HTC Sense 5.0 UI coming for One X, One X+, One S and Butterfly

The HTC One was announced last week as that company's flagship smartphone. It runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5 on top of that. Sense 5 got a lot of people curious because it's a pretty radical redefinition of what HTC Sense means compared to previous versions. Naturally then, owners of HTC flagships in days gone by may be wondering whether their particular devices will see this new UI at any point in the future. And luckily, the answer is yes. It looks like this year the Taiwanese company won't pull something similar to the Sense 3.6 affair from 2012. In case you don't know what that is, know that last year HTC launched the One X and One S as its high-end duo. Running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC Sense 4. Some older HTC devices got updated to Android ICS too, but they came with Sense 3.6, a version based on 3.5 with minor modifications. So, in effect, you were only able to get Sense 4 by buying a device having it preinstalled. Wondering if your HTC One X, One X+, One S or the Butterfly will be getting the new Sense 5 from theHTC One? Well, you don't have to anymore, as HTC has revealed that it does plan to do so. Answering a fan question on its Facebook page, HTC confirmed that its slick minimalistic new Sense 5.0 interface for its Android handset will arrive to its 2012 finest.

HTC will be offering upgrades to some of its existing devices in the next few months, including global variants of HTC One X, One X+, One S and the HTC Butterfly. Also, note that some features enabled by the new HTC One hardware will not be available in the software updates.

 Which features precisely won't be available, remains to be seen, but something tells us that those 360 panoramas and proprietary Zoe collages might be a tough nut to crack for the Snapdragons of yesterday.

The HTC One X, One X+, One S, and Butterfly should all get Sense 5 though. At least some of it. Some features (unnamed unfortunately) will not be included, because they are apparently dependent on specific hardware that only the new One has. We're left wondering what such features may be (stuff related to the camera, perhaps?), but the good news is that if you bought a 2012 HTC high-end device you may see some form of Sense 5 on it at some point. This should obviously come alongside an update to Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. As for Android 4.2 (which is, after all, the most recent version, and has been so for three months) – don't ask. Not yet, anyway.  
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