Honest HTC 8X Review

I recently got ahold of the HTC 8X.  Someone didn't give it to me or ship it to me as a favor or shameless plug.  I actually USED the phone for day-to-day usage for the last couple of weeks.  It is great.  There are some issues, but I will cover those as well.

Oh Apps, where art thou?!
The first, and most alarming thing, you will experience when moving from iOS or Android to WP8 is apps.  Some apps are great, others not so much.  There are several THOUSAND apps available, you won't want most of them.  It is hard to transition because there are so few apps that were built for WP7, let alone the new WP8.  You have to rely on homebrew apps that require some sort of assistance accessing some kind of mobile backend to help you do anything.  I am amazed that they even get some of the stuff to work.

Coming from Android I had a few apps that I REALLY wanted to work, so far I have found manageable alternatives, but they aren't as good as the real thing.  Google Voice, Play Music and Picasa are all non-existent on WP8.  Not a single Google app for any of those exists.  3rd party homebrew apps do manage to give you most of the access you are used to, but in a kind of weird way.  Gooroovester manages to get my Play Music stuff mostly right.  There are several Picasa apps, but they are all limited in some way on the features available.  The Google Voice apps are a toss up.  Some work, some don't, some crash, some will try to forward all of your texts through Google Voice.  For the time being I am content, but not happy.

WP8 MUST get solid apps working from these people.  Get Google on board, get other developers on board and motivate them to make these apps.  We have the ability to compile two versions at once for desktop apps... why are we not doing this?  Get Facebook and Twitter involved, you have them both deeply integrated into the device with the Me and People tiles, get some apps on the phone and get it done RIGHT!

Speedfreak
This phone isn't just gorgeous, light and thin... it is FAST.  The WP7 phone were slouches, but this experience is raising the bar significantly.  Imagine the speed and power of a Galaxy S3 without the bloat of Touchwiz, a slightly faster NAND and an OS catered to getting shit done RIGHT NOW.  That is pretty much this phone.  My old Galaxy Nexus was awesome and it was pretty fast, but it doesn't hold a candle to the speed and responsiveness of this device.  WP8 was designed specifically for this hardware and, moreover, for this resolution.  It looks good, it feels good and it couldn't be faster.  Things open like they should, move like they are supposed to and you almost forget the old days of waiting while things did stuff.

With the long development time on this mobile OS Microsoft had time to tune it to the specs that it wanted.  Take a look at the other WP8 phones out and you will see that even the 99 dollar offering that is the baseline, barebones model is just as powerful... it just has a less spectacular resolution and display.  After spending time with this phone I almost giggle when I watch people open up apps now, not because I am trying to stop from crying because I probably can't use that app, but because they have to wait for it.  While I do wish I had more "things" on my phone, I also don't think I'd sacrifice the experience I have now for them.

iPhone Killer
This thing isn't going to take over the world.  The Nokia Lumia 920 is my first choice.  Even though I have the 8X, I'd rather have that phone.  Hands down.  Period.  I have the 8X because I am on Verizon and Nokia decided to do a six month exclusive deal with AT(and)T.  That means I won't own that phone.  Because that puts me 1/3rd of the way through my upgrade cycle before I can get my hands on one.  This phone is nice, but it isn't THAT nice.

The feel of it in your hand is unmistakable.  It feels great.  It is very light and very thin.  It rivals the new iPhone in almost every way.  This phone has a screen that is now considered small (4.3 in), but is still larger than the new iPhone.  The maps app is also way better.  Like... a lot.  At the end of the day even comparing the two devices is silly.  One is made to be an all-in-one media device, the other is designed to be a productivity monster.  The WP8 phones have plenty of bells and whistles, but they are all about easy integration first and foremost.

Hope for the future
Holding this phone I think about what Microsoft could do with the mobile industry and I am thrilled.  I think they have taken a huge step forward for themselves AND the rest of us.  Apple wants to keep it closed and keep everyone out.  Google is willing to let anyone play.  Microsoft is taking a combined approach and is asking everyone to come visit, but making sure you know that there are no VIPs.  Microsoft is still kind of in it's own ecosystem and if you don't wish to play along, they don't mind.  Could you imagine if Microsoft took a Google approach and simply stopped allowing device drivers for Android to install in Windows 8?  I'm sure there would be a boatload of upset people, but I bet that'd make Google change their tune about development.

Once Microsoft gets some better apps from better developers out and once they put more focus on the ability to compile code for both ARM and x86 at once, we are all going to be winners.  Whether you like Microsoft or not and whether you want to consider them a technological power doesn't matter.  What matters is that they are shaking up the industry more than it has been in the last almost decade.  With Blackberry poised to fall on it's face, Microsoft is there to pick up the pieces and be the best choice for business and productivity.  This should be pretty exciting!

At the end of the day...
At the end of the day we all know that only one thing matters.  That is how I felt about the device on several levels.  How do you rate a smartphone?  Well, I left some pros and cons in my usage below.

Pros
Ease of Use:  Having an old Hotmail or an Xbox live account makes things a lot easier, but even without one the process to get in and start playing is fairly simple.  Everything is very intuitive and I am pretty certain that the average user would be able to pick up the device and understand it very quickly

Size/Weight/Feel:  The phone feels amazing.  It is thin, light and gorgeous looking.  The size may be a little small for people coming from current generation Android powerhouse phones, but the phone is a dream to use and handle.

Fairly seamless experience:  Syncing is a breeze in Windows 8, but even on Mac it is very pleasing.  The latest software allows syncing music with iTunes, as well.  They did a great job on the new apps AND making the phone so easy to transfer files to and from.

Cons
Apps:  We need more apps.  Like, a lot more.

Battery life:  While battery life isn't as miserable as it is on some phones, a heavy user can easily drain this thing and have you wishing you had more plugs to charge this thing up.