HTC ONE KNOCKOFF HDC ONE HX9299A or HX-9229 review

 

So its been awhile since I posted a phone review as I became busy with work. I finally found some time to write about this phone since I've been using it for the past 3 months and I must say it is one of the best Chinese android phone I have ever used. Here are the specs:

• Model: HDC ONE HX9299
  
• Phone Style: Bar, multi-touch screen, 4.7 inch Capacitive touchscreen
• Operating System: Android 4.2.1 OS
• Processor: MTK6589 Quad Core 1.2GHz
• Google Play Store: Support

Display

• Screen Size: 4.7 inch HD IPS touchscreen
• Display reulotion: 1280*720 pixel
  
• Color Support: 16 million colors
• Screen Technology: Multi-touch screen

Camera

• Camera Resulotion: 8.0MP rear camera + 2.0MP front camera, digital zoom

Connectivity

• Connectivity Technology: GSM + WCDMA(single Micro Simcard)
  
• Network Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz + WCDMA 900/2100MHz
  
• Data Technology: EDGE, GPRS
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• WLan: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
• USB: USB 2.0
• GPS: GPS/A-GPS (Built-in GPS chipset)
  
• HDMI: Support

Features

• Video Player: AVI、MP4、3GP、MOV、MKV、FLV
• Audio Player: FLAC、APE、MP3、OGG、AMR、AAC
• Image: JPG、PNG、BMP、GIF
• Ringing Tones: Downloadable
• Message: SMS, MMS, Email
• Phone Book: 10000 contacts
• Brower: HTML
• Interface/Port:
• Game: Downloadable
• Radio: FM
• G-sensor
• Interface/Port: 3.5mm earphone jack / mini USB

Battery

• Battery: Li-on battery(1600mAh)
  
• Standby Time: 150-200 hours
  

Memory

• Built-in Memory: 1GB RAM, 16GB ROM(Not support additional sd card)

Size

• Dimensions: 137.9*68.5*9.3
• Weight: 137
  

What in package

• 1 * HDC ONE Android Phone
• 1 * Travel Charger
• 1 * Built-in Battery
• 1 * USB Data Cable
• 1 * Headphone
• 1 * Manual

Notice: HDC ONE installs android 4.2.1 os, and carries with MTK6589 Quad core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB Ram, 16GB Rom.

Build Quality:
This phone is made up of a little metal and a lot of plastic, unlike the actual real HTC ONE.
The metal is made of soft aluminium and not the harder aluminium alloy or stainless steel alloy used in brand name phones. Therefore it is easier to scratch the top and bottom metal parts especially the shiny bevel edges. If you are careful with the phone, you can keep it looking new for a long time.  Check out the pics below.

The back is also made of plastic which has an aluminium coated material. This material is very durable and I have not had any scratches in 3 months. This is also because I am careful with this phone and keep it in a phone belt pouch and not in my pocket with my keys (still managed to make a small dent though).

Screen:
The 4.7 inch screen is really an OGS screen and is very bright and easily usable outdoors on a sunny day.  Viewing angle is excellent on this IPS screen. Colours does not change when viewing angle changes. My only complaint is that the screen is very sensitive. If you have oily fingers, the residue on the glass will make the phone think it is being touched. Water or sweat on the screen will also cause this. If you have sweaty fingers, you would need to put a screen protector. I have sweaty fingers so I put on an anti-glare screen protector and it works well.  Colours are rich and saturated. (not overly saturated like Samsung Super Amoled phones)

Camera:
The camera is actually 5 megapixels upscaled to 8mp but it works quite well but not really that high resolution. 5mp works well for most web, blog and facebook pictures. The flash is not that strong but is usuable for closeer potraits up to 2 feet away. Panoramic feature works quite well.

Battery life:
The battery life is quite good and can last a full day on moderate use (not playing games).
From 100% down to 40% it takes almost a full day  but when it reaches 40% it depletes quicker, more so if you have a game like Candy Crush in the background. If nothing is running in the background, it will last for a fair amount of time. The battery will last easily from 8am-8pm or longer on moderate use and is pretty good. Too bad the battery is built in to keep the phone slim so it is not changeable.

Sensors:
The good thing about this phone is that it has the full complement of sensors.
1) charging light
2) notification lights ( blue for sms, orange for whatsapp or missed calls)
3) Compass-working well
4) Proximity sensor
5) GPS works but is quite slow to detect satellites but it does work. It detects satellites in 3-5 mins on a partly cloudy day. Other phones with more powerful GPS hardware can detect in few seconds. I may have to calibrate it using the hardware engineer menu for it to work quicker. People other countries may not experience the same thing as me. Here is the screen cap.

Audio:
Audio is loud and clear both phone and loudspeaker. A friend commented that I sounded clear when I switched to this phone. And I really like the speaker facing the front instead of those Samsung Galaxy models which has the speaker facing the back. How stupid is that?
Vibration is not very strong, normal for phones of this thinness.

Android Operation:
The phone works as it should. It does screw up when I have some app making the phone hot when in the background. When the phone is very hot and a sms comes in,  I sometimes cannot turn the screen back on. I have to hold down the power to switch off and back on and I can still read the sms. This happened about 3 times in total. Keep the phone cool and everything works good. There is no SD card slot but it has a total of 16gb of storage. Android partitions and phone storage takes us 2gb leaving 14 gb configured as SD Card.

Telephony:
This is a single sim micro sim phone and it has iphone style side loading sim slot on the upper left. Everything from phone calls to wifi and 3G/HSPA/HSPA+/Edge/GPRS (Auto switch when signal is weak) works good here in Singapore.

Conclusion:
I really like this phone a lot because it has all the features important to me. It is a real MTK6589 quad core phone and very responsive and quick. The only bad thing is the softer aluminum material used so I have to be careful with the phone. I don't really use GPS so the slow GPS is a non-issue. Other than that I love it. It is light, slim, looks very nice in the sea of Samsung phones and I highly recommend it. If you are the careful type of person who takes care of phones regardless of the brand, I will recommend it even more.

View this phone from Fastcardtech HERE ( Just got news that this is no longer in production )

I will recommend THIS PHONE which by brother has been using for several months.
Also a newer HTC Butterfly Clone with a faster 1.5ghz Quad core 2GB ram 32GB storage DUAL SIM.