Difference Between HTC One XL and HTC Velocity 4G

HTC One XL vs HTC Velocity 4G | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

HTC used to be one of the leading Windows Mobile smartphone providers back in the day, and now they have excelled in the Android market too. They are considered as one of the most successful mobile phone manufacturers. Their success lies in their designs and the intuitive user interface they have code named as HTC Sense UI. Another appealing factor is the variants of the smartphones they release to the market. For instance, it is likely to find the XL variant of some high end smartphones from HTC that is aimed at power users. So ideally if you’re a power user, you can go to the XL version while others can go to the conventional version. This creates the perception of choice in the minds of the customers and the more they feel they have a choice, the more likely they are to go for a smartphone in the pool. This is a way of messing with the neural linguistics, but it’s proven to work by many researches and market analyses. In any case, these variants improve the product portfolio for the company, so it’s always beneficial even if the customers don’t buy them.

Today we are going to talk about a variant from HTC One family and compare it against another smartphone from HTC. These variants are similar since both of them feature super-fast LTE connectivity. They also boast a big screen and great battery life. HTC One XL was announced at the MWC 2012, and HTC Velocity 4G was only announced last month for Telstra Australia. The HTC Velocity 4G is the first 4G smartphone in the Australian market launched by Telstra. Thus, we can consider them as the perfect candidates to be compared against each other. We’ll have a look at them individually and move on to compare and contrast the differences between them.

HTC One XL

HTC One XL follows the unique ergonomic design of HTC that has curved edges with a slightly edged back plate. It has three touch buttons at the bottom and features a thickness of 9.3mm. It isn’t large for it only scores 134.4 x 69.9mm in dimension, but it is somewhat heavy at 130g. One XL has 4.7 inches Super IPS LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 312ppi. We can recommend this display panel to anyone for its state of the art. You can use it in broad daylight without a glitch, and it has a super pixel density, which makes the texts and images crystal clear and crisp. The color reproduction of LCD 2 display panel is relatively better, and it’s also reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass coating to make it scratch resistant.

This handset is powered by 1.5GHz Krait dual core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon chipset and 1GB of RAM with Adreno 225 GPU. The operating system is Android OS v4.0 ICS which does a marvelous job in managing the hardware. The internal storage is 32GB without an option to be expanded using a microSD card. HTC has also included a high end camera that is 8MP and has autofocus and LED flash. It can capture 1080p HD videos with stereo sound and has video stabilization. As a newly introduced feature with the HTC One family, One XL can capture snapshots while capturing 1080p HD video just like HTC One X. The 1.3MP front camera is for the purpose of video conferencing. HTC One XL is a smartphone that comes with LTE connectivity enabling you to enjoy super-fast internet at your fingertips. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and the fact that it can setup a wi-fi hotspot would mean that you can share your internet connection with your less fortunate friends. The built in DLNA enables you to stream rich media content to your Smart TV wirelessly. The powerful processor and the spacious RAM ensures that you can do all this seamlessly without any trouble. It comes either in Black or White flavors and has a standard battery of 1800mAh. We are assuming that it can work up to 7-8 hours in a single charge although we don’t have any official information about it.

HTC Velocity 4G

This is the time we face right on with handsets having dual core processors and super-fast LTE connectivity, high end optics and an operating system like Android, iOS or Windows Mobile. That’s how we perceive a modern smartphone and HTC Velocity 4G matches exactly to that definition. It is powered by 1.5GHz Scorpion dual core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 220 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The Android OS v2.3.7 Gingerbread might not be the ideal version to take control of this beast, but we are positive that HTC will provide and upgrade to v4.0 IceCreamSandwich soon enough. We also like the HTC Sense UI v3.5 because it has a clean layout and easy navigations. As the name suggests, Velocity 4G has the LTE connectivity and records consistent rate of high speeds. The powerful processor enables it to seamlessly multi task with all the opportunities the LTE connectivity provides.

HTC Velocity 4G has 4.5 inches S-LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels at 245ppi pixel density. The display panel is good, but we would have preferred more resolution from a high end smartphone like this. It is somewhat thick scoring 11.3mm and on the hefty side of the spectrum scoring a weight of 163.8g. The smooth edged Black smartphone looks expensive, but you might have trouble in holding it for extended amounts of time due to its weight. HTC has included 8MP camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and geo tagging that can capture 1080p HD videos at 60 frames per second, which is awesome. It also has a 1.3MP front camera for video conferencing bundled together with Bluetooth v3.0. Although Velocity defines its connectivity through LTE, it also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, which can also act as a hotspot to share your super-fast internet connection. It also has DLNA for wireless streaming of rich media content to a smart TV. It comes in 16GB internal storage with the option to expand using a microSD card. We were told that it would have 1620mAh battery that has juice for 7 hours 40 minutes of constant usage.

Conclusion

Normally the question we are trying to answer at the conclusion is what smartphone is best among the two smartphone compared. Sometimes, it’s really not fair to determine a single winner, because both the smartphone are winners. In this case, let me walk you through the pros and cons of each before determining which one wins. HTC One XL has a better processor on top of a better chipset and a better GPU. You may find that the clock rate is the same 1.5GHz, but One XL hosts the Krait processor on top of Snapdragon S4 chipset while Velocity 4G hosts Scorpion on top of Snapdragon S3 chipset. The performance boost wouldn’t be apparent for the user, but with the benchmarking tests, it is bound to be apparent. One XL also has a better display panel and a higher resolution at an extremely high pixel density compared to the 960 x 540 pixels display panel of Velocity 4G. In terms of optics, One XL is a tad better because of the capability it has to capture HD videos and images simultaneously. Another favorable influence for One XL would be the slim light weight body, whereas Velocity 4G is both thicker and substantially heftier.

Now you’ve had a snapshot of the realm of differences, what binds them together? At the user interaction level, the performance difference won’t be visible. The weight and the thickness may be an issue, but unlikely to be a deal breaker. The only thing user would notice is the higher resolution and the crispy texts and images. Other than that, a user can perceive both handsets at the same line, and that brings us to the price. One XL is definitely going to come hot to the market, so Velocity 4G would score a lower price. With that, the puzzle completes and the decision of investment passes on to your hand because now it is biased only on your perception.