I went with the 8X and I'm loving it so far.
I was dead set on getting a Lumia 920 ever since they were announced - and especially after hearing about all the awesome features (wireless charging, sensitive screen etc) that were seemingly only available on the 920. I couldn't wait to get a nice, stylish, hot red phone that would blow every other smartphone out of the water.
Then the launch came around. EE exclusive? Well I guess 4G would be unnecessary but nice. Oh, but it's a bit on the pricey side. Can't really afford it, but I'll make the stretch. Popped into my local EE stores and received excuses from staff that it was coming "tomorrow" (they used that excuse for almost a whole week.) Popped into Phones4U, where they tried to sell me a Galaxy S3 instead (lol) and I just happened to spy an 8X on display. My jaw dropped just a little, especially after having seen a plastic dummy 920. Very nice, I thought. Really looks stylish. I can see why the guys at Microsoft don't want it to feel left out compared to the flagship 920.
BUT...does it have all those cool features? No. I'll pass and wait for the 920. That blue looks hot though.
Fast forward a few days and I was doing some thinking. Am I really missing out by not getting a 920? Sure, I'll have to keep using fingerless gloves. Sure, I can't spend 15 minutes trying to educate iPhone users about camera specs which they won't understand, using boring technical terms, then take a photo which is
marginally better than theirs although not much. Sure I won't get Words with Friends on release date. But I *could* get the WP8 ecosystem. I *could* get an equally stylish phone. I *could* get a phone with a reasonable price tag. I *could* get a phone which was actually released on its announced release date.
My main beef with the 8X (which persists to this day) is the aspect ratio. Sure, 16:9 is closer to that film-style aspect ratio we all know and love, but it looks a little too skinny. Maybe this is nearly 2 years of HD7 usage talking, but I really thought the WP7 aspect ratio was perfect; films had black borders, yes, but I use my phone for displaying other types of information *much* more often than I watch films. And the films will still not look perfect. (Trust me, as a cinema projectionist for the last 5 years, it's 1.85:1, 2.39:1 or nothing.
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I also simply don't like to see this kind of fragmentation, however minor. You can just tell that someone somewhere is going to be losing out when apps or games take better advantage of one ratio or another. It's a pointless difference.
Still slightly hung up on the 920, I went round the EE stores one more time. They'd magically changed their tune from "tomorrow, maybe even THIS AFTERNOON" to "within the next few weeks." One guy said, "yeah, it's actually out, but no stores have received any deliveries and we don't know when we will."
So I walked into my local o2 shop and said, "Hey, I'm due for an upgrade..."