What Went Wrong?

I'm sorry, HTC, just the One X9 is not a adept smartphone. For nearly $340 – though not officially available in Northward America – there is no reason to purchase it.

Many aspects of the I X9 autumn short of the mark. The pattern, while partially metal, is confused and lacks the sleekness of HTC's typically excellent smartphone bodies. The dual front-facing speakers are outstanding, merely are non enough to save the rest of the pattern.

The display besides falls short of my expectations. It's a five.5-inch 1080p panel, notwithstanding its quality falls behind the Moto G4, a key competitor to the One X9. Effulgence and viewing angles are below boilerplate, while color performance is lackluster and fails to even encompass the sRGB spectrum. I expect better for the toll.

Functioning is interesting. The MediaTek Helio X10 SoC is a capable mid-range SoC with performance that exceeds the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617. However, you can readily find older flagships with Snapdragon 808 or 810 SoCs inside at a similar price to the One X9, and naturally both of these high-end Qualcomm chips are faster. Storage performance also fails to impress, especially sequential read and write speeds which are well below average.

Yous tin can add together both the front and rear cameras to the collection of lackluster hardware. The 13-megapixel sensor on the back only delivers quality shots in strong lighting, and falls abroad significantly in lesser calorie-free, despite the inclusion of optical image stabilization.

The Moto G4 Plus is ~$100 cheaper notwithstanding delivers improve image quality across the board. Equally for the front end camera, information technology's surprisingly poor for a mid-range phone and is rarely capable of a expert photo in low light, which is a critical environment for selfies.

The 3,000 mAh battery doesn't mail service impressive results for its size, and gets comfortably browbeaten past the Moto G4 Plus, which has the same size display and bombardment. In general utilise this translates to mediocre battery life, and I await much amend from a mid-range device.

I haven't discussed the software on the HTC I X9 in detail because it's essentially identical to what we saw on the HTC 10: Android 6.0 plus the latest version of Sense. I like HTC's Android skin: its blueprint fits in well with the rest of Android, there isn't a ton of characteristic bloat, and its visually appealing.

There'due south a scrap more bloatware on the One X9, there are some slight blueprint tweaks, and fewer features, but my review of the HTC ten should give some greater insight into what to expect.

HTC doesn't take a good track record with Android software updates, and the Ane X9 is nevertheless stuck on the Android security patches from Apr. I doubt this phone will become prompt software updates.

The I X9 is merely as well expensive for what information technology provides. The Moto G4 is a ameliorate telephone and it's only $200, while the Nexus 5X is available for under $300. Both are cheaper and significantly ameliorate than the 1 X9 across the board. Even in Australia (where the One X9 is widely available) its AU$480 price makes information technology difficult to recommend over the same devices, both which are at least $80 cheaper.

This makes the One X9 a disappointing offering, and another nail in the coffin for mid-range smartphones. At the high-end, HTC has a really compelling device in the HTC 10, simply this success hasn't trickled down to the company's cheaper devices.

Pros: Decent front facing speakers. HTC'due south software offer is respectable.

Cons: Impuissant design with a lackluster display. Weak camera despite OIS. Beneath average bombardment life. Poor value for money.