HTC focused its attention on the mid-range segment earlier this year with the launch of the metal clad HTC One A9 smartphone. This phone was well received. Now, the company aims to replicate this success by launching the affordable HTC One X9 smartphone. This phone too has a metal body. The specifications of the phone are impressive. Will this phone be able to compete with smartphones like Le Max 2 and Xiaomi Mi 5? Read our review
Design and build
From the outside, the HTC One X9 looks quite similar to the company’s Desire series smartphones. The rear of the One X9 is made entirely of metal, which makes it look attractive and it is also clear that an attempt has been made to give the handset a premium look.
The front of the phone is made of glass which makes the edges of the phone rounded. The phone has three backlit capacitive buttons for back, home and recents below the display. HTC branding is placed above the display. There is a front camera on one side above the display. HTC has confirmed that the front is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass. There is a dual speaker grill on the top and bottom of the phone which makes the phone look even better.
The rear panel of the phone has antenna bands on the top and bottom while the camera and dual LED flash are placed on 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. While a second SIM card and a microSD card can be inserted on the left side. The One X9 has a 3.5mm audio jack on the top and a micro-USB slot on the bottom.
HTC One X9 has a 5.5 inch Full HD (1080×1920 pixels) Super LCD display. The screen density is 401 ppi. While using the phone, we found the screen to be quite bright and crisp. We were able to use the phone easily even in daylight. With dual HTC BoomSound speakers and Dolby Audio support enhancement, watching videos and playing games is a very fun experience.
At 7.99mm thick, the One X9 is slim for its screen. The curved edges make it very comfortable to hold and use with one hand. However, at 170g, the phone feels a bit heavy to use and is slippery when your hands get sweaty. The phone is available in Carbon Grey and Opal Silver colours. Overall, the HTC One X9 feels premium for its price and is extremely well designed.
Specifications and software
HTC One X9 has an octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 processor and 3GB of RAM. The phone has 32GB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded up to 2TB via microSD card. The phone has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. One X9 comes with connectivity features like Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/c, GPS, GLONASS, Miracast and 4G LTE. This phone has a 3000mAh battery with quick charging support.
The HTC One X9 runs on the company’s Sense UI which is based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. This version of the Sense UI is much lighter than the UI on HTC smartphones launched a year ago. There is less bloatware and HTC has focused on Google’s suite of apps such as Search, Drive, Photos, Hangouts and Chrome. The quick setting toggles also feel very much like stock Android. Apart from this, HTC also has a theme app for tweaking and downloading new themes, wallpapers and ringtones.
The phone comes with Zoe video editor which helps in editing the recorded videos. The phone also shows Android Marshmallow features like Now on Tap and App Permissions. 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 problem. The phone gets hot after playing games for a long time.
However, we noticed a lot of lag in app loading which is quite bad. During our review, we found that apps crashed a lot which is disappointing for a phone of this price. We were able to use 4G network without any problem and call quality was also good.
The HTC One X9 offers crisp sound from its BoomSound speakers. The earphones that come with the phone are decent. The benchmark figures of the One X9 are quite impressive. And it scored well in benchmark tests.
Talking about the camera, One X9 has a 13 megapixel rear camera with BSI sensor, optical image stabilization (OIS), aperture f/2.0 and dual tone LED flash. One of the biggest features of the camera is 4K recording at 30 frames per second. The camera app has a pro mode which can be controlled manually and images can be taken in RAW format. This phone has a selfie timer of up to 10 seconds. Apart from this, it also has features like HDR mode, panorama mode (up to 270 degrees), hyper lapse and slow motion video recording. Like other HTC phones, this phone also has a zoom button.
The camera is quick to focus but the shutter is a bit problematic. Photos taken in good light are crisp and have natural colours but there is some distortion. The face detection function works well. Performance in low light was poor and we noticed some noise in all the images. The 5-megapixel front camera takes decent selfies but this is not the best camera performance we have seen in a smartphone at this price.
The battery of HTC One X9 lasted for 10 hours and 45 minutes in the video loop test which is not bad. However, during normal use the battery performance remains below average. The battery of the phone did not last even a day on a single charge.
With moderate use, we got 12 to 14 hours of battery life. As soon as the battery reached 20 percent, we had to turn on the power saving mode. The phone’s battery drains quickly when using apps like Google Maps. In such a situation, quick charging support is very useful. The One X9 takes about two hours to fully charge, which is not bad.
Our verdict
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 metal body of the phone and good display performance make it a great package. However, the camera and battery life disappoint. Overall, the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Le Max 2 smartphones of similar price are much more powerful phones than HTC One X9.
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