HTC Desire X vs One S
The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer has decided to keep a low profile in IFA 2012 for some reason. This may be because it used up most of its ammunition at the MWC 2012 introducing the fabulous HTC One series. It may be because HTC is still conducting their market research in order to understand the best suited specs for the market. It may be because HTC want to evaluate their options between Android and Windows Phone 8. Due to any of those reasons given or not given, HTC’s absence of glamour makes us miss something. However, HTC hasn’t completely backed off and cornered out themselves because they have introduced this middle-budget range smartphone HTC Desire X.
HTC Desire X is the successor of HTC Desire series although it resembles more with HTC One X since the HTC design team has decided to adapt some signature features in the premium One product line in Desire X. I personally think that’s where the ‘X’ comes from although I can’t say for sure. The same hardware has been circulating in China for some time before HTC upgraded the processor slightly and produced Desire X as a middle class budget smartphone. Hence we decided to compare it with a middle class premium product from HTC One line; HTC One S. This would give us more or less a good match, but above all, it would set a benchmark for the performance matrix we can expect from HTC Desire X once it’s out on the market. We’ll have a look at them individually and compare their relative strengths and weaknesses in the same arena to decide which smartphone has the greatest return on our investment.
HTC Desire X Review
HTC Desire X was an absolute pleasure to hold since it had a curved shape that tapers up to the sides. It may seem familiar since the outer shell has some signature features adopted from HTC One series which is the premium series offered by HTC. It is stylish and feels very light in your hands with a weight of 114g. It is 118.5 x 62.3mm in dimension and scores a thickness of 9.3mm which is very good. The 4.0 inches Super LCD capacitive touchscreen features a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233ppi.
This high end budget smartphone comes with a 1GHz Dual Core Scorpion processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 203 GPU and 768MB of RAM. Android OS v 4.0.4 comes out of the box for this device. HTC has ported the device with the new HTC Sense UI v4.0 that doesn’t seem to spoil much of the Vanilla Android look. However, we found that HTC Desire feels somewhat lagging which was evident. The transitions were slow, and the app drawer was not a pleasurable experience. The touch buttons at the bottom is also unresponsive at times. Further, the browsing experience was not that good as prolonged times taken to load web pages. However, this may be because the firmware is not finalized and we so dearly hope HTC would fix this because otherwise, it won’t leave a good impression about HTC.
As usual, Desire X features HSDPA connectivity with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity. It can host a hotspot to share your internet connection with your friends although with 7.2Mbps, we rather doubt about the bandwidth distribution. Ever heard of HTC Connect? Well you are about to see a prototype if you buy a HTC Desire X. It’s essentially synonymous to DLNA, but a proprietary agreement exists between HTC and Pioneer. Hence it would only work with Pioneer devices. It can stream audio content and control playback synching with a Pioneer device and HTC is indicating that they would enable video streaming, as well. Another strong suit in HTC Desire X is the optics where they have used the same f/2.0 lens that was used in One series enabling the user to have a rich experience. It can capture 480p videos @ 30 frames per second and can capture images while shooting video, as well. We were somewhat unsatisfied with the meager battery of 1650mAh although HTC reports that Desire X has a talk time of 20 hours, which we need to test and verify.
HTC One S Review
Another one from the HTC One family that can scare some competitive smartphones away is HTC One S. It is indeed a model that boasts a balance between performance, size and price. We can call it the kid sister of One X. One S is somewhat smaller than One X and lighter, as well, which is due to the smaller screen size. HTC One S has 4.3 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at a pixel density of 256ppi. It follows the unique design of HTC and only comes in Black. The handset is equipped with 1.5GHz Krait Dual Core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with 1GB of RAM and Adreno 225 GPU. The controlling body is Android OS v4.0 ICS, which we think does justice to the hardware, with HTC Sense as the UI.
We can clearly see that HTC has blessed One S with the same optics as One X. It has 8MP camera with autofocus and LED flash with the ability to capture simultaneously 1080p HD video @ 30 frames per second and record a snapshot on the fly. The stereo sound recorder and video stabilization engine is the same and 1.3Mp front camera facilitates video calling functionality. Given the quality of the camera, we have some issues with the storage provided, which is 16GB internal without the option to expand. You might get into serious trouble if you’re a movie junkie and a cameraman. We could collect that it defines connectivity through HSDPA and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n is available for continuous connectivity. HTC One S can also host a Wi-Fi hotspot and wirelessly stream rich media content with the DLNA functionality. We are hoping for a battery usage time of 6-7 hours minimum with HTC One S, as well.
A Brief Comparison Between HTC Desire X and One S
• HTC Desire X is powered by 1GHz dual core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 203 GPU and 768MB of RAM while HTC One S is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Dual Core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260A Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM.
• HTC Desire X runs on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS while HTC One S runs on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS and is upgradable to v4.1 Jelly Bean.
• HTC Desire X has 4.0 inches Super LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233ppi while HTC One S has 4.3 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at a pixel density of 256ppi.
• HTC Desire X has 5MP camera that can capture 480p videos @ 30 fps while HTC One S has 8MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30fps.
• HTC Desire X is smaller, thicker, and lighter (118.5 x 62.3mm / 9.3mm / 114g) than HTC One S (130.9 x 65mm / 7.8mm / 119.5g).
• HTC Desire X has 1650mAh battery while HTC One S also features the same 1650mAh battery.
Conclusion
As it is clearly mentioned in the introduction, our intention was not to compare and find out what is the best smartphone. That was already decided by HTC since they included HTC One S as a middle premium range product while including HTC Desire X at a middle level budget smartphone. However, reading through this comparison will enable you to understand what you would miss if you decide to go for a Desire X instead of One S. The inherent advantage is that it will come substantially cheaper, which would be a strong motivation. You may think the difference between these smartphones in terms of performance is only the increased clock rate in One S, but that’s not the case; HTC One S features the new Krait dual core processor on top of Qualcomm’s new architecture which enhances the performance. So it’s not just the 500MHz increase in the clock rate. However, we can’t say that we don’t like the Desire X either. It’s an attractive option with stylish looks if HTC fixes the firmware issue it had. So our recommendation is to go ahead and check them out and also weigh your options in terms of your investment. Then make your decision that fit your financial position as well as personal preference.