HTC One X+ Announced on AT&T: Top 5 Competitors on the Same Runway (Updated)

(Photo : HTC)

**Correction** No specific date has been announced for the HTC One X+ launch in North America yet. AT&T will disclose details soon.

HTC One X+, the recent Taiwanese powerhouse, has finally been announced on the nation's second largest network provider, AT&T.

Although the new smartphone is power-packed with features like NVIDIA's 1.7GHz quad-core Tegra 3 AP37 processor, Android OS Jelly Bean and HTC Sense 4+ UI, 2,100 mAh battery and 4G LTE, the phone's journey will be far from smooth once released in the market. The soon-to-be-released HTC One X+ will not only face competition from the best smartphones of other network providers but also from AT&T itself. The telecommunications company currently houses a good number of iOS, Android and Windows phones, including the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia 920 - each a king of the smartphone market in its own right.

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Check out the list of top five smartphones run by AT&T which may pose a problem to HTC's new smartphone:

5. HTC One X

Even though HTC could not drive sales with its much-hyped One X, the predecessor of the One X+, the phone is still touted as the king of the Android phones, and rightly so. With a mammoth, yet bright and beautiful 4.7-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 pixel (720p) resolution, Ice Cream Sandwich OS (updated), Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon S4 CPU, a 1.5-GHz dual-core chip, 1GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage, the phone was HTC's biggest answer to Samsung and Apple. It received rave reviews from critics but somehow didn't fetch the success that the Taiwanese company had been hoping for.

Among other important features, the One X's camera demands special attention. The 8-megapixel primary camera comes with HTC's ImageChip. The camera, paired with Sense 4.0, results in a lag-free shutter, letting the user capture all moments without delay. The phone also gives photo and video capture buttons on the same screen, making it easy for the user to switch modes or simply snap a photo while recording HD at the same time.

One X comes with the usual GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio, along with Beats audio. Explaining the quality of Beats audio on the One X, AT&T describes the experience as good, better, best - good as is, better with Beats headphones and best when plugged into Beats.

While the phone lacks an external SD card slot and has a meagre memory of 16GB, HTC has provided some amount of freedom with 25 GB of integrated Dropbox space that is free for two years.

 4. Nokia Lumia 900

When Nokia launched its first Lumia smartphone, it was the company's biggest bet to silence critics, regain their lost kingdom (Nokia lost its 14-year dominance of the smartphone market to Samsung) and make a solid impression in the world of smartphone OS, which was until now dominated by Android and iOS.

The Lumia 900, one of the best smartphones in today's market, is ensconced in a polycarbonate body and comes in a striking blue color. Featuring a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 pixels Super AMOLED Plus capacitive ClearBlack touch-screen with 217 ppi density and Nokia's ClearBlack Display technology, the Lumia 900 delivers very bright, sharp and saturated colors. The phone also received impressive reviews for its versatile 8MP camera that comes with Carl Zeiss optics.

Nokia's flagship Lumia 900 smartphone runs the latest Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 Mango and offers one-touch access to social networking sites along with features like easy grouping of contacts, communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. The Lumia 900 features a 1.4 GHz Scorpion single-core processor, Qualcomm APQ8055 Snapdragon, Adreno 205 GPU with 16GB internal storage and 512MB RAM.

Moreover, the Lumia 900 is Nokia's first 4G LTE-compatible phone. It proved to be quite a big success for the Finnish smartphone maker, inspiring the company to launch two more Lumia smartphones - Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 - with cutting-edge technology and superlative design.

The phone is available at a very affordable price of $49.99 on AT&T.

3. Samsung Galaxy Note

While critics shunned the phone, smartphone enthusiasts adored it. Samsung Galaxy Note was perhaps the biggest bet for the Korean electronics giant. With unique features and an intriguing size, Galaxy Note is a perfect combination of smartphone and tablet and when released, the newness of the phone stirred the world of smartphone fans. The company claimed to have sold 5 million units globally in just five months after its launch in October last year.

The phone packs in features like 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, a 5.3-inch AMOLED display, 8 megapixels rear camera, 2 MP front camera for video calling, 16GB storage, 1 GB RAM, S Pen stylus for sketching and making notes and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Li-Ion 2500 mAh and AT&T's 4G LTE connectivity. Meanwhile, Samsung has already rolled out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the phone. Now with the new ICS update, Note also offers Face Unlock, Stereo Bluetooth, MMS and GPS, along with solid and up-to-speed LTE connections, better audio quality, Google Talk and Video Chat, among others.

Meanwhile, Samsung has already launched the next generation of the Note smartphone. Dubbed as Galaxy Note 2, the new phone features a bigger screen and more sophisticated features and comes with a full promise of re-creating the history of its predecessor.

Galaxy Note is available at $199.99 for a 2-year contract.

2. Samsung Galaxy S3

Galaxy S3, the latest and one of the finest smartphones of the year, also runs on AT&T's network. Samsung's flagship smartphone is a 4.8-inch device powered by Android's latest Ice Cream Sandwich, a quad-core Exynos application processor (region specific) and packs in 16/32/64GB internal memory, LTE connection (region specific), Near Field Communication technology, 8MP camera with zero-lag shutter speed and a monstrous 2100mah removable battery.

However, the most fascinating features of the phone are its "S software features" which are based on the concept of "human interaction" and introduce innovative features like S Voice, Smart Stay, S Beam, Pop Up play, Direct Call, Smart Alert, Social Tag, AllShare Media and more.

Galaxy S3 has won the title of "Best Android Smartphone" from almost all eminent tech reviewers. Samsung is said to have already sold 6.5 million units of the Galaxy S3 in the second quarter and will be selling as many as 15 million units in the following quarter.

While Samsung launched only two color models for the phone - blue and white, the company offers a special red-colored phone exclusively for AT&T users.

Galaxy S3 is available at $199.99.

1. Apple iPhone 5

AT&T's most prized smartphone, this year's most talked-about and much-hyped Apple iPhone 5 was launched in September. After months of speculation and anticipation, Apple finally introduced a bigger phone with the new iOS 6.

The new iPhone sports a 4-inch Retina display with 1136x640 resolution and the Multi-Touch IPS technology screen has a "Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating".

The latest iOS 6 offers a host of new features including Apple's new e-tickets app Passbook, FaceTime, Apple-backed Maps that provide satellite imagery, free turn-by-turn directions, vector-based maps, new 3D Flyover locations and more.

Inside, the iPhone 5 features a dual-core A6 processor, which, according to Apple, has twice the CPU speed and twice the graphics power of the A5. Moreover, the Cupertino-based tech giant also claims that the new smaller A6 chip is more battery-friendly and is based on the dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU design. Additionally, Apple provides 1 GB RAM for the iPhone 5, and it is available in 16/32/64GB sizes.

The iPhone 5 will sport an 8-megapixel rear-facing iSight camera with sapphire crystal lens. The camera also has Face detection, autofocus and LED flash. An f/2.4 aperture and a hybrid IR filter will be present on the device, which includes a low light mode for improved snapping.

The price of the phone ranges from $199.99 to $399.99 for AT&T customers.