Nokia Lumia 900 vs HTC One X

We pitch Nokia's big Windows Phone, the Lumia 900, against HTC's One X flagship.

Form

Nokia Lumia 900 - 127.8x68.5x11.5mm, 160g
HTC One X - 134.4x69.9x8.9mm, 130g

Nokia's Lumia 900 is a blown up version of the Lumia 800 Windows Phone, which in turn was based on the design of Nokia's N9 Symbian handset. It's quite a unique look with an extremely angular form factor and a sturdy unibody design made from high-quality polycarbonate.

Corners and edges are all very stark and sharp-looking and Nokia offers a range of colour choices including black, cyan, magenta and, from some retailers, white. The build quality on Nokia's premium Lumia models is superb.

HTC is on form with the One range and the company's flagship model, the One X is a seriously swish piece of smartphone hardware.


The One X has a curved profile and a unibody outer shell made from HTC's ‘piano key finish' material which has a matte texture and a premium feel.

From the front the bodywork peeks out in a thin strip around the edge of a black wedge-shaped panel which houses the touchscreen. It's a clever trick which makes the bezel look narrower than it actually is.

Both handsets are at the cutting edge of contemporary smartphone visual design and we can't really pick a favourite between them as each looks fantastic.

Winner - Draw

Display

Nokia has opted for AMOLED display technology in its 4.3-inch capacitive multi-touch screen. It's also given a boost by the use of Nokia ClearBlack and Corning's Gorilla Glass for some extra durability.

The resolution is 800x480 pixels WVGA which at this size gives a pixel density of 217 pixels-per-inch (ppi). Some of the sharpness is lost from its smaller Lumia 800 cousin, but it's still a competent enough screen with decent clarity. Blacks are deep and contrast is very good, however, AMOLED can have a few issues in bright sunlight.

The One X has gone the other way with a 4.7-inch Super IPS LCD2 capacitive display. Again Gorilla Glass has been used here and the multi-touch screen sports a higher 1280x720 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 312ppi. This is an incredible screen to use.

When we had the One X in for review we were amazed at the brightness, colour depth and visual sharpness and would say that, aside from the Sony Xperia S and Apple's iPhone, this is one of the best smartphone displays around.

Winner - HTC One X

Storage

Both HTC's One X and the Nokia Lumia 900 have only single options for storage, the One X has 32GB of internal storage and 1GB of RAM to support the processor. Meanwhile the Lumia 900 has 16GB onboard and 512MB of RAM. Neither handset has a card slot.

The One X has the advantage here.

Winner - HTC One X

Processor

The Nokia Lumia 900 is equipped, as all Windows Phone currently are, with a Qualcomm single core Snapdragon processor, specifically in this case it's an APQ8055 Scorpion clocked at 1.4GHz and also comes with an Adreno 205 graphics processing unit (GPU). This hardware is very well optimised for Windows Phone so performance is very snappy indeed.

HTC's flagship runs with Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad core chipset, which uses four ARM Cortex-A9 cores clocked at 1.5GHz and paired with an Nvidia ULP Geforce GPU. This setup runs Android amazingly well and should easily handle pretty much anything you can throw at it.

However, it's worth pointing out that current software isn't going to make the most out of those four cores. They may be of some help with multi-tasking but for the most part it probably isn't going to break out of using one or two cores at most.

For top end performance, however, HTC's One X has a distinct lead here.

Winner - HTC One X

Operating System

HTC's One X runs the latest build of Google's Android platform, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, while the Nokia Lumia 900 uses Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

Windows Phone has some of the most extensive social networking and general communication integration we've seen to date. The People Hub allows you to simultaneously view status updates, Tweets, texts, emails and instant messaging in one place, as well as respond to multiple contacts across these channels in one go.

Aside from this, Windows Phone has an interesting and colourful interface which uses Live Tiles. These tiles are essentially app icons and widgets rolled into one as, depending on the app they represent, they can push information or even pictures to the homescreen.

Windows Phone is very stable and operates smoothly. Our only issue with it is app loading times and the lack of genuine multi-tasking, instead of which it has a sort of hibernation mode for idle apps which means they need to reload later and (unless they support fast-app switching), in the case of apps with live content, they won't update in idle mode.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich is the most up-to-date version and is also as stable as we've ever seen Android. Performance is improved considerably over previous builds and multi-tasking is still as good as ever, though, it has been improved slightly with the addition of a fast app switcher, which also allows you to close apps with a swipe of the finger.

Icons are more interesting to look at and the menu layout has been updated, making it much easier to find what you're after.

We wouldn't say one system is better than the other and with Android being the way it is these days it's not a question of stability or ease-of-use any more. It does, however, depend on what you want to do with your phone.

If social networking and fast, easy communication is important to you then Windows Phone is the better option. You can replicate this functionality to a certain extent on Android but it's nowhere near as streamlined. On the other side of things, Android has a much deeper level of customisation and a much greater variety of apps to choose from.

Winner - Draw

Camera

The One X is fitted with an 8-megapixel back-illuminated sensor (BSI) for its primary camera and boasts a 3264x2448 pixel resolution. A dedicated chip handles some of the advanced sensor capabilities, which include a 20 picture multi-shot mode and simultaneous 1080p HD video and still image capture.

Other features are an LED flash, autofocus, touch focus, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, video stabilisation and stereo sound recording. A secondary 1.3-megapixel camera also records in 720p and can perform video calls.

The Lumia 900 also has an 8-megapixel primary with a Carl Zeiss designer lens. It sports a 3264x2448 pixel resolution, dual LED flash, geo-tagging, touch focus, exposure control, autofcus, continuous video autofocus and video stabilisation. There's also a 1.3-megapixel secondary with video calling capability.

Nokia's camera setup sounds impressive on paper but doesn't live up to expectations. Conversely, the One X delivers great quality pictures and video.

Winner - HTC One X

Final Thoughts

The Lumia 900 is a strange one - for the most part it's exactly the same as the Lumia 800 except for the larger size, the larger screen and a slightly lower pixel density as a result.

For some users, a larger phone is preferable and it fills this niche perfectly, however, if you're not bothered about this or prioritise a sharper display you might be better off with the Lumia 800 instead.

The main appeal here is the build quality and the operating system, if Windows Phone appeals to you.

HTC's One X is a more well-rounded offering in our view. It has an excellent screen, more storage space, a faster processor and a better camera but it's only going to be an option if you're into Android.