HTC One X9

If you have been an HTC loyalist, or at least followed their series in the past few years, you will be taken for a trip down the memory lane when you see the HTC One X9 for the first time. The phone has elements from virtually all the popular series of devices, be it the rear visor like component from the HTC One V, the front from the HTC Butterfly or the lower chin like one of the Desire devices. Garnish this with the usual high end brushed metallic construction and you get the HTC One X9.

Display & Design

The HTC One X9 comes with a 5.5 inch Full HD LCD display, which gives it a pixel density of about 401. The screen is protected thanks to a Corning Gorilla Glass layer. HTC also gives you an option to customise the colours of your display, which allows you to fine tune the display to your eyes perfectly. In terms of design, the HTC One X9 features a premium metallic design. Unlike most other metallic phones, the One X9 has amazing grip-ability thanks to its oblique edges as well as a back panel that is not slippery. There are ugly antenna lines on the back of the device, just as we have seen on the HTC One M8.

Hardware and Features

The HTC One X9 is powered by a Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10 chipset, that features a PowerVR G6200 GPU. In its price segment, devices such as the Xiaomi Mi5 come with Snapdragon 820, and that makes you realize that the HTC One X9, for all its beauty is not the most powerful phone from the inside. The device features 3GB of RAM so you would not have trouble running memory intensive applications and games here. Unfortunately, there is no fingerprint scanner on the One X9, that we have seen on other mid-range phones from HTC such as the HTC A9. On the software front, the phone runs Android 6.0, with the latest Sense UI on top. BoomSound makes a much awaited comeback on the HTC One X9, after missing out on the HTC 10.

Camera & Storage

Camera has always been the Achilles heel of HTC and thankfully there is no experimenting with Ultrapixel cameras here. The rear camera is a 13MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture. The camera comes with OIS and is supported by dual tone LED flash. The front facing snapper is 5MP, which should be good for your selfie needs. While the rear camera can capture up to 4K videos, the front facing camera will only be able to record in 1080P. To store all these videos and images, the device comes with 32GB internal memory. This can be further extended by another 256GB thanks to a dedicated Micro SD slot. 

Battery and Connectivity

The X9 comes with a non-removable 3000 mAh Li-Io battery. While the capacity may not be too much, when looking from the outside, the device does come with fast charging to help you quickly charge it back again. The 3000 mAh unit, should last you a day easily, if you use your phone moderately. On the connectivity front, the device has Dual SIM with Dual Standby. Both the SIM cards support LTE. There is no USB Type-C here, but you get the usual array of connectivity options such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC on board. 

Competition

In the mid tier segment, where the HTC One X9 has been announced, there is tough competition. Devices such as the Le Max 2, Xiaomi Mi5 as well as the OnePlus 2 are all phones with more powerful chipsets than the HTC One X9. Not to forget, they all come with fingerprint scanners too. You also have the Motorola Moto X Style in the region, where if you wait and look at the right time, you could perhaps pick up the device a discount too.