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The HTC Desire X comes with a 5MP camera round the back and frankly it's a little disappointing.
There's a single LED flash just above the lens, which are both housed in their own shiny oval which sports a similar concentric ring design as seen on the back of the Transformer Prime and Asus Padfone 2.
For those of you who like video calling, or having the odd vanity check, the Desire X won't be able to help you, as HTC has decided against installing a front facing camera.
While the HTC One V also shuns a front facing snapper, most of the Desire X's competition has one, including the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, Orange San Diego and Sony Xperia P.
The 5MP camera is relatively par for the price bracket that the HTC Desire X falls into, but if you're looking for an affordable handset with a decent camera you may want to cast your eye over the San Diego or Xperia P, both of which boast 8MP snappers.
Accessing the camera is simple, there's a shortcut from the lockscreen, or if you're already using the phone, just tap the camera icon on the homescreen or in the app list.
The app itself takes a couple of seconds to load up and when it does you're greeted with the familiar HTC camera setup, with large shutter and video buttons to the right of the screen, an effects menu above and a link to the gallery below.
On the opposite side there are flash and scene mode shoutcuts, as well as button for the settings menu, and bridging the gap between the two sides is a (digital) zoom bar.
There's not a huge amount of options to fiddle with, your basic ISO, exposure, contrast and white balance settings present, along with face and smile detection.
You have the choice of eight scene modes which including HDR, panorama and close up, but we tended to keep the setting on Auto unless we wanted a sweeping panorama shot.
In terms of effects HTC does treat you to a wider range than most handset manufacturers, with stalwarts such as negative, sepia and aqua lining up alongside the likes of distortion, vignette, dots and three vintage settings - spiffing.
The Desire X takes less than a second to snap a picture once you hit the shutter button, which is great if you want to take lots of photos at the same time, and the auto-focus manages to keep up most of the time.
If you want to take a continuous burst of photos, keep the shutter button depressed and the HTC Desire X will fire away at a rate of knots, taking up to 10 photos at a time and then offering you an overview of all of them so you can select the best.
The quality of images taken with the Desire X is variable, with some looking better than others. We noticed that results could appear grainy and slightly blurred at times, while others looked a little more professional.
We wouldn't single out the Desire X out for photography prowess, but as a casual snapper it fits the bill if you're easily pleased.
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