Handsets

HTC One X “Screen Flaw” Discovered – Is It Really An Issue?

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When it comes to handsets (or just about any consumer device), design flaws unfortunately, most often come with the territory. It seems like no matter how much planning or testing that goes on with a device, there’s always something that could have been overlooked or missed. Yes, it’s pain in the butt — especially when you forked out your hard earned money on a fancy new device that must be held a specific way without losing reception (we wont let Apple live that one down).

HTC is no stranger to the “design flaw phenomena.” In fact, you may remember when the world freaked out over the Nexus One multitouch issue, or when the EVO 4G suffered from screens not properly mounted, resulting in cracks around the plastic housing. Things like this always manage slip through the cracks and now, HTC could be facing an all new issue — this time with their One X flagship.

As reported by Cnet today, apparently the HTC One X could be suffering from poor build quality that — under extreme circumstances — can result in screen discoloration when a finger is pressed ever-so-forcefully, along the side of the screen. This isn’t too unlike a laptop screen that when pressed, causes the screen to touch the LCD layer of the display, resulting in a trippy, rainbow like trail effect wherever you slide your finger across the screen.

At first, I didn’t think much of the issue. I mean, I barely touch my screen to make selections or even when playing an intense run-n’-gun game like Shadowgun. Not only that, if you press down on just about any device’s display with enough force, you’ll see something similar. But Cnet’s Natasha Lomas went on to describe how simply gripping the device tightly, can result in unintentional screen selections, without ever having to touch the screen. I’ve noticed something similar with my Nexus S 4G back in the day and yes, it annoyed the hell out of me. You can see a little on what Natasha’s talking about in Cnet’s video below.

When Daniel Hundt, creative director for HTC design consultancy was presented with the issue, he mentioned that the company would “never let that ship.” I guess the only question that remains is if the issue is only affecting demo units sent to press, or if the death grip “design flaw” can be found on shipped retail units as well.

You guys notice anything funny going on with your HTC One X? Will this discovery have any affect on your decision to purchase the One X at launch?

 

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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47 Comments

  1. I see 2 screen flaws: 1. It’s way too big for a phone.  2. It’s not AMOLED.

    1. AMOLED is terrible. If you want a small AMOLED get the one s..

    2. Can’t beat SLCD2 with a stick, bruh.. O_o

    3. sounds like two positives to me, AMOLED sucks ass compared to SLCD-2

    4. Funny all the Nexus phones have been AMOLED and everyone loves them, suddenly out of nowhere it sucks, gtfo. After seeing how vivid they are with those black levels there is very little chance I’ll get a non-AMOLED phone when I upgrade my Inc2.

      1. they are better than normal TFT LCD screens in cell phones yes… BUT with SLCD and IPS display, amoled can suck it, pentile sucks, makes things blurry and AMOLED sucks at color reproduction, even a 5 year old cell phone screen has better colors than amoled

        1. Exaggerate much?

          1. I’d say.,.
            AMOLED and SAMOLED looks just fine to me… But SAMOLED+ just is too high of contrast! Take it from someone who sees the screen everyday, it’s just non-realistic how the colors look on those screens!

          2. Probably why Samsung gives you options to tweak the saturation and brightness levels.

        2. The fact that the screen uses Amoled technology does not necessarily mean that it uses the pentile pixel array, and at resolutions of 720p and such it doesn’t matter, since you can’t see the difference anyway.

          The color reproduction is on par with the lcd screens if they are calibrated correctly.

    5. I see the S-LCD2 vs S-AMOLED argument is alive and well…. **sigh**

    6. I would like the screen to be larger (with a shrinking of the bezel of course).

    7. this slcd2 screen is better than amoled. Plus some people like accurate color reproduction not the over saturated colors of amoled.

  2. Sorry but I dealt with the defective screen issue that the Tmobile my touch 4G had.
    Neither tblow or HTC even acknowledged it.

  3. This seems like a non issue. Just don’t push really hard from the side edge of your phone. Maybe if in the video, it opened the play store when they did it, it might be a little more of an issue but it wouldn’t stop me from buying it.

  4. That’s poo :/ hopefully they will fix it when release in the U.S.

  5. I’d prefer Super Amoled Plus over LCD HD crap anyday

    1. Ummm…. No. This isn’t normal LCD, this is SLCD, which is pretty much IPS, which is better than any of the Amoleds. There’s also the issue that the SAMOLED plus displays aren’t made in 720p configurations, and so if they had gone with amoled, it would have been pentile, which would have been way worse. SLCD gets pretty much the best viewing angles and brightness possible. Contrast may not be “as” good, but from what I know, SLCD gets much better contrast than traditional LCD, and it definitely has better color replication than any amoled, which look great, until you realize that the colors are all way off in order to make it “pop”.

      1. I plan to pick up the S3, but I gotta disagree about Super AMOLED – they look good, but it’s over saturated, non-natural colors.  HTC’s SLCD has much better colors IMO due to being more natural, better contrast, etc – pretty much everything superlinkx said

        1. Exactly. That’s why I can’t stand looking at my father’s E4GT. Since the day he bought it, I’ve thought, “That contrast is outrageous. The colors are barely realistic.” IMO, It looks like a 7 year old messing with the contrast settings on a desktop monitor. It’s simply not to my liking…

          1. i can’t stand the grey blacks for lcds.  Any lcds. Amoleds are the future.

          2. exactly, future, but for now slcd2 ftw

    2. Have you ever even held and looked at a phone with a Super Amoled Plus screen or a SLCD2?

      Agree with superlinkx and wastry except the one x has SLCD2 not SLCD. ;)

  6. The iPod Touch 4G has a problem very similar to this.

    1. ipod touch 4g huhhhh…..

  7. amoled will be king in “black” for just about ever…..you can only tie something that is perfect…..but “deep rich blacks” will only take you so far…

  8. I have the One X for 9 days now! I;m lucky enough to get a non-defective set. I do not have such hardware or design flaws on my set.

  9. thanks  for the information  i was planning  to buy this phone  now hmmmmmmmm
    ______________________________
    http://www.futurehardware.com/forum.php

  10. Lol, who would press that hard on the edge anyways? Maybe he just got a lemon.. not worth to make a big deal out of.

  11. you’re holding it wrong! lmao

  12. You crazy idiots who whine about Sammy’s pentile tech. While on the original Galaxy series, it was pretty obvious, the screen still kicks every other manufacturer’s ass.

    On the Galaxy Nexus, any “blur” or “jagged” edges are a NON FACTOR. Oh wait, I forgot trolls can notice the difference.

  13. Wow really…. My galaxy s 2 does the same, so does my tv… It’s a result of having the screen and the display so close together… It’s not a flaw…

    1. Um…? How can your GS2 do that if it has an LED screen? It doesn’t use liquid technology? I don’t think that’s something your phone should be doing… or even capable of doing. LoL!!

  14. Is it also a flaw that when you hit the screen with a hammer you can see some cracking across the screen? 

  15. Must you guys argue about everything? “My Rezound kills the POS Nexus!” “LCD screens are terrible and washed out.” “My [insert feature here] kicks the shit out of your phone.” Shut the hell up. Nobody cares. 

  16. Samsung has more $$$ and experience developing screen technology. All you HTC fanboy’s are so excited now that you have a “competitor” to the SAMOLED. I like my blacks to be deep black, not grey. SAMOLED or GTFO!

    1. Samsung makes HTC screens. Enjoy your oversaturated colors along with your deep blacks.

  17. Super AMOLED is inherently flawed. After a month or two, you will notice burn-in in the notification bar.

    It’s really a shame too because I like the display, but a burn-in isn’t worth it.

    I haven’t seen SLCD2, but LG’s the Nova display on the Optimus 3D had nothing to be jealous of with the exception of thickness.

    By looking at the X4, it really looks incredible. I just hope LG has learned from the X2 because it’s now a solid phone after it has been patched.

    But I’m thinking of importing the One X for the Tegra 3, but I will wait for the American variant to come out first so I can look at the display first.

    1. Never get an LG phone they are shameful. Also no burn in here, had the phone for 5 months now.

  18. You have a fat heavy finger!

  19. this device is about $820 off contract, for that price i may pick up s3 after having long second thoughts for spending that much money for a small device…

  20. It’s the same with my HOX but it isn’t too annoying you need a colorful backround and press rather hard to make that appear

  21. Jesus… everyone’s so angry!  It’s a screen!  

  22. No problems here with my RAZR thus far :)

  23. I M UPLOADING THE YOUTUBE VIDEO IF YOU GUYS WANT TO LOOK THE PROBLEM.

  24. Actually this happened to my friend’s HOX black. He went to HTC centre (Malaysia) for assistant but they couldn’t figure what is the problem. The only thing that they said is they would need to report this issue back to HTC HQ which is in Taiwan. Pretty upset about that though. Well would need to wait for their report.

  25. I regret to inform you, as much as a want to support home country industry (I am from Taiwan) This problem is actually a big deal and is on alot of the consumer units in Taiwan, people accidentally delete pictures because of that. I am not sure if it’s gonna get fixed or not. It’s a shame, I really wanted that phone, too, but seeing now that it has such flaws, maybe I should just get a lumia 900, unless htc announces that this problem will be fixed for US and Canada releases, otherwhise I am not gonna take my chances with it.

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