The two cities are a study in contrasts: New Delhi is sprawling, dry, refreshing cool, and wonderfully frenetic; while Singapore is compact, humid and warm, yet pleasingly calm. But they have much in common. For instance, the food in both is tantalizing; from New Delhi’s mouth-watering chicken tikka to Singapore’s rightly famous pepper crabs.
They are also home to amazing communities of HTC fans and customers, which is what brought us to both.
Incredible India
“Incredible India” the advertisement goes, and our 30-hour stay certainly supported that statement. The amount of construction we saw is a testament to the incredible economic growth in this country of 1.2 billion people. Less obvious, but no less influential, is the growth in smartphone ownership. More than 350 million people connect to the Internet through their mobile, more than the entire population of the United States.
With Beats audio at the core of HTC One, could there be a better place to meet than New Delhi’s Hard Rock Café? The music was loud and the guests full of questions about the new series of phones. Much like our previous meet-ups, the camera stole the show. The room filled with shutter clicks as attendees snapped away.
Beats Audio Makes the Three Hour Journey Complete
The physical design won raves as well. Nishant Gambhir said HTC One X is ”really quick, attractive and lightweight.” Umang Bhatia, who traveled over 200 km to be one of the first in India to try HTC One X, called it “simply a show-stopper!”
Simply Singapore
After an all too brief night’s sleep in New Delhi, we boarded our next flight, bound for Singapore. The stunning architecture of Changi Airport is the perfect introduction to the city-state’s gleaming skyline of glass towers and awe-inspiring shopping centers. For me, it is also home, and a chance to see my family before heading to our meet-up later in the evening.
Nestled in an older part of the city, Orange Thimble, the location of our customer meet-up, is a pleasant café half-a-world removed from the rush of central Singapore. Several dozen guests pressed into the cozy courtyard, eager to see the HTC One.
Shane Describing Features of the HTC One X
You could hear many “oohhs” and “ahhs” fill the air the moment we pulled the HTC One family of phones out. And the questions started as soon as everyone was able to hold the new phones in their hands! I had warned Charl, Darren, and Wyatt to brush-up on the HTC One specs, and it was a good thing they did:
- “Does the One X have a quad-core processor?”
- “Did HTC deliver a better camera lense?”
- “Does it really only take 0.7 seconds to launch the camera?”
- “What improvements have been made to Beats Audio?”
Our guests really knew their stuff and pressed us on each detail.
We have more news to come, including Taipei, Hong Kong, while our colleagues in Europe head to Warsaw and Milan (and many more). Thank you for joining us on this adventure!