Although HTC’s One smartphone series has stolen the limelight the manufacturer hasn’t forgotten the rest of its lineup. HTC has just announced the Desire C, a new budget Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device. However the Desire C is no upgrade to the Desire S, instead it’s been scaled down to take its place between the new 3.7-inch One V and the 3.2-inch Wildfire S.

The Desire C is a 3.5-inch QVGA (320×480) device with a 600Mhz Snapdragon processor. As a reminder the Desire S sports a 3.7-inch WVGA (480×800) display and a 1GHz processor, but that position has now been taken by the One V.
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I’ve been playing with the HTC One X for the past couple of weeks and switching between the Sense 4.0 skinned Android device and the Galaxy Nexus, which we’ve reviewed here, I often crave for the latter’s stock Ice Cream Sandwich experience. Don’t get me wrong, HTC has done some great work with its widgets, customizable dock and lockscreen and social integration, but you can’t beat the crave for those stock Android 4.0 neon-blues, especially on such a lovely 4.7-inch display.

There are already a number of custom ROMs for the One X, some with Sense and others without, but what about the most popular aftermarket rom of all, CyanogenMod. Well a developer has ported the latest CyanogenMod 9 (CM9) build to the Tegra 3 bearing HTC One X and released it to the public.
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We were truly hoping that 2012 would be the year of all-day battery life for our gadgets. There was even good indication for that following Samsung’s commitment to the same goal and the improved efficiency of the latest generation mobile SoCs, like the NVIDIA Tegra 3, with up to 61 percent lower power consumption than Tegra 2.

As we’ve said before, manufacturers have to strike a good balance between battery life and portability, avoiding to get into the extreme thinness wars. Unfortunately however HTC seems to have been hanging out with the wrong crowd.
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The two hottest Android smartphones right now are the new 4.7-inch HTC One X and the incumbent 4.65-inch Galaxy Nexus that we have reviewed in-depth here. A key hardware distinction between the two is the use of different display technologies. Both have a 720p resolution, but the Samsung Galaxy Nexus features a PenTile Matrix Super AMOLED display while the HTC One X has a standard RGB Super IPS LCD2 screen. You can read more about the differences between Samsung’s PenTile Matrix technology and standard RGB here.

Now, we can easily argue that the display is probably the single most important hardware feature of any mobile device so we’ll be taking an in-depth look between the two Android smartphones. We also have a 3rd generation iPad handy with its amazingly sharp and most importantly color accurate display, so we’ll occasionally be throwing it in our comparison for good measure.
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Corning had announced the newest version of its popular fortified glass, Gorilla Glass 2, at CES this year. The second version has the same scratch and impact resistance as its predecessor despite being 20% thinner. Corning later announced on February 27 that it begun initial shipment of the new glass to its customers and that we should expect manufacturers to start revealing products using it by the by second quarter of the year.

It has been assumed that the new HTC One X smartphone is already using the new Gorilla Glass 2 to protect is gorgeous 4.7-inch 720p super LCD2 screen and in fact, a couple of websites have even said so in their reviews.

We’ve got in touch with HTC directly and the company has confirmed that the One X actually uses the original Gorilla Glass and not version 2. It practically plays no significance for end users, since both versions of the glass offer the same level of protection, though we though you should know for the sake of completeness. The HTC One X’s screen is optically laminated to the glass, eliminating any gap between them and bringing the screen closer to the edge anyway.
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HTC is mighty proud of its new One series of smartphones and it has been ‘subtly’ pointing out their benefits. We’ve already seen images taken from the new ImageSense camera module found in the 4.7-inch quad-core HTC One X and the 4.3-inch dual-core HTC One S, but what can demonstrate anything better than watching a piece of aluminium getting hit by 10,000 volts of electricity?

The HTC One S case is made of one piece of aluminium metal that first undergoes a brutal treatment, called micro-arc oxidation, giving it an extremely durable finish. The case is made of aircraft-grade aluminium and the process involves 10,000 volts hitting the metal like lightning. This treatment creates a metal oxide coating that is typically thicker than by other methods, like anodizing, and results in a ceramic-like finish.
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With all the attention Nokia’s 41-megapixel PureView camera (found in the 808 smartphone) has been getting, HTC is feeling kinda left out. The Taiwanese company wants you to know that it’s done its homework on smartphone cameras and the result of its efforts is the new ImageSense imaging technology that can be found in the HTC One smartphone series.

ImageSense comes in two parts, the camera and a companion chip. The HTC ImageSense camera is made up of a pretty standard 8-megapixel 1/1.2-inch sensor but has a new fast f/2.0 28mm lens. The new lens will allow more light into the sensor, improving low-light performance and allowing for shallower depth of field. The module’s own image processing chip takes over all picture taking duties from the regular processor and allows for 0.7-second shoot times and 0.2-second autofocus.
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Limited numbers of HTC Sensation and Sensation XE owners in Europe have been receiving over-the-air (OTA) updates to Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 3.6. HTC had eluded in a previous statement that the Sensation and Sensation XE would be getting an early taste of Ice Cream Sandwich in Europe with entire line (including the Sensation 4G and Sensation XL) to be updated by end of March.

The update comes as a hefty 200MB+ download and seems to be rolling out to individual countries in stages and specifically to unlocked (i.e. without carrier branding) handsets. If you have an unlocked European handset and are anxious for the update, you can download the leaked HTC RUU 3.30.401.101 and 3.30.401.1 on a Windows computer to manually update either handset.
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The HTC One X a.k.a. Endeavor a.k.a. Edge is the company’s worst kept secret. We first heard of the quad-core Tegra 3 smartphone back in November last year and information has been trickling in since then. We already knew that the HTC Endeavor would be sporting a large 4.7-inch optically laminated display with a 720p resolution, but now we some additional information. Namely that it will utilize a Super LCD instead of an AMOLED panel. HTC has been going with S-LCD displays for its most recent flagship smartphones, with both the Sensation and the Rezound featuring the technology.
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HTC has already promised March 2012 Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) updates for its Sensation series smartphones worldwide, but some lucky users might be getting an early taste very soon. The company just sent us word that it will be updating a limited number of Sensation and Sensation XE handsets in Europe to the latest version of Android and its own Sense 4.0 UI.

HTC is calling it an “early access preview” so that a few hundred users can play around with the new software and hopefully share the experience with the rest of the Android community. HTC will be doing similar sort of previews with other handsets in the future. As a reminder, the HTC Sensation, Sensation 4G, Sensation XE and Sensation XL should all get Android ICS updates by the end of March.
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We’ve been following the HTC Edge in its long road of becoming the world’s first quad-core smartphone for some time now. The Edge was first leaked back in November last year and while we are expecting an official announcement soon, it seems that it has been renamed to Endeavor.

Besides the name change, the HTC Endeavor is still the same at heart, said to be running on a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC maxing out at 1.5GHz. It will have a large 4.7-inch optically laminated 720p HD display — optical lamination gets rid of the air gap between the touchscreen and the front glass, improving image quality and touch experience. HTC’s new flagship smartphone with run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC’s new Sense 4.0 UI.
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HTC had been the first manufacturer to provide Android software updates to its devices in the past, so in order not to be outdone now, it had promised early 2012 updates to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) for a number of smartphones.
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The HTC Ville has been in the rumor mill since last November and it’s only reasonable to expect that we will be seeing it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February. Well, it seems the Android device was too anxious to hit the limelight and it has popped-up in an early hands-on video. Although it should be tramped in specs by the quad-core 4.7-inch 720p HTC Edge, it’s definitely no slouch. The Ville is said to have a 4.3-inch 540×960 qHD screen, and run on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.
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HTC launched so many devices during 2011 that we’ve lost count. Even trying to cover each and every release from a tech blog’s perspective has become an impossible task, so we can’t imagine how the average person can keep track. As an example, HTC had launched three different variations of the Sensation (Sensation, Sensation XE and Sensation XL) in a space of just a few months.

When we were tackling the company’s Q4 2011 results, we went to HTC’s defense, and we suggested that the company should focus on a limited number of devices, following the lead of the most successful smartphone manufacturer, Apple. We’re glad HTC is now coming on the same page.
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So HTC posted its unaudited revenues for Q4 2011, showing a small 2.5 percent fall compared to the same quarter in 2010. The main culprit for this fall was the month of November, with revenues down 19.6 percent.

That’s unusual for HTC, which has been seeing consistent revenue growth for a while. It does however make sense. HTC is big in the Android camp, and at the end of October we saw the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (which we’ve reviewed here) as Google’s launch device for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy Nexus in fact started shipping in November.

However, tech blogs love big titles, so today we’ve been seeing posts in the lines of HTC losing its steam or even that this could be the beginning of the end for HTC, all of which are far from the truth. First of all bear in mind that HTC’s whole year 2011 revenues grew by an insane 67%.
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HTC’s Flyer is quite a capable 7-inch Android tablet. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.5GHz processor, weighs 420 grams (14.82 oz) and comes with a digital pen for creativity on the go. The Flyer has recently been updated to Android Honeycomb, and together with today’s price cuts, it has become quite a bargain.

The 16GB Wi-Fi only HTC Flyer now retails for £200 in the UK; you can grab one either from Amazon UK (make sure it’s directly from Amazon) or Dixons. The 32GB 3G/Wi-Fi version is showing as £250 from Dixons, but we are having issues accessing the item’s website, maybe it’s a temporary problem.
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As much as we wanted to love HTC’s 7-inch stylus-friendly Android tablet, we couldn’t get past the fact that it was still running Android Gingerbread, and not a tablet optimized version of the OS. Thankfully for those who have put their faith in the HTC Flyer, the company has just started rolling out an over-the-air update to Android Honeycomb 3.2. The update, which is over 200MB, is initially targeted for the 32GB 3G version of the Flyer. HTC has confirmed that the 16GB Wi-Fi only version will be getting the update soon.

Of-course Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has already been officially launched, nevertheless, Honeycomb is a major step for tablets and we are sure users will love the upgraded functionality. Since Honeycomb operates with on-screen buttons, the tablet’s fixed touch buttons become inoperable once the update is applied, but the stylus continues to function as before.

If you have an HTC Flyer, be sure to connect to a nearby Wi-Fi access point and check for software updates.
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We’ve covered all these before, you get a brand new shiny smartphone with a large gorgeous display, like the HTC Rezound’s 4.3-inch 1280×720 retina display, and of course you don’t want to put it down. You browse the net and your social networks, you play a quick game, and by mid-day you realize that the battery is down. You then have to choose between being tethered to a wall outlet all the time, stop using your device as much, or get an extended or external battery.

Marchello from Htcpedia chose the latter for his HTC Rezound, and we would too. The Rezound comes with a ridiculously small 1,620mAh battery for such a large device. Thankfully HTC offers a 2,750mAh extended battery, but that comes with two caveats. First, you have to shell out around $50 for the extended battery and second, it’s so large that the battery comes with an extended cover to accommodate the larger battery. The extended battery makes the Rezound quite thick, at around 3/4 of an inch, but also lets you go through a whole day of use without having to worry about recharging your phone.
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