Handsets

HTC One X and HTC One X+ will no longer receive upgrades to new versions of Android

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It looks like HTC is finally putting the big nail in the small coffin for the HTC One X and HTC One X+. The Taiwanese company today confirmed that the devices would no longer be receiving upgrades beyond Android 4.2.2 and HTC Sense 5.

While this doesn’t mean we might not ever get another upgrade (a big yet-to-be-discovered security hole might force them to send out a critical fix, for example), it does mean you should no longer expect new features or major additions to the phone from this point forward. This news may be saddening for some, but the devices have been out since 2012, and HTC has bigger and badder fish to fry this late into their life cycles.

To their credit, these devices have come a long way and we’re impressed it was able to get onto 4.2.2 at all. The community likely won’t let these phones die either, so if you aren’t too afraid of getting down and dirty and rooting them, you should be able to stay fairly current.

That said, those of you owning these devices are likely due for an upgrade soon anyway, so why not think of going with HTC’s latest options? The HTC One is still quite nice, and we hear a sequel to that bad mamma jamma should be on its way next month.

[via HTC UK]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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47 Comments

  1. Thats so bad! And I thought HTC were getting good! They both have specs good enough for 4.3 kitkat or even above kitkat.

    1. What do they gain from it? They want people to buy new phones every two years. That’s where they make their money.

      1. Failing to continually support your products keeps people from buying them in the future.

    2. I just leave this tweet here.
      https://twitter.com/shen_ye/status/422890276735029249
      As for why HTC don’t wish to blame on Nvidia is a completely mystery, it is the same problem as the One S.

  2. Had to do it.

  3. Stupid at&t can’t even get Sense 5 and 4.2.2 on board.

  4. BOO HOO HOO. You were never promised upgrades anyway.

    1. What if someone buys a phone under a 2 year contract? Is it too much to ask companies to support those phones fully for 2 years even if they have newer models? At least hold off till Android 5.0 to kill support. Companies are too powerful and greedy.

      1. You got the phone at a discount for signing that contract. You have a working phone and when you got the phone you weren’t promised any upgrades. They don’t OWE you a single update! I am on TMobile and I just got the S3. I don’t expect a single update.

        Maybe IT’S NOT THEM that is the issue. Maybe it’s that consumers EXPECT too much OR are buying things they can’t afford.

        1. Carriers get the $ back over the lifetime of the contract. HTC and Samsung already made their $ off the device. The problem is that not every company has top notch service like Apple. They put iOS 7 on the 4S. Devices should have software support for 2 years if they’re a premium phone. I am tired of this bottomline first attitude companies have.

          1. I always notice Apple products becoming slower after ios updates. had to downgrade my touch 4th gen down from ios 6 to ios 4 just to keep it usable. they still find a way to get you to update by this method. and even if they give updates, they leave out key features sometimes

          2. True, but at least there is an effort to get you stuff on your product anyways. The iPod Touch 4th gen is somewhat obsolete since Apple stopped producing them, there are different model #s for specific years, the camera is extremely weak, Siri is not available, Airdrop is not available, etc. It doesn’t make sense at times how the iPad Mini can have Airdrop and Siri but the iPad 2 can’t, but that’s pretty much marketing. Jailbreaking solves that. I just have to give credit because updates still occur 2 years after the product ‘s launch window.

        2. What about the people that buy a phone off contract at full price. For $600 average they should be able to expect support.

          1. Security fixes I get but OS updates?

        3. How can you say “at discount for signing contract”? Do you really think it is a favor? & in my opinion it should be three years support on OS (there are some concrete reasons behind that, first of all, briefly; consider how rapidly android is getting developed and spread along the globe, and in turn, how it becomes focus point of hackers in time (security related reasons – also applicable on other OSs as we’ll). No need to count others, especially the economy related reasons, as it is clear that you are not a person who might understand it. Regards..

          1. You say look at how Android has changed. So that means the newer phones should have this three year support. Just because Android has changed doesn’t mean OEM’s should go back and start updating all their old phones.

            It means they better start taking care of their newer phones. That means when the S6 comes out, the S3 should be getting one last update: based on your standards.

      2. It’s not the manufacturers who decide on contract terms. It’s the providers. It really doesn’t make financial sense to invest in a platform you’re not selling anymore. The fact is that most of the people who even care about OS upgrades, are already thinking about their next phone already or have already upgraded.

        1. I said companies. That could mean both in context. Not everything should be about a bottom line. Apple updated the 4S on iOS 7. That’s a 2 year old phone right there.

          1. Was it a full update? I mean, in that case the person would just be asking for the firmware number to change and can really care less if they get all the updated features or not.

            I don’t really care for that approach. They can just give you some minor update that just helps with behind the scenes issues and change the firmware. The update could be no different than some minor security update.

          2. iOS 7 for the 4S was a decent update. It’s not like 4.2.2 to 4.3. It gave people a UI overhaul, added the control center, updated the notification delivery function, camera features were updated, multitasking changed slightly on how to close apps, Safari was updated, etc. I mean the quality of the iOS version on the 4S may not be the best because Apple can bug older models (look at the iPhone 4, and the 4S is next with iOS 8). At least they support devices for 2 years or more. That’s what I want at the minimum. I mean 4.4 is meant to work with 512 MB of RAM. That’s more than enough for these HTC phones.

  5. Well I guess it fits the normal time line of 1 and 1/2 years of support from most OEMs

  6. Wow…thats really bad. The Galaxy S 3 will have Kitkat. ANY mobile with 512MB RAM does. Heck even Galaxy S II and the HTC Desire can…

    1. The Galaxy S was capable of running ICS. Samsung didn’t update the phone to ICS because it couldn’t handle ICS and TouchWiz.

      So the device “may” be able to run it, but can it run it with it’s skin? And are the skins compatible with the older phones?

      It’s more than just “Kitkat” that you have to worry about.

  7. It’s a sad day in the Android community, RIP.

  8. AT&T needs to do the final update for this phone. My son has this phone. I’m hoping an update will cut down on battery drain. It may be too much to ask for but if gets me six more months that would be great.

  9. I have a Nexus

    1. ROFL

      Galaxy Nexus???

  10. IF that is true, I will never think of buying an HTC device in future, even if they make a phone that is undisputable, best phone ever, never.. OneX is my second HTC device in row (2 times 24 months contract; first one was Desire) so, I have already done my best for HTC, now see it was more than enough. Remembering the excuses behind why the Desire would not get Gingerbread, and considering with the new KitKat, which will be used even with devices suffering from low memory and some other hardware limitations, the decision on not giving KitKat to OneX is a cheap! marketing strategy (those who are willing and capable on such will of course install custom rom, which means voiding the guarantee as well! or, maybe some of the remaining people will simply accept the situation without needing think about it, and continue with it as is), I am now -as one of those many OneX owner- having own strategy, without doubt, a big NO to HTC! That’s it! What is next? SAMSUNG of course, but up until SONY solves the display issue, so simple the answer is (btw, never considering any iDevice)

    1. Ha, I figured that out after having the Incredible for 2 years. Totally agree

    2. Too bad for you.

      1. No, too bad for HTC.. Another reason is the reality of HTC chosen/adopted the Apple way starting from OneX. Unibody is okay, but what about the extendible storage? There are other similarities too as well, and all these are just bringing limitations shortening usable time of the device knowingly, forcing customers to buy a new one as often as possible, they do that professionally and putting some arguments onto the desk to defend (hide) their real strategy (cloud storage? also costs and not affordable for use abroad, even for rich men, right?) (better performance? My OneX is no longer performing same as it was doing so at the beginning, begun underperforming as soon as the storage capacity has reached to almost 70% fullness. Even the camera app cannot launch in a few seconds anymore, that was one of the most important points lifted when introducing the OneX.. I should have right to swap sd-card whenever, wherever.. and continue to use my phone for taking pictures while keeping the full one somewhere until finding time and/or access to my real storage (external hard-disk for instance) for transferring contents into it, etc. etc. etc… Why SAMSUNG is selling that much? Even only by taking the flagship devices into consideration, Samsung is way ahead of HTC. They are also expensive handsets. But they provided gingerbread to the first Galaxy S (HTC Desire is the competitor here as you know and it stuck with froyo), now they are doing the same with GS3 (OneX is the corresponding device here). So, good luck HTC!

        1. Sorry but i didnt bother reading after the first sentence. The One x was a major disappointment in HTC. Bye bye one x.

    3. HTC is not the only one to have done this. All OEM’s are showing that this trend of forgetting older phones and timely updates is going away.

      I was upset that so many phones didn’t get updated and had to rely on custom ROMs that didn’t really work since they weren’t built from the proper source.

      If this is the case, who will you buy from? If you’re upset that HTC has done that, then you’re pretty much saying you want an iOS device.

      Nothing wrong with that, of course. You can own whatever you want, but don’t single out HTC thinking they’re the only ones who’s done that; forget older devices.

      1. I do not say it is only HTC, I chose HTC two times before rather than samsung or any other android device mostly because of its hardware and design i.e. not by thinking of future updates. I know it is only iOS that is given to all earlier devices “alive” but don’t forget that we are not comparing Google-Nexus series to Apple-iPhone series. You can call me an Android fanboy (44 yrs old though :) so, I will not go to iOS (I have already bought an iPad4 for my 9 yrs old son one year ago, I am also using it, thereby I know iOS too). That’s why I want all android manufacturers’ success. HTC is not on the right track IMHO. If Samsung preserves its current strategy going forward, and put together a better balance between quality and the price, they will then be unbeatable leader in the smartphone market, if not already is. HTC will surely sell more or less similar number of devices every year, thanks to those who has never been customer of it before, is that enough for a such company like HTC? I do not think so, and unfortunately as long as this mentality/strategy is being followed, they will not be able to see even a temporary success. All of them have mistakes, and things to learn from their mistakes as well as from each other’s experiences, good or bad. Presently it seemed to me that only samsung, in the Android world, is showing this sensitivity and deserves its place (HTC is also deserving its place from this point of view). Who can resist on a Galaxy S series flagship device seem and feel like HTC One? hope this explains better how I am thinking.

      2. Samsung is still providing support for the SGS3 which came out before the HTC One.

  11. What about the Droid DNA?

    1. Wish you luck…

      Sent from my stock HTC Rezound running 4.0.3 ICS.

    2. DNA is confirmed to get KitKat and Sense 5.5 at the end of Q1…..supposedly…..hopefully! I am not holding my breath, however.

      http://www.gottabemobile.com/2014/01/02/5-new-htc-android-4-4-kitkat-update-details/

  12. This is why I stopped buying HTC phones. I use to root for them, but haven’t since the incredible s got ICS and my incredible 2 was left for dead. With upgrades on carriers available every 2 years, they should continue to support the software and keep it current for at least 2 years, preferably 2 years from the last day they sell the phone. The One X is beyond capable of Kitkat.

  13. People always say, “I will never buy another HTC phone because they pulled support before my 2yr contract”, but you all know that if they supported it up to 2yrs, you’d still say the same thing when the next iteration of Android was released and the OEM didn’t push it to your device. You will never be happy, just like when Google said the wouldn’t push 4.4 to the Galaxy Nexus. Your device is considered old after virtually 6 months, so quit your crying or go back to a flip phone where the battery life is endless and the updates never happen so there is nothing to worry about.

    1. I guess the truth hurts, that’s why I’ve been down voted.

  14. After seeing how much smoother my mom’s Nexus 7 2012 runs on kitkat, this is sad news, as both (N7 2012 and OneX) run the same Tegra 3 SoC. Probably would make customers hold out longer without the desire for a new phone, which would hurt the company’s income…

  15. business as usual.

    they’re no longer selling these phones so they’re not gonna support them. I’m on metroPCS and have a CDMA GS3. we won’t be getting the 4.3 update that the GSM S3 owners have already received because they don’t want people to hold on to those CDMA handsets. in a year we will be forced to buy new handsets as they will shut off CDMA. I’ll be holding on to my phone until the bitter end where i will have saved up enough money to simply buy what ever state of the art device they’ll have next year. until then, my S3 is doing just fine.

    1. My SGS3 on Verizon (Yes, Verizon!!!), which is CDMA, is running on 4.3. And the phone has been out since 2012. Samsung is committed to providing premium service for their premium products. I will definitely be getting another Samsung.

      1. The difference being that Verizon isn’t dumping Cdma for gsm like metro has. Metro no longer sells Cdma handsets and therefore will not upgrade them.

  16. My EVO 4G LTE is due according to HTC, for an update to 4.3 and Sense 5 in mid february (originally end of 2013, but was pushed back) is that still on the table, or will that be cancelled all together?

  17. HTC says there would be no more android Update http://www.techyclick.com/no-more-android-updates-for-one-x/. check this out and i feel it’s not good

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