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HTC Windows Phone 8X Review

HTC Windows Phone 8X ReviewIntroduction:

Out of the woodworks, Microsoft is about to embark in yet another chapter in its mobile platform story. Rightfully so, they have a lot of support from longtime smartphone manufacturers who believe that there is a budding growth worth investing with Windows Phones. In fact, we all know way too well how there has always been a symbiotic relationship between the Redmond based company and Taiwanese handset maker HTC.

Would you believe that it has been over six months since our eyes last feasted upon a Windows Phone device from HTC? For those of you who might’ve forgotten, which shouldn’t be too surprising considering Window Phone device releases have been non-existent of late, it was none other than the HTC Titan II. Now that Windows Phone 8 is making a big push, the Taiwan based company is banking to see its HTC 8X being the premier smartphone for the platform out of the gate. Indeed, it’s treading a different path with its out-of-character design, but will it be enough to compete in the ring with some of today’s heavy hitters in the business?
HTC Windows Phone 8X Review

The package contains:

  • microUSB cable
  • Wall Charger
  • Stereo Headphones

Design:

It’s hard not to point it out, but some would argue that HTC took a bit out of Nokia’s playbook with the design of the 8X – especially when that the handset is available in a wide array of bright and flamboyant colors. However, upon closer examination, it’s a unique design that’s in stark comparison to the cold industrial designs we’ve seen attached to many of the maker’s previous efforts. Whereas Nokia’s Lumia handsets have flat top and bottom trims, the HTC 8X employs tapered angles around its sides that converge seamlessly together in the rear – giving it the illusion of having an even skinnier frame (0.4” thick). Wrapping our hand around it, the 8X feels comfortable enough as our hand perfectly hugs the contour of the smartphone’s rear.

In addition to that, the design is further complemented by its solid unibody construction, light feel (4.59 oz), and clean appearance due to its soft touch finish. Honestly, it’s appreciable in so many levels because we haven’t necessarily seen this kind of design from HTC, but more importantly, it goes to show that the company is willing to jump outside the box and experiment with other uncanny designs. Indubitably, the palatable color options surely sprinkles a dose of character and style to the handset, which is wonderful in being attention grabbers from the onset.

Wrapping our hand around it, the HTC Windows Phone 8X feels comfortable enough - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Wrapping our hand around it, the HTC Windows Phone 8X feels comfortable enough - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Wrapping our hand around it, the HTC Windows Phone 8X feels comfortable enough - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Wrapping our hand around it, the HTC Windows Phone 8X feels comfortable enough

HTC Windows Phone 8X Review


As usual, it’s sporting the usual trio of capacitive Windows buttons we’ve been familiar with beneath its screen, which are spaced far away from one another to reduce accidental presses. Yet again, the handset shows a nice balance with its design thanks to the color-splashed earpiece. Nearby, we find its ultra-wide 88-degree angle 2-megapixel front-facing camera that’s tucked away in the upper left corner.

HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Capacitive Windows buttons - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Front camera - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Capacitive Windows buttons
Front camera
Although we love the uniform and flush look of the handset, we’re not particularly fond of its physical power button and volume control – mainly because they’re notoriously difficult to feel out with our fingers due to their flush appearance. However, we do appreciate the two-level shutter key that provides us instant access to the camera UI by long-pressing it. Rounding things out, there’s a 3.5mm headset jack, noise-cancelling microphone, standard mic, and microUSB port on the handset – the latter of which only offers data and charging connectivity.

Power key and 3.5mm jack (top) - The sides of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Camera and volume keys (right) - The sides of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
microUSB port (bottom) - The sides of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Power key and 3.5mm jack (top)
Camera and volume keys (right)
microUSB port (bottom)
The sides of the HTC Windows Phone 8X
Around the rear, its 8-megapixel auto-focus camera stands out amongst other things due to the shiny metallic trim around its lens. Sure, it’s not a size that’s pushing the boundaries, but nevertheless, it features HTC’s exclusive ImageSense technology, ultra-wide f/2.0 aperture lens, LED flash, and the ability to shoot videos in 1080p. Towards the bottom portion of the rear, microdots line in unison to consist its speaker grill, but above that, the familiar Beats Audio logo reminds us that it’s going to offer us an exceptional audio experience.

Back - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Rear camera - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Loudspeaker - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Back
Rear camera
Loudspeaker


Display:

It’s not a massive size that we find on here, but rather, it’s a modest 4.3-inch Super LCD-2 display that’s sporting a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. Comforting to say the least, it’s about darn time that Windows Phones moved up in resolution – especially all previous Windows Phones employed WVGA.

Visually, it‘s a beautiful thing to behold with its exquisitely sharp details (342 ppi pixel density), punchy colors, wide viewing angles, and good visibility outdoors – all of the characteristics of a wonderful screen. And just like on the HTC One X, the display curves slightly around the edge to provide a seamless transition between it and the handset’s trim. Knowing that we’ve seen this kind of display elsewhere, we’re not totally bonkers over it, but for a Windows Phone, there’s no arguing that it’s a delightful sight for sore eyes.

Viewing angles of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Viewing angles of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Viewing angles of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Viewing angles of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Viewing angles of the HTC Windows Phone 8X

Color production - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Color production - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Color production - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Color production



HTC Windows Phone 8X 360-degrees View:



Multimedia:

Checkout the Photos Hub to preview some of our captured images, there’s nothing out of place with its layout or functionality. Of course, we’re presented with the usual sharing and minor editing functions in thePhotos Hub, but there’s also HTC’s “Photo Enhancer” app that merely applies various filters. Even though the 8X is only able to use the “Tap + Share” function to send photos and videos between other NFC enabled Windows Phone 8 devices, we’re able to share them with Android devices via Bluetooth.

The Photos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
The Photos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
The Photos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
The Photos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
The Photos Hub

Being a familiar occurrence at this point, there’s nothing new in terms of visual presentation with the music player of the HTC 8X. Still, it’s something we view as modern looking – complementing the overall styling of the platform. Conversely, since it has Beats Audio support when using a pair of headphones, its bass and treble levels are cranked up tremendously to give it a heavier quality. HTC touts the built-in amplifier, for better and more powerful sound with various headphones. It should also improve the loudspeaker sound, but it is lacking any serious firepower; its quality has a neutral tone to it, but it drowns out very easily in noisy environments. 

Music player of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music player of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music player of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music player of the HTC Windows Phone 8X - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music player of the HTC Windows Phone 8X

Beautiful display? Check. Fast dual-core processor? Check. Well then, considering it has those two specific items in tow, it’s the correct recipe in garnering a wonderful video watching experience. Better yet, the HTC 8X has support for a wide-array of video codecs out of the box – meaning, it’s able to play our 1080p videos encoded in DivX, H264, MPEG-4, and XviD. With its smooth playback, vibrant colors, and modest real-estate, it coughs up one fine experience, but then again, it’s lacking the comprehensive nature of other rival offerings – like the ability to wirelessly share videos with other devices.

Music+Videos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music+Videos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music+Videos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music+Videos Hub - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Music+Videos Hub

Video player - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Video player - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Video player


Software:

Sadly, this is where the platform misses out greatly As much as Microsoft claims to have a healthy amount of over 100,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store, the platform is still lagging behind with quality third-party apps – there’s just no comparison! For example, the official YouTube app for Windows Phone does nothing more than open IE10 and redirects us to the mobile friendly version of the site. Worst yet, the HTC Hub is reduced to nothing more than aggregating the weather, news, and stocks – it’s the same thing we’ve seen already in the past! And as for the Bing Maps experience, don’t get us started, namely because it’s sorely lagging behind the competition in terms of comprehensive features that are essential in today’s world. However, we’ll give it credit for being a great device if you’re tied intimately to Microsoft Office.

Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps - HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Preinstalled apps
Call Quality:

HTC Windows Phone 8X Review
Proving to be right for the occasion, the HTC 8X manages to deliver the goods when it comes to call quality. Finding good things on both ends of the line, the earpiece produces natural sounding voices with zero evidence of distortion or background noise – while our callers mention experiencing the same thing. However, the only blemish is found with the speakerphone quality, as it’s very low in volume and produces a hint of distortion.

In our time testing out the 8X, it manages to maintain a solid connection to the network in highcoverage areas – with no major fluctuations with its signal strength. Additionally, it didn’t drop any phone calls as well.


Battery:

Carrying along an 1,800 mAh battery inside of its body, it doesn’t invoke something that would make us believe it’s going to last for the long haul. Instead, its performance is average at best, giving us a good one day of life with normal usage – and that’s strictly using the handset with HSPA+ only. Needless to say, 4G LTE connectivity will deliver results that are going to be considerably less than that.


Conclusion:


Taking into account the $99.99 on-contract price attached to the HTC 8X right from the onset, it’s at an attractive price point that would handedly reel in some curious bystanders. To HTC’s credit, we absolutely love the direction they went with the 8X’s design, as it seemingly stands out magnificently from the staple of cold industrial designs we’re normally bombarded with. When you talk about the wow factor, they’ve really hit out of the ballpark with this one, but resounding beauty is more than skin deep.

Microsoft has been dormant of late, but with the arrival of Windows Phone 8, they hope to gain some incremental traction. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here because they’ve done very little to keep the platform moving at the same feverish rate as its main rivals. Yeah, we’ll give it that Windows Phone 8 has some attractive visual elements to it, like its Start Screen, but aside from that one notable item, there’s nothing drastically different to make existing users jump for joy. Moreover, we’re dismayed to find that HTC barely made a concentrated effort to refine the experience in some way.

Ultimately, the HTC 8X is surely a strong competitor in the Windows Phone camp, but as we look at the broader spectrum, it pales in comparison to some of the smartphone elites out there. Absolutely, its stylish looks and affordable price point are a great combination to win over some people, but there’s still the matter of that other premier Windows Phone 8 device in the Nokia Lumia 920

Software version of the review unit:
Software: Windows Phone 8.0
OS Version: 8.0.9903.10
Firmware revision number: 1532.20.10022.401


HTC Windows Phone 8X Video Review:



PROS

  • Stylish looking design
  • Exquisitely detail screen
  • Affordable price point

CONS

  • Few worthwhile improvements with WP8
  • Lackluster low lighting photo quality
  • Weak internal speaker
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