HTC Desire X review: Needs and wants

Introduction

For one reason or another, the One series failed to live up to their potential in terms of actual sales, so HTC turned back to the time-tested Desire line to fill up the coffers and secure some time to regroup. A new attack on the high-end market takes months of preparation and it's up to devices like the Desire X to hold the line in the meantime.

HTC Desire X official photos

The HTC Desire X is a smartphone that few will lust after, but it's one that many will end up owning. The bells and whistles offered by flagships come at a price, while a solid smartphone experience and nice clean look is what most people really need.

Here's the quick rundown of the HTC Desire X strengths and weaknesses:

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band 3G/HSPA support
• 4.0" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800)
• 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 203 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8225 chipset
• 768MB RAM
• 4GB of on-board storage, expandable via the microSD card slot
• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with HTC Sense 4 UI
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with hotspot functionality
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity
• 5 MP autofocus camera with geotagging and face detection
• WVGA video recording
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor
• Polaris Office doc viewer / editor
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Smart dialing
• DivX/XviD video support

Main disadvantages

• Poor video recording for a dual-core chipset
• No front-facing camera
• Feeble loudspeaker
• Pricier than most direct rivals

A solid dual-core chipset, a relatively recent Android release (as far as midrange droids go) and a reasonably spec'd display. There' nothing groundbreaking about the HTC Desire X, but no glaring omissions either and that's what counts in the cutthroat battle that is the smartphone midrange.

HTC Desire X live photos

Being so well prepared, the HTC Desire X is not afraid of any contender and, at this price point, it might be one of the best deals HTC has offered for quite some time. If it can really squeeze all the performance out of those solid specs, the Desire X might even be one of the devices to watch this holiday season.

Let's get down to testing then.