Hasta La Gadget!

The original HTC One S has finally made its way to T-Mobile from overseas, replacing the paint-covered Blue edition that’s been in stores since the launch. The international coverings for this machine are the same as we’d seen in the international edition of the machine here in Matte Black with Micro Arc Oxidation. This process, for those of you that weren’t around when the HTC One series was introduced earlier this year, makes the device just about as rough-and-tumble as they come, ready to take on the world without any protection from a 3rd party case – no worries!

The HTC One S also works with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and has a lovely 8-megapixel camera working with HTC’s own ImageSense processor under the hood. This combined with the Snapdragon S4′s dedicated architecture for image processing makes the HTC One S one of the most fabulous camera phones in the world. Once we get the device in for some hands-on time, we’ll do some comparisons to the rest of the modern-day contenders as well.

We have an HTC One S T-Mobile review up from earlier this year and you can expect similar results for this edition coming this week. Some differences here in the present are going to exist in the software department – any One S in the wild today with T-Mobile will have the upgrades present, but here with the MAO edition we’ll have them right out of the box – hot stuff.

You can also take a peek at our original HTC One S review from April of this year to see what this device is like with MAO. As Chris Davies said of the finish back then: “HTC is offering two finishes for the casing, either a graduated metallic green or, as is the case with our review unit, a so-called micro arc oxidized shell that has been heat-treated so as to be scratch resistant. Scrape up the rear panel with your fingernail and the marks just rub straight off, though our previous experience with a One S prototype suggests keys can still leave some noticeable marks if used in earnest against the phone.”

We’ll see if all of that is still true here in this new edition. We’re expecting essentially the same shell as that device back closer to the start of this year – stay tuned!

T-Mobile HTC One S re-issued for free (and in its true form) is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In a press release on October 2, HTC stated that the HTC One X and HTC One S would begin receiving a Jelly Bean update sometime this month. It seems the process has begun for the HTC One X, with users in Taiwan and Singapore reporting on the XDA Developers forum that they have successfully updated to Android 4.1.1 with HTC Sense 4+. According to one user, as well as the screenshot below, it’s version 3.14.709.16, and is 353.87MB in size.

Jelly Bean brings users a faster and more fluid user interface, with snappier orientation changes and responses when toggling between apps. The system offers more consistent rendering, and reactive touch responses that help conserve battery life. Other features include the ability to designate certain WiFI SSIDs as mobile hotspots, more accurate Face Unlock, and the ability to swipe from the camera viewfinder to review photos.

As far as the HTC One X, it brings with it a light weight of 130g and a 4.7-inch 1280×720 display. There’s a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video conferencing, and an 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, an LED flash, and support for recording videos in up to 1080p HD. Inside you’ll find an NVIDIA 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chipset, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage space.

HTC Sense 4+ is HTC’s custom overlay, and includes one-touch access to the camera, bypassing the lock screen, as well as two new gallery views, Tap and Go, and Self Portrait mode, which detects faces and applies minor enhancements to the subject’s eyes and skin. There’s no word on when the HTC One S will see some Jelly Bean action, but assuming HTC stays in its October timeline, it is reasonable to assume that users will see the update pop up in the next couple days. You can check out our review of the HTC One S here.

[via Gotta Be Mobile]

HTC One X Jelly Bean update starts in Taiwan and Singapore is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Shopping for a smartphone can be an exciting and arduous experience. Along with the promise of something new and fantastic, it brings the fear of commitment, and even worse, the prospect of saddling yourself to a lousy device for two years. Fortunately for you, Engadget spends tons of time playing with the latest gear and we’re constantly on the lookout for what’s coming next. If you’re wanting to take the pain out of shopping for a smartphone, you’ve come to the right place. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Engadget’s smartphone buyer’s guide: your one-stop resource to finding the best and most exciting handsets on the market today.

Before you dive in, however, we’ve introduced a few changes to the buyer’s guide, so take a minute to prepare yourself for what’s in store. First and foremost, you’ll now find alternate selections to supplement our top picks. This should already be familiar to many of you, which is the same format we use for our seasonal gift guides. The next one is a biggie: we’ve dropped the QWERTY selection. By and large, manufacturers and carriers alike have shifted their focus away from keyboard-equipped smartphones, and you’ll rarely find more than one option on any given carrier. That said, if you still insist on the tactile experience, you’ll always find everything you need to know in our reviews. Finally, whenever possible, you’ll now find prices from Amazon Wireless, which allows us to provide you with more compelling budget selections and highlight the substantial savings that you can score by circumventing the carriers. It’s not like they need your charity, anyway.

If you’re curious to see how it all unfolded — and we know you are — join us after the break, where we round up the very best smartphones of the season.

Continue reading Engadget’s smartphone buyer’s guide: fall 2012 edition

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, Google, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, LG, T-Mobile

Engadget’s smartphone buyer’s guide: fall 2012 edition originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC previously showed off a special edition One X geared toward fashionistas in New York City, and now it’s time for a slightly lesser-specced member of the numero uno family to get a somewhat similar treatment — we’re talking about the One S. And while the most noticeable characteristic of this “special edition” slab is obviously its new white livery, HTC has also made internal improvements by loading the 4.3-inch device with 64GB of internal storage — which should pair nicely alongside that 1.5GHz, dual-core S4 CPU and 1GB RAM. The only bad news is this unicorn type is expected to only be available in Taiwan, and mum’s the word on when, or if, it’ll ever make a trip outside the company’s home turf.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

HTC One S ‘special edition’ comes draped in white, boasts 64GB of storage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This morning, HTC officially outed its One X+ and One VX smartphones. We even got our hands on the One X+ (spoiler alert: it’s pretty cool). However, in the midst of the announcements was the news that two of HTC’s older One smartphones will be upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean sometime this month.

HTC promised back in July that it would bring Jelly Bean to the One X and One S, and it looks like the company is finally delivering on that promise. No specific date has been said yet, but the timeline for these kinds of updates usually depends on the carriers anyway — the One X is available on AT&T‘s network, and the One S is offered by T-Mobile.

The HTC One X features a 4.7-inch 1280×720 display and comes packing with Tegra 3 and a 1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with 1GB of RAM on board. Meanwhile, the HTC One S has a 4.3-inch 960×540 display and comes with a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage.

We reported earlier this morning that 1.8% of Android users are now on Jelly Bean, which is up from 1.2% a month ago. That’s certainly not a large percentage, but you have to be patient with Android updates. Android 2.3 Gingerbread is still the most popular version, which claims over half of the market share at 56%.

HTC One X, One S getting Jelly Bean this month is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.