HTC announces “One” smartphone… made up of more than one handset

Mobile World Congress hasn’t officially started, but HTC is already launching its latest range of handsets. Named the “One”, the series includes four devices featuring the “One” moniker, as well as a host of technology.

Expected to be HTC’s “hero” brand, the new series of phones is the first time we’ve seen HTC bring together all of its technology under one family, compared to the way the company normally separates the features among its products.

Before this announcement, one of our complaints was that features present on some HTC phones weren’t present on others, such as Beats Audio being missed on the most recent HTC handset, the Velocity 4G, despite the presence of a high-speed LTE connection being available. Other handsets featured completely different HTC overlays – different version of HTC Sense – despite being released at the exact same time.

In 2012, HTC’s One hopes to clear up this confusion by bringing together technology under one brand. We suspect that’s where the “one” naming scheme comes from, especially since there will be four HTC One phones this year.

The HTC One X will arrive in both black and white.

First up is the HTC One X, the main one, so to speak, that HTC will be pushing as the hero phone. This model features top-tier tech in every sense of the world, packing in a 4.7 inch HD screen (720×1280), 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 32GB storage, an 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 1080p Full HD video capture, 1.3 megapixel front camera with 720p HD video support, and support for a whole host of wireless technologies including Near-Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth 4.0 with AptX, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, and DLNA.

Next is the HTC One XL, almost a clone of the HTC One X, although with a few different specs. This model features the same screen, wireless connections, camera, and 1800mAh battery, but drops the storage to 16GB, the processor to a dual-core model, and adds the high-speed 4G LTE connectivity first seen on the HTC Velocity.

The HTC One XL is pretty much identical to the One X, barring the changes under the hood.

Polycarbonate is said to be the material of choice for both of these models, with Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass protecting the 720p 4.7 inch display.