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The stock web browser on the One X starts off with a URL bar linked to the top of the webpage. Other interesting things found here include a page-dependent read option which converts the page into a print ready type state.
By doing some kind of finger gesture (scroll up as far as you can and then random scrolling is our best guess) a mini menu at the bottom is revealed that allows you to add that page to your bookmarks, homescreen or save it to a read later list.
Other links found here direct you to bookmarks, saved pages and tabs. Ideally we would have preferred to have a link to the tab menu as part of the URL bar or at least allow gestures to change tabs like on Chrome. On that note, incognito tabs are present.
Looking into the menu, some points of interest include a search function and quick toggles for desktop modes and the flash player.
Web browsing experience
The browsing experience offered by the 4.7 inch is quite easily going to be one of the best possible on a device under 5 inches. The RGB matrix display offers crisp text – even when it becomes too small to read without strain. Text flow is present to prevent this or constant panning occurring.
Scrolling performance is much improved to what we remember earlier in our time with the One X so we’re guessing one of the updates brought with it improved browser performance. For the most part panning and pinch to zoom is glassy smooth except on more intensive sites.
1080p Youtube videos play just fine, although it is painfully full of lag when trying to set it to 1080p playback and panning around the screen. A task I might add is handled with ease by the Samsung Galaxy S III.
Sense Keyboard
The HTC Sense keyboard is the only option keyboard option on the One X, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
New to the Sense keyboard is a Swipe-like feature which works well in theory as well as reality. However, the ever present button that hides the keyboard takes up valuable space and shrinks the spacebar in the process.
The arrow keys are present in both portrait and landscape modes and I probably used them once or twice – not really worth the space they consume. There are also context specific keyboards with .com shortcuts in them plus it can auto-complete email addresses from a large list – sadly @KitGuru.net is not included.
Looking at the software behind the visuals the predictive text was intelligent but not up to the level of third party keyboards such as Swiftkey. If you ask me phone manufacturers should license third party keyboards and skin them to fit their own UI.
