The One X comes in what appears to be a standard sized box that contains the One X, a charger, a USB cable, a SIM ejector, a quickstart guide, and some manuals, the latter of which i’m sure nobody actually looks at. The cable and charger are white – as the One X comes in both Black and White, I imagine that the black version is bundled with a black charger and cable.

First thoughts upon actually seeing the phone: OMGOMGOMGOMG. Second thoughts: OK this is quite large, but not as massive as I’d have thought a 4.7in screen would be. The device is a flat slab with seams only around the screen and the SIM slot. It’s quite light, weighing in at 4.55 oz compared to my HD7s (5.71 oz) or the Nokia Lumia 800 (5.01 oz). It feels great in the hand. I am really fond of devices that are dense and have some weight to it, and the One X has that perfect combination of weight and balance. The fact that it’s ultra thin (8.9mm) is also nice. Since the phone is large, thin, and flat, it doesnt make my pocket bulge out ridiculously.

The front sports what i think are laser drilled speaker ports that also hide a dual color notification LED (handy!). Beside it is a 1.3 Megapixel camera, while the amient light sensor sits just to the left of the AT&T logo. We’ve got 3 capacitive buttons, back, home, and the “multitasking button” (more on that later)

On the top, we’ve got a noise cancelling mic and a power button, both on the front “lip”, while the back “lip” of the top has the SIM slot and the 3.5mm headphone jack. I don’t think I like where the power button is – on such a large phone, it’s hard to keep a good grip of the device while poking with your index finger on the back. Because it’s on the front edge, my finger also isn’t long enough to hit the power button. Had the button been placed on the back, or on a flatter top edge, it would be more accessible. Putting the button on the side would be the other alternative, as Samsung and Nokia do.

The backside has the much touted 8 Megapixel camera with an LED flash. The ring around the camera is plastic (for better or for worse, I’m not sure yet). The laser drilled speaker port sits just below the Beat Audio logo, and just to the right we have the HTC dock connector. If you’re curious, resting the phone on the back puts the contact on the edge of the camera, since it protrudes just a teensy bit. Doesn’t stop me from being nervous about scratching the lens, though.

The microUSB port is on the left side, while the volume rocker is on the top half of the right side. The microphone sits on the bottom lip of the phone. The volume rocker also makes my life difficult. Perhaps again it is because the phone is too large (or my hands are too small), but when i pull the phone out of my pocket, my middle and ring fingers sit right on the rocker, where they pinch to get a good grip on the phone so I can press the power button. I inevitably change the volume a ton, which is not really what I want.

Bored yet? If you skipped that section, I’m not hurt. The proverbial thousands of words just compressed into those pictures anyways.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Turning stuff on is really the most exciting part of getting new things. The One X has a 720p screen, and it is phenomenal! I cannot believe how good it looks. Everything is crisp and ultrasharp. The screen completely outclasses the 480p screens mandated on my Windows phones. The wallpaper that was selected by default was a really smart thing to do, showing off the screen.

AT&T’s got this new “Ready2Go” thing on the phone that lets you set things up on the computer before you start using the phone – it seemed to go pretty well, except then i couldn’t actually get the settings over. Perhaps I didn’t follow the instructions. I like the idea, but the execution? Not so much.

So far, the phone has been working really well. It’s really smooth, it flies on the AT&T LTE network, camera is fantastic (though photographer is not). It just feels great in the hand, too. I havent decided yet if this is going to be my daily driver, but it certainly is in the running.

Pausing for now – this is more text than I’ve written in ages. I’ll be sharing a bit about the camera later on. If you want me to try certain things or to focus on a particular aspect, tell me! Or if I’m too wordy, tell me that too, so I can put less effort into making this look like I tried really hard.

TL;DR; Haiku:
HTC One X
My hands are too small for this
Giant touchscreen phone 

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meta Welcome to the new Byronasaurus Blog! WordPress decided to get rather clunky on me, and I didn’t care to deal with it, so I decided to try moving blogging over to one of these new-fangled services. You’re probably reading this on Posterous since it’s where I wrote it, but it’s also being cross posted to Tumblr (in case I decide to move to that, hah, indecision) and the old blog for safekeeping. How’d you like that throwback with the Haiku leadout?