HTC debuted the successor to its popular One X smartphone today, essentially following the same logic as Apple: take a design, upgrade its innards, and sell it as a brand new device.
While a timeline for release in the US was not announced, the One X+ will go on sale in Europe and Asia this month, and south Asia in November. Separately, AT&T said Tuesday that it will carry the X+ as well as the One VX, a mid-range version of the the One X$99.99 at Ama on Wireless.
On the outside, you’re not going to be able to tell much difference from X to the X+ as they look the same — it’s what is on the inside that counts. Instead of the QualcommSnapdragon S4 1.5GH processor found in the LTE variant of the One X, the X+ moves up to to a Tegra 3 processor capable of 1.7GH . The GPU also gets a boost, now up to 520MH .
Obviously with that additional power, the battery needs to be bigger. HTC is including a 2100mAh in the device, which it says will provide 50 percent more talk time over its predecessor, which sported a 1700mAh battery.
HTC is sticking its “Sense UI”-skinned version ofAndroid OS 4.1 Jelly Bean on the One X+. One X users, have no fear though: your devices will get the upgrade sometime this month, according to the company. Further updates include a updated front camera which now capable of 1.6 megapixels versus 1.3 in the original device, and a nice upgrade to 64GB of internal memory.
Other features include NFC, web-based phone setup, improved audio (although still using the much-maligned Beats platform), and built in FM radio capabilities. For those that really care, the One X+ will be available in both black and white versions. Not as exciting as HTC’srecently announced and brightly colored Windows Phones, but we’ll deal.
So overall, a great phone, but is it really worth upgrading over other Android models out there in the market? We’d say no.
If you are happy with your current device keep it, or upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S3, still by far one of the best Android devices on the market right now. Add to these a slate of new devices coming down the pike — including a new Nexus device from Google — and the One X+ seems more like a necessary upgrade for HTC itself than for you.
Personally, if I were using an Android phone on a regular basis, I’d prefer an unmolested version of the Android OS over these sometimes-horrible skins that the manufacturers are putting on devices these days. While these treatmean have certainly gotten better, nobody can do Android better than Google itself.
HTC debuts the One X+, ushers in yet another tick-tock design cycle
0 comments:
Post a Comment