HTC X9 review: A great smartphone that’s late to the party

The X9 could have been a great offering at the price if it had a faster camera, brighter screen and included a fingerprint sensor.

The X9 could have been a great offering at the price if it had a faster camera, brighter screen and included a fingerprint sensor. (HTC)

HTC has always been good at making phones that seem to miss out on something that makes them fall short of greatness. In case of the HTC X9, it's the time. Launched in India on May 26, the HTC X9 went up against the Mi 5 and now faces a stiffer competition from the OnePlus 3. Announced at a price of ₹25,990, the phone is listed as coming soon on the company's online store.

The X9 could have been a great offering at the price if it had a faster camera, brighter screen and included a fingerprint sensor. But without those, it leaves you dissatisfied and with a taste of mediocrity. However, it still gets a lot of things right, which would have made it a worthy recommendation for a smartphone at a lower price.

You will definitely love the build quality on device made of only glass and metal. The camera and flash on the back are also held in a glass frame. The antenna bands are cleverly hidden for a clean look on the back. The front also maintains the minimal design with just glass and gaps for microphone and speakers. With dual front speakers. the playback on this smartphone is loud and clear. The universal equaliser will also let you tune the playback quality according to your liking.

(HTC)

(HTC)

The display is quite vibrant maintains a neutral hue, but becomes hard to read outdoors. A little glare from the sun and you'll be looking for shade to figure out whose calling or texted you. The camera launched quickly, but despite the optical image stabilisation, doesn't manage to get the sharpest of pictures all the time.

The phone doesn't offer blazing fast performance, but in doing so, manages to keep going through the day on a single charge. The phone's battery is quite good considering that the HTC Sense UI keeps feting updates from all your social media accounts and websites.

Always available at the place Google Now would have been, HTC Sense UI is easy on the eyes and aesthetically pleasing. Getting a theme from the HTC Store makes it easy to customise your phone's appearance down to the way stock apps like Contacts looks. The storage on the smartphone is expandable and runs the latest Android OS Marshmallow.

So, to sum it up, the HTC X9 is a really good phone that takes decent pictures, looks and feels great, pulls through the day on a single charge, but leaves you wanting for more at the end of each day you spend with it. So, instead of getting the HTC X9, we'd recommend the OnePlus 3 or Mi 5 depending on your preference in screen size.