HTC Desire X Review: A mid range crowd pleaser

The Desire X is HTC’s mid range device aimed at the “average user” who is intrigued by the idea of an Android powered smartphone yet still enjoys the simpler things in life. The Desire X ticks all the necessary boxes with a discreet design, easy to understand interface and surprisingly good super LCD display.

First impressions

To set this smartphone up, I removed the back cover plate to insert my SIM card and straight away felt uneasy. The cover plate felt for lack of a better word, flimsy.

It doesn’t seem strong enough to withstand any rough handling. I’m not filled with the greatest of confidence if it had to take a few knocks and bumps.

It is however a beautiful looking device, elegant in its simplicity. The screen is perfectly proportioned, picking up all the light in the room. A beautiful black Space Odyssey-esque monolith.

Solid speed

The Desire X packs a 1 Ghz dual-core processor and comes standard with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a reasonable 786 MB of Ram. The Desire X is definitely not a processing powerhouse, but can handle opening and running multiple applications at once.

On the storage side of things the Desire X is lacking, fitted with a disappointing 4GB of memory, it does however have a microSD slot, expandable to 32GB. This is one area where I would of liked an improvement from HTC.

Beautiful display

HTC’s design interface, Sense, is beautifully streamlined on this device. The 4-inch Super LCD changes the usually inane task on your device into a pleasurable one.

The flow of display when swiping between different applications is both quick and clean, which adds to an already crisp interface.

Beats Audio still a gimmick?

HTC began its partnership with Beats Audio in September 2011 with the release of the HTC Sensation XE. The built-in Beats Audio functionality was a gimmick then and unfortunately it’s a gimmick now.

This built-in functionality certainly adds more base to audio files, but does very little for enhancing sound quality. Although increased bass might work for “dubsteppers” it does not quite cut it when a user is looking for a unique listening experience.

Camera gets job done

The Desire X houses a modest 5MP rear camera that specficaly plays well to point-and-shoot use. Packed with plenty of viewing filters it will provide many hours of tinkering and tweaking to keep users happily snapping away. The camera also features a HDR setting. It brightens and sharpens all images, but takes a long time to render and ultimately would not serve the purpose of instant photo taking.

Battery life

Fitted with a standard 1650 mAh Li-on battery, the Desire X can last for 10 hours — that’s with the usual browsing, messaging and app usage on a normal day. It also has a nifty setting that allows users to view their battery status as well as how much battery capacity is assigned to different parts of the phone.

The best aspect of this feature is the ability to adjust system settings to get the most out of the Desire X’s battery.

Final verdict

On the whole the Desire X is a great smartphone, it isn’t tricked out with unnecessary bells and whistles, but it certainly has enough to keep run of the mill smartphone users satisfied. A solid device for the mid range market, the Desire X feels very comfortable in its skin.

The only problem becomes the user, when the person next to them whips out a HTC One X, a phone that I was mightily impressed by. The One X will always serve as a reminder of what the Desire X could of been. A reminder to users that they settled for average.