LG Optimus 4X HD vs. HTC One X: Clash of the Titans

After having a bad financial quarter, it was obvious that HTC was going to unveil something spectacular to bring back its market gain. At that time, LG was also struggling to establish itself in the Smartphone industry.

So, we were expecting something similar from them as well. When both the companies unveiled their flagship devices at mobile world congress in Barcelona this year, we couldn’t resist ourselves from comparing them. Yeah, you guessed it right. This time our superphone contenders are the quad core monsters – LG Optimus 4X HD and HTC One X. Both the devices have almost similar specifications but when it comes to design and usability they are quite different in their own unique way.

Design:

Both are top-notch high end Smartphones with elegant design aesthetics and you can tell that from the look and feel of these devices. LG Optimus 4x HD is available in two colors-black and white. It has a rectangular shaped chassis with silver stripes on the edges. The plastic back panel on the optimus 4X HD may look cheap but feels solid on the hand.

HTC One X is also quite a looker. It has a great polycarbonate unibody design with soft curved corners. The main advantage of the polycarbonate body is that it will resist general scratches. HTC One X is available in Polar White and Glamour Grey colors. There is a small bulge on the back which is actually the rear camera.

LG Optimus 4X HD has got a standard sim card slot while HTC One X supports only micro sim cards.

Dimension comparison:

	Height	width	breadth	weight
LG Optimus 4X HD	132.4 mm	68.1 mm	8.9 mm	133 gm
HTC One X	134.36 mm	69.9 mm	8.9 mm	130 gm

As you can see from the above table, both the phones have similar dimensions and almost same weight but in overall design HTC One X is more visually attractive.

Hardware:

• Display: Both the phones have 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass screen which is not only durable but also scratch resistant. The screen resolution is same (720*1280 pixels) for both of the devices, which results in high pixel density of 312 ppi. But there is a basic difference in the screen technology used in these devices. LG Optimus 4x HD has got a more conventional IPS LCD (with RGB matrix) panel while HTC One x has got the Super LCD2 panel made by Samsung. According to LG the screen on the Optimus 4X HD is a “True HD IPS” display which is brighter than the display available on the HTC One X. Although HTC One X produces more vibrant and warmer colors. They all have same capacitive control buttons (home, back and menu) underneath the screen.
• Processor: These two devices are first of the lot to offer the quad core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz with ULP GeForce GPU. Although they both are using same CPU, HTC One X is getting better scores in every benchmark test.
• Storage capacity: LG has a 16 GB internal storage and 1 GB RAM.HTC One X has got 32 GB internal storage with 1 GB RAM. But kudos to LG, they also provided an external storage slot which is expandable up to 32 GB, which HTC lacks.HTC is giving away a 25 GB free DROPBOX cloud storage with every One X but lack of expandable memory can never be complemented by any cloud storage.
• Battery: LG has got a user replaceable Li-Ion 2150 mAh battery while HTC included a sealed in and non-user replaceable battery. As the battery on LG Optimus 4X HD is easily removable, you can also use extended batteries. So, with a higher capacity battery LG is a clear winner here.
• Connectivity: From Bluetooth 4.0 to MHL 2.0, both devices have almost every connectivity options you can possibly find on a Smartphone and you won’t regret buying any one of these devices if you want good connectivity.
• Camera: Both the phones sports same kind of 8 Mega Pixel cameras (3264×2448 pixels) with Autofocus and Geo-tagging. But HTC One X supports 1080p video recording at 24fps while LG supports 1080p video recording at a speed up to 30fps. The 1.3 MP front facing camera supports 720p video recording.

Software:

When both of them have got similar specifications, it is the software which makes them unique.

• Although both devices have Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) out of the box, they have different skinning on top of the native software. LG is using Optimus UI 3.0 which is far better than its previous iterations and HTC this time provided there latest innovation SENSE 4.0 on the One X.
• Both the phones have somewhat fluid user interface but I think this time HTC failed to deliver with their well known SENSE UI. With unnecessary and overused animations sometimes you will face sluggishness and when a superphone with quad core prowess lags, you will definitely find it disgusting.
• It is very easy to add widgets on the homescreen on both of the devices. To create a folder you just simply have to drag & drop an application icon on another icon (which is DEFINITELY not possible on SAMSUNG’s touchwiz). LG has done something innovative here as well. You can not only re size any widget on the home screen but also customize any application icon with a given set of images or you can add an image of your choice from gallery. Like, if you wish you can change the messaging application icon with a picture of your best friend.
• The camera on HTC One X has got Simultaneous HD video and image recording feature whereas LG Optimus One sports unique “MEDIA PLEX” feature which supports live zooming on any video, time catch shot.
• LG has provided another unique GALAXY NOTE like feature which is called “Quick memo”. You can tap on the quick memo while using any other application and then you can draw anything on the automatically taken screen shot.
• HTC has confirmed Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) for HTC One X as well as a SENSE 4.1 update which, according to HTC, will make it blazing fast. LG is yet to confirm any update but it is definite they will be providing Jelly Bean in the near future for their flagship.

Conclusion:

Every High end Android Smartphone features somewhat same hardware specifications. So, big brands are including extra unique features into their flagship devices so that they can stand out of the crowd. This time we investigated two clashing titans and found out that right now LG has really improved from their last flagship device and included a host of unique features and a fluid ui which can astonish you. At the same time, HTC has failed to deliver with its SENSE UI, but with a promise of updates, the HTC One X is more future proof.