HTC One series comparison

By Jerry Hildenbrand  | Apr 02 2012 | 12:45 pm  | 72 Comments

HTC One

HTC showed off their new One Series this week at Mobile World Congress, and more than a few people seemed to get excited at the upcoming handsets from the long-time Android OEM. We don't blame you at all, they are some nice looking phones. HTC seems to be focusing on a premium experience with both the manufacturing and the software, and from what we've seen, it shows.

We all know that the HTC One X is the high end, followed closely by the HTC One S, and finally the HTC One V brings up the budget, but still very nice, offering. But we decided a nice side-by-side look at all the specifications for each was in order. So take your time and have a look, then discuss. There is no wrong choice here, and that's a good thing.

HTC One X forums | HTC One S forums | HTC One V forums


 

 

 

 

Android Central

One X

Android Central

One S

Android Central

One V
Dimensions:

134.36mm tall

69.9mm wide

8.9mm thick

130.9mm tall

65mm wide

7.8mm thick

120.3mm tall

59.7mm wide

9.2mm thick
Weight: 130g 119.5g 115g
OS:

HTC Sense 4.0

(ICS)

HTC Sense 4.0

(ICS)

HTC Sense 4.0

(ICS)
CPU:

1.5GHz

Tegra 3 (quad-core)

Qualcomm S4 (dual-core)

1.5GHz

dual-core

Qualcomm S4

1GHz

single-core

Qualcomm
RAM: 1GB 1GB 512MB
Display size:

4.7-inch

Super LCD2

Gorilla Glass

4.3-inch

Super AMOLED

3.7-inch

TFT
Resolution: 720p qHD 480x800
Internal Storage:  32GB 16GB 4GB
NFC: Yes No No
Rear camera: 8MP 8MP 5MP
Front camera: 1.3MP 1.3MP none
Battery size: 1800mAh 1650mAh 1500mAh
Connectivity:

Bluetooth 4.0

GPS

802.11 b/g/n Wifi

DLNA

MHL for HDMI

Bluetooth 4.0

GPS

802.11 b/g/n Wifi

DLNA

MHL for HDMI

Bluetooth 4.0

GPS

802.11 b/g/n Wifi
MicroSD card slot:  No No Yes

 

 

Jerry Hildenbrand

Jerry Hildenbrand Cowboy

"Fascinated by things that go beep."

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5329(forum posts)
 

Related HTC One S,HTC One V,HTC One X Stories

There are 72 comments

MrClarenceCat says:

No MicroSD slot? Yikes. I know 32GB is a lot of memory - but knowing the US carriers, they will have these things over run with bloatware.

n25philly says:

Am I the only one that thinks it's odd that only the low end one has a card slot? Sorry, but no phone should be considered flagship without being able to add storage to it. I'm sure the carriers love it, they can shake down the people forced to use cloud services for everything.

winterwar says:

In my way of thinking, there's no excuse for not having a card slot or removable battery!

butters619 says:

There is a study out there that shows that SD cards cause huge performance degradation. It's part of the reason manufactures are starting to not include sd card slots on flagships.

icebike says:

[citation needed]

The only time MicroSD cards cause performance problems is when the system is spec'd with so little memory that you have to use app-to-sd just to run a minimal set of applications.

For media, music, movies, large game maps, there is no significant performance penalty in using MicroSD cards. Sequential reads and writes are not a problem. Its the random access of small data files that causes the problems.

Since I don't believe (correct me if I'm wrong)that ICS allows apps-to-sd any more, the putative problem is largely already solved.

TJH132 says:

I can't agree with you here. The MicroSD on my former phone (DInc) caused nothing but headaches. Music skipped, photos took ages to refresh. I actually had an iPhone user scoff at how long it took the stock Gallery to display photos I was trying to show. Not to mention the two complete failures that erased everything! This was with two different, name-brand cards. Happily moved to GNex and LOVE not having removeable storage issues.

Bishounen says:

It's not that SD cards are slow, it's that you bought a SLOW SD CARD. You do know they come in different speeds, right? If you were having music playback problems you probably had a "2" speed card, the slowest (and cheapest) out there. If you want good performance, you have to buy a minimum of a "6" speed card, preferably an "8" or "10" speed card. Don't be cheap. Buy a good card if you want a good experience.

n8ter#AC says:

Class 10 16GB Cards with up to 30 MB/Sec (MB/Sec not mbps) read speeds are $21 and change at Best Buy (Tax Included). You can stream full HD off of those cards.

Jerry Hildenbrand says:

He's right. I remember reading it as well, but it didn't say anything everyone didn't already know -- SD cards are slow. Computerworld, I *think*

It dealt mostly with applications that cache data on the SD card (which is most of them) and how much better those apps performed on phones with internal storage instead of removable flash storage.

I goofed around with a GS II, running apps with data cached to the internal partition then running them with data cached on the SD card. They are faster when the card isn't being used, but not enough to matter to most people.

 

kinster02 says:

Why Google wants to get rid of SD cards.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Why-Google-wants-to-kill-SD-cards-and-wha...

frankwhite8536 says:

Can you still root and install ROMs without an sdcard?

randyw says:

Not that I know about. A rom must be put on the root of the SD card.

Drybones5 says:

It can be on the internal storage and no it doesn't have to be in the root of it. only if you use the "Install update.zip" shortcut but most of the time you use "Choose .zip from (internal) sdcard" and it has a filesystem to use and go through folders.

Drybones5 says:

Yes you can, I don't use an SD Card in my Galaxy S II, but if you plug in the phone the entire internal storage acts like a USB/SD card and you load files onto it including rom files which the recovery has access to.

FormerIphoney says:

Having no problems here on my 32gb nexus. Tons of shit on it and still have 23gb left

15israellai says:

Lack of an SD card slot is not a deal breaker for me (though I'm struggling with my 16GB). It's the battery that causes headaches..

bbui4 says:

I have a gnex and I don't feel the need for removable storage because I keep most of my movies and music on the cloud. Box has 50 gigs for free.

animatedroid says:

last i checked box has a per file limit of 100MB

dunya says:

My 2cents. I won't buy a mobile gadget without an SD slot. It started with the 8Gb Black iPod nano (2nd Gen), my only Apple product. I filled up the damn thing with my CD collection and ran out of room. I even used lower quality bitrates, so I constantly had to move songs off and on the damn thing. Never again.

Recently, I was using Audiogalaxy but it's a waste to have my computer running all the time when I am not at home just to listen to music. I thought I would do the "Cloud" thing but to upload 50Gbs of music when I am limited to 500kb upload from my ISP seems stupid. Plus I can't get internet connection on the subway, same issue with Audiogalaxy. So I bought a 32Gb card from newegg for $40 and I carry my music around with me all the time, after lowering the quality of course but I am not an audiophile so I don't really care.

Also, I bought a 32gb iPad 2 WiFi for my son last year and it hurt me to have to pay an extra $100 (versus the 16gb version) just to be sure that he wouldn't run out of room in a year or so. Especially when I just paid $40 bucks for a 32gb sd card.

Scrambler#AC says:

Hope Some version of the X comse to Verizon!

hmmm says:

And Sprint! The X preferably.

cadzilla74 says:

+1 to this ^^^ the X series looks like a winner (except for battery and card slot issues).

So far MWC has been a total bore for me regarding seeing ANYTHING exciting coming to Verizon. I don't think I've even seen Verizon mentioned in a Page One article in relation to a new phone all week.

mettec says:

This is from AC forum that I wrote yesterday:

Well I feel better after talking to a VZW phone rep. I should have known this but it never accrued to me. The rep was also very knowledgeable about phones and websites for all android devices. He said the reason why most of the manufactures are showing devices with GSM/HSPA is because there is no CDMA network in Spain. The devices with CDMA radio's would not work there so why bring them to MWC if they can't show what the phone can do. Totally makes sense to me.

What he did say is that LG, Motorola, Samsung and HTC will be coming to Verizon with some high-end, big screen phones this spring but he did not know the name, release dates, or any specs, just that they will be bringing some new devices to the market. I told him that I need a new phone cause my DInc is having issues and it's almost 2 years old. He said if you wait a couple months you will have a few to choose from.

Still not getting my hopes up but more optimistic.

As one user wrote, The MWC is about phones that are used world wide as opposed to USA/CDMA devices that are only on a few carriers and nobody at the MWC probably cares.

l00natic71 says:

This statement from the rep "He said if you wait a couple months you will have a few to choose from." can be said at any time during the year.

icebike says:

The thing glossed over in all these ONE posts is that the ONE X, headed to AT&T is said to have a different processor than the ONE X sold elsewhere.

So that means there are really 4 models. AT&T's version will be a dual-core Snapdragon S4, (as opposed to quad-core Tegra 3).

Apparently no Tegra 3 in the AT&T model (because Tegra 3 does not support LTE radios yet), and AT&T has exclusivity on the ONE X in the US.

So unless we in the US import a 4G model from Canada or someplace and give up LTE, we get two cores instead of 4.

That might be a good trade off given the battery size.

hkklife says:

So disappointed in Nvidia (again). This time last year it was the Tegra2 having issues playing nice with LTE chipsets (thus the endless Xoom LTE upgrade delays and the ruination of the Bionic). Now the same **** with the Tegra3. I wish Google would put the smack down on all of these developers cozying up to Nvidia for Tegra-exclusive game titles.

Chainfire 3D is far from perfect and not everyone can, is willing, or should have to root!

Also, I agree 100x about the comment about the carriers forcing the hardware manufacturers to remove microSD slots. Google is far from blameless in this situation, however. Thus far, the only ICS devices we have seen with external storage are wi-fi tablets. Android is becoming more fragmented day by day on one hand and on the other hand becoming more like Apple (fixed storage, fixed batteries, fewer and fewer keyboard devices). Ugh.

Lanhoj says:

The grey part on the bottom of the One V makes it look odd.
It's like something was suppose to go there but then got removed...

icebike says:

Its the return of the "Leno Chin".

vinny jr says:

No sd card no buy. Very simple, these companies IMO are removing what I consider the most important part of the phone. Being someone who roots his phone, I like the idea of being able to remove my sd card for different reasons. Not only that,, 16 GB is nothing, 32 GB is nothing as well. I will not buy any new phone if it doesn't come with an sd card. Being a Nexus nut, I was pissed off that the New Nexus and the last one was shipped without it, That is just bull shit as far as I'm concerned. Android Central and many other web sites like to breeze by these things like it is nothing. Can you imagine the lead device put out by the leading OS is pushed out with only 16 GB of Memory (GSM model) and 32 GB by the other. Drop Box memory is just crap. Come on step it up, these phones are not better then what is out there right now. IMO the Motorola Razr Maxx has it all over any of these so called new devices.

n1tro19 says:

not everyone needs 64 gigs on there phone, i use 8 max. thats why there are so many different androids, buy what suits you, if not, pass on it.

rootbrain says:

It's really about options. I want the option to put music, videos, pics and other files somewhere other than the phones memory, and have it accessed from there. Then I don't have to worry about it. I use nearly 12GB on my Rezound internal memory (and they call it an SD card btw, so the performance issue is moot I think) and nearly 14GB on my external card.

That would be 26GB of the 32GB this new phone has. And I have over 50GB of movies, music and pics on my computer. I currently have those files on 3 different 16GB cards (soon to be 2 32GB cards) so I can switch them easily. Without that, I'd have to delete and copy new files constantly.

No way.

ilaifire says:

That is *exactly* why they need to have SD card slots. The phone itself shouldn't need more hen 8 gb for OS and app storage, all files (music, movies, images, pdfs, e-books, whatever) should be stored on the SD card. Not planning on using much space? Keep the 2 gb card that came with the phone. Want more space, buy an extra card for ~$100 instead of upgrading a phone early for ~$700. If the phone has an SD card slot no one (well fewer) people will complain about them not releasing a phone with X GB of space because X-1 is "so last year's tech".

randyw says:

Very true. To anyone who roots there phone an SD is a must!

Animus_3.0 says:

Hopefully the Evo is a variant of the One X. I dont care Tegra 3 or Snapdragon. All i care about is 32gb, 720p display and that delicious camera.

smotrs says:

See the following,

http://htcpedia.com/news/Sprint-And-T-Mobile-May-Get-Own-Version-Of-The-...

Keep in mind, it's not set in stone yet. But anything's possible.

mallengi says:

I don't want to support the trend of non-removable batteries and no microSD expansion. Those are two of the main reasons I initially chose my Evo 4G over iPhone 4 and I'm glad I did. I swap batteries all the time -- using a 3500 mAh battery when I'm out all day and an 1800 mAh battery when I'm at work all day. I think a lot of Android users enjoy the flexibility of both a user-removable battery and a storage expansion slot. I hope they're not a thing of the past in high end devices.

Dnomyar220 says:

I'd be curious to see a poll on this website of who uses extra SD card storage vs. who doesn't. The reason I say that is I personally never need more space (16GB on evo), but I constantly hear people whine about not having enough (which, I understand if you need it). But the real question is how many people end up using the SD expansion slot? 10%, 90%, etc.? I'm assuming not that many consumers use it since so many manufactures are taking that option away. Same thing with the batter I suppose.

sveilien says:

On my EVO 3D with a 32GB card, I have 6GB free. The 3 biggest culprits are Music (I like having the songs on my phone, 3G cloud streaming is battery intensive and not always great bandwidth) High End games (many of Gameloft games are over 700MB per game on the card) and Movies (I like to have several MP4s of my favorite movies on deck). And the 6GB free is after cleaning off several games and movies. Needless to say, I'd love a 64GB option.

droidman2177 says:

Good idea with a poll on SD card use. I would also like to see one about a removable battery preference. And how do the manufacturers know how many people use the sd cards anyway? Whatta ya say about some POLLS PHIL AND JERRY?

MthII says:

I'm not buying into the ONE, I'm holding out hope that the new EVO blows everything out of the water in the US. Assuming there even is a new EVO coming. Is it anything more than speculation at this point or has HTC alluded to another EVO? I just don't know that I wanna jump to At&t if they won't even get the quad core ONE X

YoSaintLaurent says:

I am a little confused on some of the specs. None of the HTC spec sheets I have seen say that the One X has 32GB on internal storage. They all say 16GB. And depending which HTC site you go to, the One X and One S either has a 1.3 mega pixel or VGA front-facing camera. Also all three are listed as having Bluetooth 4.0.

hmmm says:

I'd go for the One X. The others are not enough of an upgrade over something like the EVO 3D really.

fakiesk8r333 says:

the one x looks nice, although im sticking to lte gnex for a while. also i think theres a type "dual core tegra 3". i dont think thats right

KwietStorm says:

The One S doesn't have gorilla glass?

mr nruz says:

thanks for doing this cuz its hard trying to compare the specs when there is alot of posts about these phones

zzoinks says:

I swear I read another site that claimed the V would be running Sense "3.6". I see here it's listed as 4.0. I'm hoping for the latter since it gives me hope my Vivid will get Sense 4/0 when ICS drops and not some half-updated version of Sense.

jemcclean says:

I would prefer not having a micro sd slot and having 32 gigs internal but I cannot accept not having the ability to switch batteries. Personally I have 4 gigs free on my Evo 3D so I definitely need 32 gigs or more.

animatedroid says:

you also have to consider that apps are quickly doubling in size. Android just expanded the size limit of apps to 4GBs. you put two "must have" games on your device and you're pretty screwed.

there are also many other reasons to have removable storage.
-if it corrupts, you can always get a new one
-if you swap phones, you can just swap it to the new one
-if your phone dies, you still have your SD
-easy content access between different platforms/devices w/o copy/paste.
-easy copy and paste of files on a diff platform w/o a USB cable
-you dont have to pay 100$ more for every increment 8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB
-you can start w a budget 8GB & expand when memory gets cheaper
- and many more

ill admit i hardly use the benefits of removable storage, not even once a month, but when I need it, I need it to be there, even if it's once a yr. We need to remember that our digital files are not so easily expendable and tied down to one device, there needs to be a backup option just in case.

n8ter#AC says:

The biggest benefit of removeable storage: Just to hold the camera data. I think people here are (in many cases) absolutely oblivious to just how much space Pictures and especially 720p and 1080p video take up over time. With an SD Card there isn't the absolute need to constantly back up things to your PC, because you can always just take the SD Card out if something happens to the phone. Additionally, with 4GB of music I need an SD Card. I listen to a lot of my playlists.

The lack of expanded storage was a huge issue for me on Windows Phone 7.

On top of that, if a phone has 16GB internal storage, prepare to recieve it with 15GB or less due to formatting and them using 1000=1 instead of 1024=1 to calculate storate size. It's no different than getting an 8GB iPod Touch only to realize it only has 6.5GB storage on first boot (on top of formatting and calculation gimmicks, the OS and stock apps will eat into that as well).

Draiko#AC says:

The One X Tegra 3 is a quad core, you have dual core written in.

adzrules says:

One S is by far the best looking

bdfull3r says:

Android Central should do a comparison for the latest Xperia Line of phones

droidman2177 says:

Yeah, that would be cool. Any xperias coming to big red? I might give one of those a try someday.

likwidsoul says:

Why is everyone so butt hurt over the sd card slot. Everyphone I have had has had an sd slot but whatever the phone came with stayed in it. Why would you need to constantly remove the sd card. Get over it. There is just no point in having removable storage. Just make sure you get enough memory in the phone when you buy it.

SlimJ87D says:

The way ICS is... if you don't have a Micro SD card slot, it is going to be very difficult connecting your phone and turn it into a flash drive.

I won't be able to plug my phone into my PS3 and play all my videos and music off of it.

People with MAC computers will have trouble sync as well.

This is a inconvenience for some of us.

TenshiNo says:

One of the key features of Android has always been its versatility. I understand if the manufacturers want to move away from using SDCARD (they cause some issues) but they should still give us the option of adding one. 16 gigs is not enough for me on a phone. I have multiple 16 gig SDCards that I swap out based on whether I'm traveling or just sitting at the office. It's one of my favorite things about Android. Also, when you spend time traveling, the ability to swap out batteries is *GOLD*. I frequently have a spare battery in my pocket while I'm out of town. I end up using Google Maps and navigation a lot while I'm walking around, so that eats up the juice quick.

People are upset because it seems like Android phones are slowly becoming more and more like those fruit-based devices, and most of us on here went with Android because we don't like the fruit.

animatedroid says:

you need to realize there's a whole world out there outside of your own life. Like the other reply said, android is about versatility, it suppose to be able to custom fit the individual from the simple techdumb user to the hardcore geek.

evildevilbg says:

So according to you the One S has 1.3mp front camera. I thought it was VGA...

ChromeJob says:

PocketNow's Hands-on videos keep saying "VGA front camera."

prissysox says:

Can't wait for this to debut on AT&T. It's looking like a very sweet phone!

pjames6 says:

WHY!?! Why does every android phone get so darn close to being perfect, then miss the mark by one or two specs. I would trade in my iPhone tomorrow if the One V had the tegra 3. I don't want dated tech and I hate those large screens that seem to be the norm now. Give me the 3.7 with that super cool look AND a nice processor and I will say "Shut up and take my money!" I guess I will wait for an iPhone 5 or something Android that fits my needs..

chrisz5z says:

At&t version is bs. I'd rather take the Tegra 3 w/HSDPA over the S4 w/LTE. Having no sd card is a good idea, cuts down costs and is faster. Don't like the non-removable battery though. What are you suppose to do if your phone freezes or you flashed something wrong and need to pull the battery?

experiment 626 says:

Didn't HTC learn from Motorola's experience with the original Droid RAZR? Non-removable batteries in LTE devices need to be substantially bigger than normal. HTC's track record for stock batteries is not good. Will these new processor architectures make that much of a difference?

kinster02 says:

The US version of the X is supposed to only have 16gb of internal storage.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Why-Google-wants-to-kill-SD-cards-and-wha...

YoSaintLaurent says:

All versions of the One X(One XL being the other) is listed as having 16GB. None of the HTC sites have it listed as 32GB. And all of then have Bluetooth 4.0.

SeeK says:

Can I just ask - which is the grey One S? Expansys.se seems to think it's Gradient Metal, but Expansys.co.uk indicates it's the Ceramic Metal (looking at pictures anyway). Also, does the One S have the connectors on the back for the car dock?

Jude526 says:

I have always had a Micro SD card and NO issues with any device using it. I can't have a device that doesn't sport one. I guess if Verizon brings on HTC phones without it, then will just stay with my current phone...I love my HTC Thunderbolt and the MICRO SD card. I have a ton of music on it and photos.......never has slowed down my phone....ever.

Also the battery has to be removable for me. Not being able to replace a battery is definitely an issue for me

rootbrain says:

Honestly, replaceable storage and replaceable power are two main reasons, beyond the specs, that I chose Rezound over Razr or RazrMaxx or GNEX.

If they do away with either, time to start looking at options.

ChromeJob says:

Oh! OHHHHH!!! Only the One X has NFC? That seemed to be getting overlooked in discussions....

No_Underscore says:

Yes, I was soo shocked to not see NFC on the One S... it should be there.
NFC is a connectivity that i am really excited about seeing take off... why can they not add it in, especially as these phones are all supposed to be their hero range!!

ASD007 says:

Non removable battery can be easily sorted with external portable charger, a 5000 or 7000 mah charging the phone 3-4 times, boom ! Htc one x is a great phone again :)

Isaiah Krug says:

I can live with a battery that can't be removed. Like ASD007 said, it can be solved with a portable charger.

However storage is a totally different story.
Personally I have:

>36GB of music - I like to keep my music local because more often then not I don't have a data connection worthy of streaming
>5GB of Photos
>300 PAID APPS and various other free ones - What can I say, I like to support development.

Anyways with a 64GB SD card and 16GB on board memory I only have enough room for my music, photos and about a tenth of the apps I currently own. If I decide I want to shoot full HD videos of my daughter, friends, and various other things I run out of room all to quickly.

I also have videos from my comp I would love to have on my device.

I would honestly like to see a 64GB phone come out with an optional 64GB SD card slot.