Gadget review: HTC One XL 4G mobile phone

THIS is not another iPhone 5 rival. The iPhone is better than this phone in pretty much every way. There are in fact many smartphones on the market with higher resolution screens, faster processors, slimmer chassis and better cameras than the HTC One.

HTC One XL 4G mobile phone

Available for £29.99 on plans from £46 per month (24 months contract); www.ee.co.uk

However, it’s one of the first handsets available that supports 4G wireless internet. This means home broadband speeds on your mobile, with connection speeds up to three or four times faster than 3G. This service is provided exclusively, until at least Spring 2013, by a partnership between T-Mobile and Orange called Everything Everywhere (EE). So if you want 4G and you live in one of 16 cities with coverage (including Edinburgh and Glasgow) you’ve got to get it from EE until then.

My field testing was on a train experiencing multiple delays as it approached central London. This provided ample free time for speed testing.

As my Samsung Galaxy S3 Smartphone (on Vodafone) struggled to switch between GPRS and 3G signals, achieving practically nothing – the HTC One was flying. Although a strong 4G signal was only achieved for about ten minutes of the journey, it managed 21mbps upload and 8mbps download speeds; fast enough to stream iPlayer and skip between websites like a scalded cat.

Even when I didn’t have 4G, the connection on 3G was much faster and steadier on EE than it was on Vodafone.

All this speed doesn’t come cheap; the standard plan comes in at £46 per month. Whether nearly £600 per year seems like good value depends entirely on your need for speed.