HTC One X review

HTC has gone for a bit of a rebrand this Mobile World Congress. Gone are the hyperbolic product names and the quiet brilliance: instead it's all about a new One family of phones with the HTC One X the daddy of them all.

That's because it's rocking a quad-core processor – what else? – as well as Ice Cream Sandwich, some Sense upgrades and 32GB of internal memory (as well as some cloud storage thanks to a new partnership with Dropbox).

See what HTC's quad-core monster can do in our first play with the One X at MWC
But with everyone who's anyone whipping out a quad-core behemoth at this year's show, does the One X have the X-factor to set it apart? (Sorry, but we're contractually obliged to use that trope when a product name includes X.)
Hardware

When it comes to first glance looks, the HTC One X isn't a million miles from the HTC Sensation range, sharing most aesthetic mannerisms with the Sensation XL.The company has gone for a mix of materials while keeping the unibody design: the side panels are a high gloss plastic while the back of the handset is a soft-touch affair.It's a pretty big handset – that 4.7-inch Super LCD touchscreen may pale in comparison to the Galaxy Note's 5.3-inch panel but the small-handed will still struggle to use it comfortably.

The updated Sense software takes advantage of the screen tech too, rocking optical lamination to improve the viewing angles – and it's done its job, as you can turn the phone whichever way you like and still get a good quality view of the screen (unless you turn it on its front, obviously).

Considering the size and spec, HTC has done a good job of keeping the weight down – in fact, the weight difference between the HTC One X and an iPhone 4 is negligible to feel, despite the iPhone being much smaller of screen.