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HTC has long had one of the strongest contacts management offerings, and the One XL is no exception. Although you may mistake that at first when you discover that there is no dedicated contacts application.
Instead, the One XL manages contacts through the dialler app. Log in to Facebook and Twitter, and the phone automatically merges and combines contacts to give you a comprehensive information card for all your contacts, including social media feeds, threaded conversations across email and messaging and high definition profile images.
It does this by offering four tabs to view for every contact - Details, Thread, Updates and Gallery. The automatic merging is fast and reliable, although like any system isn't quite perfect.
The good news is that it's incredibly simple to merge (or unmerge) contacts by pressing the Link button above each contact's picture, and you will occasionally be prompted to link multiple accounts in bulk, especially while setting up the phone.
The integration also works with LinkedIn, should you have the professional network's app installed on your device, and Google+ as well.
Like previous devices, there's also the ability to create contacts groups, which allows you to send bulk messages to particular contacts, as well as show dedicated emails from a particular group for easy access to important emails.
Calling
The dialler on the One XL is almost overwhelming at first glance. Just over half the screen is dedicated to the dialler, with the other half showing off recent calls and contacts.
Across the bottom of the screen is the standard four tab option for contacts, phone, groups and history, while a line for showing the dialled number or contact sits above the dialler, about halfway up the screen.
Conveniently, the phone lets you use the T9 lettering on the keypad to quickly type in a contact's name for rapid calling, while every contact number at the top has a shortcut to their contact card on the right hand side.
There's also a voice search shortcut key as part of the dialler, but it's about as reliable as the automatic voice recognition systems you get calling a Telco. That is to say, completely useless.
Call quality is actually nice and decent, especially when calling from Telstra to Telstra, as it takes advantage of the network's HD Voice protocol. The catch is that the person on the other end of the line needs an HD Voice compatible handset as well.
Even without HD Voice, call quality is still impressive. We had no problems hearing or being heard during our tests.
