HTC One X9 review
HTC focused its attention on the mid-range segment earlier this year with the HTC One A9 smartphone with a metal clad body. This phone was also liked a lot. Now, the company aims to repeat this success by launching the affordable HTC One X9 smartphone. This phone is also made of metal body. The specifications of the phone attract. Will this phone be able to compete with smartphones like Le Max 2 and Xiaomi Mi 5? Read our review
Design and design
From another perspective, the HTC One X9 looks quite similar to the company’s Desire series smartphones. The rear of One
Glass has been used in the front part of the phone due to which the edges of the phone are rounded. The phone has three backlit capacitive buttons below the display for Back, Home and Recents. HTC branding has been placed above the display. There is a front camera on one side above the display. HTC has confirmed that Corning Gorilla Glass has been provided on the front. There is a dual speaker grill on the top and bottom of the phone, which makes the phone look better.
There are antenna bands at the top and bottom on the rear panel of the phone, while the camera and dual LED flash are placed at the top left corner. The rear of the phone also has an HTC branding in the middle.
The phone has a SIM card slot along with power and volume buttons on the right side. Whereas a second SIM card and a microSD card can be installed on the left side. One X9 has a 3.5 mm audio jack at the top while a micro-USB slot is provided at the bottom.
The HTC One The density of the screen is 401 PPI. We found the screen quite bright and crisp while using the phone. We could use the phone easily even in daylight. With dual HTC BoomSound speakers and Dolby Audio sound enhancement, watching videos and playing games is a great experience.
Measuring 7.99mm thick, the One Its curved edges make it very convenient to hold the phone and use it with one hand. However, with a weight of 170 grams, the phone feels a bit heavy to use and the phone starts slipping when your hands sweat. This phone will be available in carbon gray color and opal silver color. Overall, the HTC One X9 feels premium for the price and is extremely well designed.
Specifications and Software
The HTC One X9 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 processor and 3GB of RAM. The phone has 32 GB inbuilt storage which can be expanded up to 2 TB via microSD card. The phone has 13 megapixel rear camera and 5 megapixel front camera. The One This phone has a 3000 mAh battery with quick charging support.
HTC One X9 runs on the company’s Sense UI which is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This version of Sense UI is much lighter than the UI given in HTC smartphones launched till a year ago. There’s less bloatware, and HTC has focused on Google’s suite of apps like Search, Drive, Photos, Hangouts, and Chrome. The quick settings toggle also feels very much like stock Android. Apart from this, a theme app of HTC is also provided for tweaking and downloading new themes, wallpapers and ringtones.
The phone has a Zoe video editor through which recorded videos can be edited. Features of Android Marshmallow like Now on Tap and App Permissions were also seen in the phone. Overall, the HTC One X9 is easy to use with the new Sense UI.
performance
The One X9 smartphone with Helio X10 processor is very convenient for multitasking. Games like Need for Speed: No Limits and Dead Trigger 2 can be played without any issues. The phone gets hot after playing games for a long time.
However, we noticed at times that there is a delay in opening the app which is quite frustrating. During the review, we found that apps tend to crash, which is disappointing for a phone at this price. We were able to use 4G network on the phone without any problem and the call quality was also good.
The BoomSound speaker in HTC One X9 provides crisp sound. The earphones that come with the phone are fine. The benchmark figures of OnePlus 9 were quite impressive. And it scored well in benchmark tests.
Talking about the camera, One One of the biggest features of the camera is its 4K recording at 30 frames per second. The camera app has a Pro mode that allows manual controls and captures images in RAW format. This phone has a selfie timer of up to 10 seconds. Apart from this, it has HDR mode, panorama mode (up to 270 degrees). There are also features like hyper lapse and slow motion video recording. Like other HTC phones, this phone also has a zoom button.
The camera focuses quickly but there is a problem with the shutter. Photos taken in good lighting come with crisp and natural colors but there was a slight blurring in them. The face detection function works well. Performance was poor in low light and we noticed noise in all photos. The 5 megapixel front camera takes decent selfies but it was not the best camera performance found in a smartphone coming in this price range.
The HTC One X9’s battery lasted 10 hours and 45 minutes in the video loop test, which is not bad. However, during normal use, battery performance remains below average. Once charged, the phone’s battery did not last even for a day.
With moderate usage, we got 12 to 14 hours of battery life on the phone. As soon as the battery reached 20 percent, we had to turn on power saving mode. The phone’s battery drains rapidly while using apps like Google Maps. In such a situation, quick charging support is very beneficial. The One X9 takes about two hours to fully charge, which is not bad.
our decision
HTC One X9 was launched in India in May for Rs 25,990. But its sale started in July and currently this phone is available in the market for Rs 23,990. The phone’s metal body and good display performance make for a great package. However, the camera and battery life disappoint. Overall, the similarly priced Xiaomi Mi 5 and Le Max 2 smartphones are more powerful phones than the HTC One X9.
