I switched to the One X+ from the iPhone 4, and I am truly AMAZED at how good this phone is. I've been on iPhones for years, and while they are great phones, I'd finally reached my limit with the tiny screens. Reading content on them was really horrible. When I came up for upgrade this time around, I was dead-set on getting a phone with a larger screen. Interestingly, it was the Samsung Galaxy S III that put the thought in my head. I had seen numerous co-workers & strangers with the Galaxy, and came to be envious of the large screen. I had the opportunity to test one out for a bit through work, and while I loved it, I was disappointed that outdoor visibility in sunlight was so poor (in sunlight, I couldn't see the content on the screen AT ALL), so I had to set about finding a phone with a similarly large screen, but with better outdoor visibility, which led me (eventually) to the HTC One X+. Its superior physical design was really just an added bonus (though now that I have it, this impresses upon me more & more. It is a truly BEAUTIFUL device: refined, sophisticated, understated, elegant). Initially, I was deeply concerned about various issues with this phone (multitasking, continual browser window refreshes, battery life, a bit light on RAM), and those issues did give me pause. But I moved forward with it despite all those concerns, and now that I have it, I've found that most of those concerns do not really interfere with my enjoyment of the phone. It runs VERY smoothly, has great productivity/social integration features, is beautifully designed, and is just an all-around great phone. I've no experience with Sense prior to this phone, but despite all the harsh criticisms I've read of it, I must confess that I quite like it (apparently, this iteration of it - version 4+ - is a lot slimmer). I think it's really well-done, and I don't find it intrusive at all. Perhaps on a less-powerful phone, it might run poorly, but on a phone of this caliber, it runs fine. I've been amazed at the recent price drops on this phone (I believe it's available for $79.99 now via Amazon wireless, on contract with AT&T. And it's only 3 months since it was released! That's A LOT of phone for 80 bucks! And its plenty to carry you for 2 years until your next upgrade). I live in San Francisco, which is iPhone-Land. When I ride the bus into the Financial District in the morning, I find myself adrift in an OCEAN of iPhones. I am often the ONLY Android on the bus! This used to freak me out a bit: I didn't want to be the ONE guy who stood out; the one guy not in the iPhone Cool Club (people have a tendency to think that the only reason a person would choose to not have an iPhone is because they can't afford one; Not the case here. I'm on a company-supplied phone, and they actually SENT me an iPhone 5, which I sent BACK to get this). Now, I have a quiet sense of pride that I am not part of the crowd, and have a great device (which is, for me anyway, BETTER than the iPhone). Overall, I am very happy with my switch. Just a few things I might change:
1) More visible/wider variety of notification lights - This is one area where the Galaxy S3 has this phone beat. When I have a new email or text message on the Galaxy, I can see that from across the room. On this phone, I can often not tell, even if it's right in front of me.
2) More noticeable notification SOUNDS - Similar to the Notification LIGHT philosophy at work on this phone, these are a bit too subdued to be noticeable many times. Again, if I have a message on the Galaxy, I'm aware from across the room. With this, I have to be RIGHT UP ON the phone.
3) RAM - Though I haven't hit the performance ceiling by any means (it runs beautifully as-is), an extra gig of RAM would be nice, and more in keeping with the current paradigm of phones having 2GB RAM (Particularly quad-code phones. And it would carry users throughout a long 2-year commitment a lot more smoothly). Personally, this is a non-issue for me, as I find it provides plenty of power for me to do whatever I need to do, but I imagine if I gamed on this phone, I might feel a pinch in performance.
The other things that people often mention as being issues on this phone - The lack of a Micro SD slot, the lack of a removable battery - are non-issues for me. I'm always amazed when people continue to complain about the lack of a Micro SD slot on this phone. It has 64 GB of storage! Does that not negate the need for an SD storage expansion?!! As for the removable battery, I've not had a problem with battery life. And, coming from the iPhone, I've not had a removable one in many years, so I suppose I'm used to it. I operate in Power Saver mode 24 hours a day, and feel no lags in performance as a result of doing so. I don't game on my phone, so perhaps I'm not a hardcore user. I can do everything I need to do on it, and get better battery life than I did on the Galaxy S3.
So, let me get off my soapbox. Great phone. More people should be aware of it, but probably won't be, as they have their iPhone blinders on. But I'm happy to stand out with it. Does the job, and then some!
