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Thursday, September 12, 2013

My Virgin Android Experience

Okay. I've never use an iOS or Android phone before. The only smartphone I've been using is my two years plus Nokia E7 which runs on Symbian, which I've upgraded to Symbian Belle. So last week I've got the opportunity to review not one but two Android phones for a week. One is the mid level Ninetology's U9 X1 priced at RM 1099 and the other is HTC One, priced at RM 2299.

Taken with HTC One


Taken with U9 X1


Yes. There's a huge price different between the two, how to compare? Oh, well. For an Android virgin like me it's easy. With the premium price, you'll get the aluminum body of the HTC One and a plastic one with U9 X1. Thew downside of aluminum body is weight is a bit heavier and heat transfer fast. So, it gets kind of hot when I used the HTC One for more than an hour and the heat is bearable for U9 X1.

Usability wise, both are quite the same while I found that U9 X1 seems a little bit more user friendly. I like the HTC Blink Feed though. It summarizes all my social network in one page and all updates are shown. Kind of cool too.

Phone camera nowadays is one of the function that people compares in a smartphone is the camera. X1 has a 13 megapixel camera while HTC One has a 2 micron ultra pixel camera which gives a 4 megapixel photos but with great sharpness and details. To me, HTC One's camera is slightly better but still U9 X1's camera is way better than my Nokia E7's all focus camera.

Taken with HTC One

Taken with U9 X1


Taken with U9 X1 in low light no flash

Both phones are quite responsive with HTC One had a bit of edge, maybe due the the processor speed different. I have not issue running Candy Crush or War of the Fallen. I even can send requests to friends in Candy Crush with little or not lagging at all.

One thing the X1 lack of is the built in application, it's pretty much comes with the standard Android Jellybean default apps while HTC One has quite a few of their own apps like HTC Zoe. Oh well, for RM 1099, I found it to be a pretty decent smartphone in terms of usability. It suit my needs for Facebooking, Twittering, Instagraming, Gmaling, surfing and occasional gaming. Oh, it has dual sim cards. I can put my normal size SIM card and use but not the HTC One because only micro SIM can be used. Also, Google Play would have tons of app to download so for me built-in apps design by the phone manufacturer is just a bonus.

If I am low in budget and looking for a decent Android phone, U9 X1 would be one of my choice. For the higher end phone and has the budget to splurge, well, there are a lot more choices aren't there?

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