One V. This means you’ll be able to play classic PlayStation titles on the handset.
HTC Watch 2.0 now acts as a hub for other video apps too. So far, it has Crackle, ESPN, YouTube, Livestation, and the Daily Mail on offer, but expect more soon.
So, in many ways it seems like it could be the best Android smartie going, and if you hate Apple Maps on iOS 6, quite possibly the best phone full stop. The only downer is the lack of 4G.
What do you think of the One X+? Let us know in the comments below.
