HTC One X9: The first hands on review

HTC Pakistan just unveiled the new line of innovative handsets in Pakistan. The range included HTC Desire 628, HTC Desire 630, HTC Desire 830 and HTC One X9. Alongside the other sets which were released with it, HTC One X9 was revealed a few months ago but just recently it has completely been shipped to many countries including Pakistan.

HTC has been really good at designing premium level smartphones. We still remember the HTC One X, which became the chatter of mouths soon after the release. Undoubtedly, it was an incredible phone of the time. The HTC One X9 is also a mid-to-high end smartphone and comes with a lot of likes. The HTC One X9 comes with a bundle of modifications over the HTC One A9 but has a more affordable price, a unique selling point we would say.

Unboxing

The smartphone comes with a slightly larger square packing. Few small cards can already be seen through the plastic film. As you tear apart the protective plastic sheet, you get the insurer’s Warranty Card. Normally in Pakistan, the set has a 12-month long warranty.

Alongside the warranty card, there are other essentials which come out of the box, including a user’s manual, a microUSB charging cable, a 1.5 ampere standard USB wall-socket charger and genuine HTC earphones.

You will also get a Zong internet offer if you bought the mobile from a local retailer. As per the voucher, Zong will provide 1GB of the free internet over the next six months, if the buyer chooses to use any Zong sim with the set. You can also get a Rs 500 promotional voucher from the Foodpanda, depending on when you buy the smartphone.

Looks

The smartphone lives up to the expectations and provides a pure luxurious feel and premium looks. The silk-smooth metal back with ultra-fine brushing looks absolutely gorgeous. This look and feel isn’t more often a part of a smartphone which comes in this range, but only for the flagships.

HTC definitely took a lead by the good build quality for a comparatively lowered price-bracket. The color choices are even great, you can get a variety of great colors including opal silver, carbon grey, topaz gold, and the rose copper.

Design

On the front, there is a large 1080p 5.5-inch Full-HD IPS display with a 401ppi pixel density, below the HTC brand name. The display is vivid and clear. Below the Corning Gorilla Glass protected display, there are three standard capacitive-touch buttons, for the Back, Home and the Recent application option. There are dual front-facing HTC BoomSound speakers which with the Dolby Audio Surround enhancement give pretty impressive sound quality. There also are a few standard front facing sensors and a 5MP camera.

The phone is bigger, taller and has a large display. Usually, the phones this size tend to be a bit chunkier but HTC performed well at keeping the added width to a minimum. The smartphone is 7.99mm wide, which definitely is chunkier but for the large screen size it has we might want to rethink. The smartphone feels solid in the hand due to the 170 grams of weight. The curve at the back tries its bit to reduce the slippery metal feel.

Like many smartphones, the right of the smartphone has the power button and the volume keys. The left side although does not possess any keys have slots for secondary sim and memory card. The primary sim card goes to the right. The microUSB slot is at the bottom and the standard 3.5mm audio jack is to the top. To the back, there is a dual-LED 13MP primary shooter.

Performance

The smartphone is powerful, simply put. With a 3GB of RAM and an Octa-core Helio X10 Mediatek SoC, the smartphone can take multi-tasking with ease. The smartphone can also support high-quality games due to the massive Octa-core processor. The HTC One X9 supports Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and 4G LTE. There is 32GB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded to 2TB using a secondary microSD memory card and suffice any of the user’s storage needs. There is a non-accessible 3000mAh battery with quick charging support. Sense UI on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow gives a smooth control and a good stock Android feel as well.

Verdict

The veteran smartphone manufacturer has tried its best to provide best specifications while keeping the pricing bracket tight. Usually, in lower price ranges the manufacturer has to make a lot of cuts in order to fit the price, sometimes the cut is in the form of poor build, sometimes for the low processing powers, and sometimes for the smaller screen size. But as far as the One X9 is concerned, HTC was able to pack pretty good specs under a larger screen while keeping the range tight.

The smartphone is priced at PKR 39,999.

Note: The gadget was provided to us by the sponsor but the opinions are purely of TechJuice Editorial Staff.

Main Image —TheTechy