I bought my Trophy on launch day, May 26, 2011, and have had no problems with it at all. My wife got hers a month later, and had it replaced under warranty for a bad speaker during that time, and the replacement has had a bad speaker for about half of the time as well, but she hasn't bothered replacing it. My Trophy was probably my fourth, fifth, maybe even sixth HTC device, as I was using Windows Mobile devices by HTC back into whenever it was they started making them, and I don't remember if HTC made the Windows CE devices I was using before someone stuck a phone into one of them or not, so who knows, I may have been using HTC back into 2002 or 03.
I've only ever had one problem with any of my devices besides my wife's and that was a Touch Pro, and part of that was the design of the touchpad - the corner was prone to being pulled up, and the "ribbon" (flat celophane-type) conductor ended up tearing. If I'd taken it in before it tore all the way, they'd have replaced it under warranty, but I waited too long. I wasn't completely dissatisfied, though - it gave me an excuse to upgrade to a Touch Pro II, which had a bigger screen and all, so you know I didn't complain about that!
I've been quite happy with my Trophy, and in fact the only complaint that I've had about it is that the screen image quality is mediocre, but that's something that I haven't complained about from the point of complaining to HTC, because HTC made a number of Windows Phone devices of varying levels of quality. That's something I complain about directed at Verizon for not offering us a better device in the field of WP devices. HTC knows that there are people who want a range of different levels, so they make them. Verizon knows that, too, but they chose to only offer one. That's on them.
So from a person who has used NOTHING but HTC phones for more than half a decade (well, except for that blasted Crackberry that work made me carry - but I still carried my own Windows Mobile phone, too!), I would not shy away from HTC at all. Be aware that they are a company that makes a range of phones, from the low end to the high end, because they aim to have customers in the full range, and make sure that you buy the phone that is at the point in the range that you are looking for.
Myself, I went into the Verizon store last night and looked at the Lumia 822 and the 8x next to each other last night, and when I left, I knew that I was going to walk into Best Buy, show them the wireless.walmart.com ad with the Lumia 822 listed FREE, and get my first non-HTC smartphone. The screen looked better, it has the same storage, but the lumia is expandable where the 8x is not, and it has the Nokia apps. I'm not a media person, so if I was, perhaps I'd have gone for the 8x with its higher-res screen and Beats audio, but that's not what I'm after. Don't get me wrong, the 8x's screen looked really good - it's just that the 822's looks better. The blacks look blacker, and it just "pops" better, IMO.
So there's my opinion, as a long-time HTC user. Nothing against the 8x at all. This time, I like the Nokia.
Disclaimer: I bought Nokia stock last spring, because I really liked what they were doing. That probably also played into my decision.
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