HTC One X review: eXtra special

How about this for a rebound after a rather quiet second half of last year? A massive change of game plan sees HTC focus on a few special products instead of trying to create a smartphone for every taste. An outstanding result of this effort, the HTC One X brings so many firsts for both company and industry, that a climb to the top of the food chain may be a walk in the park

HTC One X official photos
Just look at some of the things the One X has put on its resume. The 4-PLUS-1 Tegra 3 makes its smartphone debut here, the awesome polycarbonate body adds that extra solid feel and grip, while the 4.7" second-generation S-LCD of HD resolution on the front is a crystal-clear view to the world of Sense 4.0 and Android 4.0 ICS.
And that's just the HTC One X getting started, check out the complete list below.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 4.7" 16M-color Super LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen of HD resolution (720 x 1280 pixels); Gorilla glass
• Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich with latest HTC Sense 4.0
• 1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 CPUs, low-power companion core, ULP GeForce 2 GPU, Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset
• 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection and geotagging
• 1080p and 720p video recording @ 30fps with stereo sound
• 720p front-facing camera for video-chat
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and auto-brightness sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• DivX/XviD video support
• HTC Locations app
• HTCSense.com integration
• HTC Portable Hotspot
• Office document editor
• Beats audio enhancements

Main disadvantages

• No microSD card slot, no alternative options in terms of storage
• MicroSIM support only
• Incapable of 3G video calls without a 3rd party app
• No dedicated camera key
• Non-user-accessible battery
• Uninspiring image and video quality, video framing is tricky

Previous HTC flagships were often criticized for lacking identity and bringing little improvement in terms of both features and design. This time critics should have little to fret about - the One X is as bold a step forward as it gets. Not only is the processing power more than doubled, but the screen and body of the smartphone itself are immensely better than what the Sensation and Sensation XE had to offer. And let's not forget the camera, which HTC say is the best they have ever made.

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Nokia's 603 is the latest Symbian Belle smartphone

Nokia may be hard at work behind the scenes on its Windows Phone smartphones that are expected to debut before the year is out, but it hasn't stopped producing Symbian smartphones, and the 603 is the latest Symbian effort from the company. The Nokia 603 features an all-touch interface and the latest Symbian Belle operating system.

The Nokia 603 sports a 3.5-inch ClearBlack display with nHD (360 x 640 pixel) resolution. It is powered by a 1GHz processor and has a 5 megapixel camera that can shoot 720p HD (1280 x 720 pixel) video.

Nokia says the 603's battery will keep it going for seven hours of talk time or over 19 days of standby. The 603 supports HSPA+ 14.4Mbps connections on the 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz bands, and features Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC support. The phone measures 113.5mm x 57.1mm x 12.7mm (4.47in x 2.24in x 0.5in) and weighs 106.9g (3.77oz). Running the latest version of Symbian, Belle, the 603 features the latest Nokia Browser and Maps applications. It also comes with Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Shazam, YouTube, Microsoft Office Communicator, Quick Office, Adobe PDF reader, and Vlingo all pre-installed. Nokia will be offering the 603 in black and white color options, each with six interchangeable back plates of various colors. It will ship in Q4 of this year, and is expected to cost around 200 EUR (US$275). Check out the video for more looks at the Nokia 603.

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Nokia on a bumpy road

Nokia, does the name ring a bell? The Finish Company that has been struggling well over a year now did not manage to pull off any miracles after the appointment of Stephen Elop back in 2010. The ex-Microsoft employee entered the telephone company with a storm when he brought in a massive strategic alliance with Microsoft. Shortly after this massive breakthrough, Nokia won a petition against Apple, as a result of which, Apple became one of Nokia’s patents. Despite those major successes, Nokia’s struggle with the market share continues.

In Jun 2011, as ill luck would have it, Nokia came on the brink of losing its crown as one of the biggest manufacturers of smartphone to Apple. Two months later, in July to be exact, Nokia lost a big chunk of its market share to Apple. While this in itself was sad for the loyal Nokia customers but what was sadder was Stephen Elop’s statement which basically predicted that Nokia would lose more of its market share to Android. And sure enough, a few months later Nokia became the third contender in the race of smartphones, after Apple and Samsung. This came during a time when the company had already suffered a 40% decline in its profits.

 Nokia’s ill luck has continued to this date where the sales for some of its newer phones are still having a hard time to pickup. Followed by a series of disappointing annual reports, the rumour has it that Nokia will get rid of some four thousand employees in several of its office across the globe. Despite suffering severe blows from operating systems such as Android and iOS, Nokia still has not given up. As part of its new strategy, the company has dedicated three of its factories solely to the manufacturing of smartphones. And that, in the simplest words means that Nokia maybe down but it’s certainly not out of the race of smartphones.

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