ALTHOUGH OLDER than the Iphone 5, the HTC One X is still one of the most exciting handsets on the smartphone market, offering a fierce competitor to Apple's latest smartphone with its 4.7in Super LCD screen and nippy quad-core Tegra 3 processor.
Still, having sold five million units in its opening weekend, the Iphone 5 is clearly proving that it's the greatest Iphone yet, luring customers with its larger 4in screen, sleek new design and faster A6 processor.
Both phones scored highly in our reviews, so now it's time to find out which one is really better.
1. DESIGN
There's no denying that both the Iphone 5 and the HTC One X are good looking smartphones. The Iphone 5 is the skinnier of the two, measuring 7.6mm thick compared to the 8.6mm girth of the One X, and it sports an aluminium and glass coated casing, lending the Iphone 5 an overall high-end feel.
The HTC One X, although crafted from polycarbonate plastic, still feels like a high-end handset, with its matte texture giving it a more expensive feel than the glossy Samsung Galaxy S3 rival, and making it feel like it could withstand a fair few tumbles.
Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S3 though, the HTC One X isn't very comfortable to hold, the handset's size making it difficult to grasp easily with one hand. Placing the home button on the top of the phone makes it impossible to operate the phone with one hand too, with our fingers struggling to reach the top of the screen. Saying that, those with big hands won't struggle as much as we did.
The same has to be said about the Iphone 5 as well, as although it's not as large as the One X, its right angled edges can make it awkward to use. However, with a weight of just 112g, compared to the 130g weight of the HTC One X, it certainly proved to be less of a strain on our pocket seams.
Neither the Iphone 5 nor the HTC One X are perfectly designed. However, the Iphone 5's aluminium backing makes it feel more expensive than its HTC rival, evincing more style rather than the HTC One X's functional feel. What's more, we noticed during our time with the HTC One X that it picks up dirt really easily too, and can prove a bit of a nightmare to clean.
Winner: Iphone 5
2. SCREEN
On paper the Iphone 5 has the best screen on the mobile market. It features a 4in IPS 1,136x640 326ppi resolution Retina display, compared to the similarly impressive 4.7in 1,280x720 312ppi Super LCD screen found on the HTC One X.
The Iphone 5 screen lives up to the claims that it is the best smartphone screen ever, and is undoubtedly the best display yet to grace an Iphone. The 4in display is ridiculously crisp and has excellent viewing angles, with its only letdown being its poor outdoor visibility. However, it's fair to say that the screen on the HTC One X fares no better in direct sunlight.
That said, the 4.7in display on the HTC One X is also one of the most gorgeous on the smartphone market, offering great vibrancy, clarity and viewing angles. However, compared to the Iphone, text can look a tiny bit fuzzy.
Winner: Iphone 5
Performance
On paper, the HTC One X kills the Iphone 5 in terms of performance, featuring a 1.5GHz quad-core Nvidia processor. In comparison, the Iphone 5 has a mere 1.2GHz dual-core A6 CPU, which hardly matches up in comparison.
However, it's not all about specifications. Apple's A6 chip manages to keep up with - if not outdo - the quad-core chip found on the HTC One X, zipping through homescreens, loading web pages quickly and firing up applications in an instant.
While the HTC One X is fast, it struggles to match up with the Iphone 5 due to HTC's heavy Sense user interface on top of its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, which can make scrolling through screens laggy at times. It's still fast though, and an excellent phone for surfing the web and gaming, both of which look great on its LCD screen.
Although HTC's Android skin can weigh the One X down, it offers much more room to customise than Apple's IOS mobile operation system, which hasn't changed since the first version was released.
Winner: Iphone
Operating system
The Iphone 5 arrives running Apple's new IOS 6 operating system, and the HTC One X comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, skinned in HTC's Sense user interface. It's always tricky comparing Android and IOS, as most people have already chosen their favourite.
In our opinion, IOS 6 - despite its awful Maps application - is better for those who want to keep things simple. IOS 6 doesn't change much compared to previous iterations of Apple's operating system, still offering the familiar block of app icons and little customisation options.
Ice Cream Sandwich, on the other hand, is much more playful, offering users the ability to fill multiple homescreens with multiple widgets. However, we did find HTC's Sense UI did slow the phone down at times, although less cluttered than previous versions.
Winner: Draw
3. CAMERA
Photography is an area where the HTC One X really comes into its own. The handset features an 8MP rear-facing camera with an f2.0 aperture, LED flash and backside illumination sensor, which allowed the camera to capture vibrant shots in poorly-lit surroundings. It also comes with the option to shoot four separate images a second, and we found that the phone always managed to capture the perfect shot.
The Iphone 5 features a fantastic camera too, which is also 8MP. Although throughout our testing the Iphone 5 produced images full of detail and of an impressive quality - especially when using Panorama mode - it struggled to match the HTC One X when it comes to vibrancy.
Taken using the Iphone 5
Taken using the HTC One X
Winner: HTC One X
4. BATTERY AND STORAGE
It's fair to say that both the Iphone 5 and HTC One X are pretty shoddy when it comes to battery life.
Despite having a larger battery than its Iphone 4S predecessor, we didn't notice much improvement in the Iphone 5's battery. While it lasts an extra hour or so, we still found that we had to charge the handset every single night, although its rotatable Lightning connector proved easier to use than the old 30-pin connector.
The HTC One X, despite housing a decent 1,800mAh battery, proved a bit of a letdown when it came to battery life too. During our tests we found that the battery drained super quickly, whether you were playing a game or simply checking your Twitter feed.
The HTC One X is also pretty disappointing in the internal storage department, since it's available only in a 32GB model with no capability to expand storage by using a microSD card. The Iphone 5 isn't much better though, available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models with no option for users to expand their internal storage by adding a microSD card either.
Winner: Draw
Overall winner: Iphone 5
The HTC One X is undeniably a great smartphone, and it is a better choice for those who prefer the Android operating system. However, if you're after a speedy smartphone with a great design and a fine screen, the Iphone 5 comes out on top.
The Iphone 5 screen is undoubtedly the best smartphone display available on the market, trumping the 4.7in Super LCD of the HTC One X. The Iphone 5's design impressed too, offering a very light package despite being crafted from aluminum. However, the HTC One X definitely has the better camera of the two, impressing us during our hands-on testing.
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