Monday, March 26, 2012
HTC news roundup: One X benchmark scores, HTC Wild specs, htcsense.com shut down, and more
It's been a busy day for HTC. We typically have a few HTC stories to report on in a day, but we decided to group things together to make sure you don't miss anything important.
HTC shuts down htcsense.com
HTC is sending out emails to htcsense.com account owners, informing them that the service will shut down while it undergoes "renovation to improve the services and value we deliver to customers." HTC isn't saying what will be in store for customers once the service is reactivated, but we doubt any user data will be retained since they are urging users to download their data before April 30. HTC's online service has been available since the debut of the HTC Desire HD – roughly 18 months ago and we can't wait to see what HTC will be offering once the service is back online.
HTC Wind dual-SIM phone heading to China
HTC is preparing a new phone for the Chinese market. The upcoming HTC Wind features a body that's a cross between the HTC One X and One S though the internals more closely resemble the One V with a 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display, 1 GHz single-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, 1,650 mAh battery, microSD card slot, 5 megapixel camera, LED flash, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Android 4.0 and HTC Sense 4.0.
For now, there's no launch details available for the HTC Wind, but the phone is expected to sell for 2,000 Chinese yuan (roughly $316).
HTC buys 20 percent share of SyncTV
According to the latest reports, HTC has invested an undisclosed amount of cash to purchase a 20 percent stake in SyncTV. If you've never heard of the company, you're not the only one. We did a little research and found out that SyncTV is a developer of an online video distribution platform which they license to clients to deliver live or subscription based video over TVs, Blu-ray players, set-tops, smart phones and tablets. There's no saying what HTC has planned, but its nice to see HTC branch out a little in an effort to create a more robust ecosystem for its handset users.
AT&T HTC One X LTE gets benchmarked
We've seen benchmarks for the HTC One X and XL already, but we now have benchmark scores for AT&T's version of the phone which is identical to the HTC One XL, even though AT&T will be calling it the One X. For months, we've been talking about the differences between the Nvidia Tegra 3 and Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, but this is the first time that we actually have benchmark numbers to directly compare the two. According to the numbers, the quad-core Tegra 3 comes out on top – at least with AnTuTu (10,112 versus 6,388). We've seen some pretty impressive numbers from devices running on Qualcomm's S4 chip, so we can't wait to get the HTC One X and One XL (or AT&T's One X) side-by-side to see how they perform in everyday use.
3 UK HTC One orders for current customers
It seems like everyone is in HTC One X pre-order frenzy these days, so it shouldn't be any surprise to learn that 3 UK is now taking orders for the phone as well. For now, current 3 UK customers can log into their online system and order the white or gray HTC One X which should ship out on April 5. No word on when new customers will be able to purchase the phone, but we're not too worried about that since we're less than ten days away from launch.
