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Why I'm returning my One X and waiting for the next iPhone

bentroxell

bentroxell

Newbie
I've had the HTC One X on AT&T for almost a week now and I'm definitely going to return it soon. Here's why:

The Camera - While the camera is capable of producing beautiful photos in moderate to good lighting, it lacks elsewhere. Low light performance is terrible. Photos are extremely noisy. Image stabilization is also pretty bad, which is very noticeable in videos. Also, videos are shot at about 24 frames per second. The iPhone 4(S) shoots at a buttery smooth 30fps.

I hate the mail app - Yes you can add attachments but all my messages have a ton of just code in them where on my iphone there are pictures. Also, the messages are zoomed in and way too big to be viewed on the screen. Also, iOS seems to push email to me faster than my One X, even though I have the One X set to push mail at all times.

The power button - It's tiny, doesn't make a click, and is located on the front half of the top of the device. The iPhone power button is way easier to find and makes a satisfying click.

No home button - I still miss not being able to turn my phone on with the home button as I have smaller/average sized hands and it's a little difficult to reach the power button with one hand.

Media control - Sucks on android. Double click the home button on iOS and any media you have playing you can, pause, play, or go next or back. It's so easy, quick, and useful.

Multitasking - absolutely blows on the One X. It keeps killing my apps that I just used. On iOS it will take me right back to where I left off. The One X keeps reloading whatever app I was in. I also hate the way you have to swipe through apps to select/kill them. Stock ICS would be much preferred.

Volume rocker - Pretty difficult to press, or at least tell if your pressing volume up vs down. It barely sticks out of the side of the device. The volume buttons on the iPhone are much easier to use.

Syncing - iTunes synces absolutely perfectly with the iphone. Even using iSyncr for android, it wouldn't sync "checked songs only" even though I had it selected, and most of my album artwork was not correct.

Overall polish - iOS is just insanely more polished than android. This is due to the fact that there are 23409183041 android phones. And it's impossible for all apps to be optimized for just one phone. I would come across so many random problems with android apps, where almost all my iOS apps worked perfectly.

Things I like about the HTC One X - I have the white one and I think it is the sexiest phone i've ever seen. The screen is absolutely gorgeous as well and I love the size of it, I just find it too difficult to use with one hand. The customization of Android is very impressive as well. My homescreen looks waayy better than anything I could do on iOS. Widgets are also something that I love. Apple better incorporate this into iOS6

In conclusion, the HTC One X, or android in general, is the better choice for some people, but I feel like it takes too much tweaking to make it work "right". If you just want your phone to just work, and to work very, very well go with the iPhone. This is just my personal opinion. I'm excited to see what the next gen iPhone has to offer.

I am in no way an apple fanboy, as the only apple device I own is the iPhone 4. I really, really wanted to love my One X, but I just can't.

Comments are welcome.
 
After 1 week of using Android I missed ios. So I tried using my 4s but the screen is just to small. And I can get around 50 mbps downloads in my area with lte. I have to admit that 1 week was not long enough to transition. Now I am much more comfortable with Android.
 
Isn't it funny how easily a near perfect phone could be created? Everybody complains about the same things on the iPhone (small display) and the same things on the HTC (power button). I wonder if companies ever test their phones and/or do customer satisfaction surveys...

I personally would take the HTC over the iPhone any day. Looking at my old iPhone 4 (my wife has it now) reminds me of looking at one of those plastic toy laptops after looking at my Macbook Air. There's no room for individuality in that both the hardware and software are just too restrictive. And the glass-sandwich design of the iPhone is just plain stupid.
 
Well to each his own, seemed like u were really accustomed to iPhone hardware... But I understand. Hope the new iPhone works out for u, I'll be enjoying my One X for months to come
 
i've never had an iphone so i cant comment on most of the stuff youve mentioned,

however, a couple of days after getting my one x I had a go on my old HTC desire (similar screen size to the iphone 4S) and the screen on it just seemed stupidly small! :)

But then i do have quite large hands so i can just about use the one x one handed.
 
thicks56 said:
however, a couple of days after getting my one x I had a go on my old HTC desire (similar screen size to the iphone 4S) and the screen on it just seemed stupidly small! :)

But then i do have quite large hands so i can just about use the one x one handed.
Click to expand...

i'm quite the opposite.

i have large hands and i can't operate it one handed. i've nearly strained my thumb trying to press the power button!

i needed to transfer some data from my Desire to my One X and when i had my Desire in my hand, i could operate it flawlessly without straining anything.

and, apart from the flashy stuff that the One X has, my Desire seems nearly as fast and just as capable.

you know, i think i might be getting rid of the One X pretty soon......
 
I pretty much like everything about this phone, I've never had ANY apple product so I cant compare. My last phone was pure crap so the one x is like a entirely new world that makes me want to use it. I hope it lasts the entire contract life.;)
 
I am in the same boat actually, I went from a Blackberry to an iPhone and now onto the HTC One X, ive had it for 2 weeks and although it is very nice i will be going back to my iPhone 4S, for an every day phone the iPhone is very polished and it just works, never slows down and just works and works well, the only draw back is the size of the screen, when i look at it now it is way to small.

hopefully the iPhone 5 will have a larger screen.

never thought id be saying id go back to the iPhone.
 
Like it or not, rumors are that the new iPhone will have an elongated but not much bigger screen.

It's funny, I disagree on all the counts the OP posted, except for the part about the ON button. I agree that that is slightly easier to locate on the iPhone. Also, the cameras are about equal. All the other points the OP made I disagree on and actually think the HTC blows the iPhone out of the water in each one of them! The iPhone seems like a toy with a toy-ish OS to me. I wouldn't even go back if the display were as gorgeous as that of the HTC.

bluelights said:
I am in the same boat actually, I went from a Blackberry to an iPhone and now onto the HTC One X, ive had it for 2 weeks and although it is very nice i will be going back to my iPhone 4S, for an every day phone the iPhone is very polished and it just works, never slows down and just works and works well, the only draw back is the size of the screen, when i look at it now it is way to small.

hopefully the iPhone 5 will have a larger screen.

never thought id be saying id go back to the iPhone.
Click to expand...
 
As a serious gadget user, constantly changing devices, I get where the original poster is coming from...

But, like my Mum used to say, "Anything that comes easy is not worth it". Bottom line is, configuring Android is the best part, you make it YOURS, and thus settings and features work the way you want. Now, yes, from time to time it takes a few attempts to get the battery life right, and brightness right, etc. At the same time, you learn things the more you configure the device...

Of course, Android is not for everyone ;)
 
I pretty much entirely agree with your review.

I know I'm going to regret my impatience when the next iPhone comes out.
 
I like android because its always growing. It will never be as polished as ios and I hope it never will be. Its not boring and with a few apps you can make it feel like a new phone. Ios updates and nothing really changes cosmeticly . Ya it now has a pull down bar but that's a little late to the party. They seem to be behind in things like that. Ios is good for people that don't like change. I completely disagree with the op. But then again android is not for everyone.
 
The problem and beauty of android is that it can do pretty much anything you want... BUT you have to tweak it out yourself. With that being said:

Mail App: I don't know about the stock one, I use Enhanced email and I get my push msgs before my work computer does...

Media Control: I am using a stock locker screen (the weather one)... On screen wake it shows me a really nice widget of whats playing, pause, skip, and previous song. Not to mention a nice image of the album.. Works with Amazon MP3, Google Music, and Mort audio book player so far....

Syncing: I got out of the the iTunes camp which is the big problem imho. I moved all of my music to Amazon and Google... Although I do like the amazon store/app a lot better because of the free storage and I NEVER sync my phone. I just either stream or download my albums I want to play.....

Overall Polish: If the over all look is what you are after you can tweak it till your heart is content. I had my inspire polished out to the 9s and even my buddy who is a huge apple fan though it looked really nice and ran completely smooth.

All that being said, out of the box.... android is an OK experience that needs to be tailored to fit. The iPhone on the other hand is a really nice experience that you have to be tailored to fit....
 
burtonvdp said:
The problem and beauty of android is that it can do pretty much anything you want... BUT you have to tweak it out yourself. With that being said:

Mail App: I don't know about the stock one, I use Enhanced email and I get my push msgs before my work computer does...

Media Control: I am using a stock locker screen (the weather one)... On screen wake it shows me a really nice widget of whats playing, pause, skip, and previous song. Not to mention a nice image of the album.. Works with Amazon MP3, Google Music, and Mort audio book player so far....

Syncing: I got out of the the iTunes camp which is the big problem imho. I moved all of my music to Amazon and Google... Although I do like the amazon store/app a lot better because of the free storage and I NEVER sync my phone. I just either stream or download my albums I want to play.....

Overall Polish: If the over all look is what you are after you can tweak it till your heart is content. I had my inspire polished out to the 9s and even my buddy who is a huge apple fan though it looked really nice and ran completely smooth.

All that being said, out of the box.... android is an OK experience that needs to be tailored to fit. The iPhone on the other hand is a really nice experience that you have to be tailored to fit....
Click to expand...
Great reply. Thanks. I'll give what you suggested a shot. Knowing what apps to use is half the battle for android.
 
bentroxell said:
Great reply. Thanks. I'll give what you suggested a shot. Knowing what apps to use is half the battle for android.
Click to expand...

Just make sure you can live with/get used to the button location... You can do all kinds of stuff with apps but you cant change the location of the buttons. If the iPhone fits you better then go for it! Or you may find yourself liking android but not the HTC... The new Samsung is coming out and the asus pad phone as well... I've been on the fence about the One X myself. I love the screen and OS but the camera could be better and I do agree 100% with power button location on such a large handset.
 
burtonvdp said:
Just make sure you can live with/get used to the button location... You can do all kinds of stuff with apps but you cant change the location of the buttons. If the iPhone fits you better then go for it! Or you may find yourself liking android but not the HTC... The new Samsung is coming out and the asus pad phone as well... I've been on the fence about the One X myself. I love the screen and OS but the camera could be better and I do agree 100% with power button location on such a large handset.
Click to expand...

There's got to be a way to fix the power button issue.

One brute force way I'm imagining is glueing something thicker on the power button to make it more prominent.

Another way I can imagine is via a gesture on the display. But then the touch sensitive surface would always have to be on which would probably waste battery.

Idea?
 
berkeley said:
Another way I can imagine is via a gesture on the display. But then the touch sensitive surface would always have to be on which would probably waste battery.

Idea?
Click to expand...

If people are willing to root, there's a custom kernel which allows sweeping over the soft buttons on the bottom to wake:

Sweep2Wake - HTC One X - Bricked-Kernel - YouTube

I'm also pretty sure you can unlock with the menu buttons on the bottom if you use Widgetlocker too and there's definitely an option to wake with the volume buttons.
 
berkeley said:
Btw, the next iPhone is going to be as much of a joke as the 4S was. Here are the latest news.

Taller Next-Generation iPhone Front Panel Caught on Video - Mac Rumors

Maybe they should call it 4LS (for LongSuper) or something like that. I'm so glad I finally gave up the hope and moved away from Apple before being disappointed yet again.
Click to expand...

Don't bother with the rumors they are always off.... Also the 4s is a fine piece of hardware. Not my cup of tea but it works and works well (for what it does).

I wish the android manufactures will find some sort of middle ground.. Release different models/sizes/types but keep to a path and not just toss out phones left and right. I would love to 3 to 4 generations of the One X not a whole new line of phone down the road.

Anyways, GoSMS has a screen wake option when you get a new text, works out nice if you don't like to turn your phone on every time you want to send a reply or read a txt.
 
I took the HTC one x back, they would not give me a refund so I swapped it for the Samsung galaxy S3, I have to say it is far far better than the one x, totally better android experience, so now I'm stuck with my iphone 4s and the S3.

Even the stock S3 software is nice, I really think the one x and the HTC sense ruin android.

Anyway although I'm still leaning towards the iphone more, this phone has got my attention and I will give it a fair crack.
 
It should be written large that Android ain't iOS. If you want it perfect out of the box then get an iPhone. This is why it is so popular with female consumers. Apple make great phones...the only downside is it will be exactly the same phone throughout its life. If you want a product that grows and grows get Android...and root. Too much hassle for some maybe but not for most on these forums.
My HTC Desire is a million miles on from the handset I bought 2 years ago - so much so that even the fantastic HTC One X and the S3 don't offer that much more apart from their magnificent screens...until you root.
I am looking forward to another 2 years of growing with android.
For me as a UK consumer the clincher against the Iphone is the lack of Flash. Can't be doing without free live sport (Saturday Premier League and Test Cricket).
My advice is buy what suits you and appreciate that what is right for you may not be right for the next person. Thank God we don't all want (and like) the same phone. How dull that would be.
 
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