[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] Russ741:
I guess the geek gods were feeling benevolent last week when they allowed me to participate in an HTC One X for AT&T early release. Of course I had to convince the guy at the AT&T company store that it wasn’t stolen and I really did need a micro-SIM card for it. But once that was taken care of it was all systems go for several hours of ‘getting my geek on’.

For those of you who don’t know me, I have been mucking about with smartphones since smartphones began. My first true smartphone was the HTC Wizard and the One X is device number eight. I am a retired senior moderator and have been beta testing ROMs and other software for over 10 years. Let’s just say I am not a young buck who loads his phone with music and wears out the screen sending text messages. I am a business user who relies on the phone for work, family and on occasion throwing birds at pigs while trapped on airplanes.

So these are my first impressions after about 48 hours use, some good, some odd, some not so good. Sorry HTC you asked for my honest opinion!

First off, this phone is THIN! Perhaps too thin for some users, my previous phone was also very thin, I put a case on it so it was easier to hold, I plan to do the same here once cases become available. The gorilla glass screen is almost bezel free, only the smallest amount of case is visible on the sides. The top and bottom have just enough bezel for the front facing camera and the speaker, truly an amazing piece of engineering. The case material (a proprietary super plastic that feels like metal) is matte on the front and back while smooth on the sides giving a very finished quality look and feel. The volume rocker is on the right, Micro-USB is on the left and 3.5mm port is on top next to the power button. Also on top is the micro-SIM tray slot and its associated pin hole. HTC ships a SIM tray tool with the phone but a paperclip works just fine.

The case is one piece with no removable doors (save the SIM tray), the battery is non-replaceable and there is no SD card slot. Now before you start cussing HTC for not making the battery replaceable or providing a SD slot, the device is designed to be as thin as possible and the only way to do that was to sacrifice those items. Thinking about it, I have never replaced the battery in any of my devices anyway and rarely have I used more than the included 10GB of storage. HTC has also partnered with DropBox giving each One X user 23GB of cloud storage for a year at no cost. I have no idea what will happen after the year expires but by then I will be getting a new device. For the record, the device has 16GB of user storage; however, only about 10GB is actually usable.

As a long time custom ROM user one of the first things I normally do is root and ROM a new device. If nothing else just to get rid of the bloatware, in the case of the One X this almost isn’t needed as the bloatware is minimal with only 12 apps that may be considered boat. The stock ROM is smooth, runs a quadrant score of 4800 and has little to no lag. Sure the stock ROM lacks the icons and color normally found in a custom ROM but for a stock ROM it is very good. I don’t need to tell you the OS is Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) and Sense 4.0 is onboard, you read that months ago. What I can say is that the Sense experience is significantly improved even over 3.6, the panes move easily and smoothly. As always with HTC there are a myriad of clock choices, weather widgets and other gadgets to occupy your screens. Quite by accident I stumbled upon this interesting bit, if you drag an app icon onto another app icon a folder will be created with both icons included. This may be an ICS function I hadn’t read about or a Sense 4.0 bonus, in either case it’s a great way to save space.

I would love to tell you that battery life is off the charts awesome but alas having only had the thing for 48 hours or so, it is too early to pass judgment. My first blush impression is about 10 hours of moderate use, but that may prove to be way off base… more on this after a week or so.

The superLCD screen is absolutely the best screen I have used. I can be out in the bright sun and read the display easily, the gorilla glass is rounded where it meets the bezel making the transition very clean while also making it easy to feel the edge of the glass. And what is better to put on that display than pictures you have taken with the new camera. HTC went to extremes to make sure this camera is the focus (see what I did there?) of the device. Not only does it stick out the back of the case (remember what I said about too thin?) but it takes simply beautiful pictures. The shots I have seen and taken look more like they came from a DSLR or high end point and shoot than a phone. Image processing is handled by a dedicated HTC chipset relieving the dual S4s of the task. Burst mode is probably my favorite new toy, I can now capture objects in motion and select the best frame to save. The shutter is much more responsive as well, no more push………wait……wait some more….. snap. I missed a lot of good shots waiting for the shutter on my previous HTC phone. As good as this camera is I suspect that DropBox space is going to fill up fast!

In summary; this is a very well thought out device that I am proud to own and use. HTC has taken in what we the users have told them and made a flagship device that surpasses expectations.

Russ741