The camera looks decent, though doesn't have the same low light ability as the 920. Would be interested to see how it stacks up against the 8X.
The SD screen should help with the battery life. The 822 has the same size battery as the 8X but a substantially greater amount of standby time, so it does better while idling. My guess is the SD screen helps in the regard. Personally, I'm not sure how much of a benefit a 720p screen is on a 4.3" device for most.
Since the screen is lower resolution and the 822 has the same chipset as the 8X with the same amount of memory, I'd guess that the 822 has the potential to be a bit snappier. Take a look at the 8S, HTC's low end WP8 device. It is only a dual core 1GHZ processor with only 512MB of RAM. Just a guess, but the memory probably plays a role in the resolution of the display. The 800x480 devices likely do not need more than 512MB. The 720P devices are 1GB. The 768p devices (Lumia 920) are 2GB of memory.
So the built-in GPU off the Snapdragon will probably be able to drive the lower res display faster and the 1GB of memory should help the phone be a bit snappier than the 8X.
I've personally gone from being certain of getting the 8X towards preferring the 822. When Nokia announced their phones, I actually liked the 820 better than the 920 in many ways. Cost was a factor as was expandability. The major negative on the 820 to me was the lack of Gorilla Glass, but the 822 fixed that.
The resolution is fine on my Trophy and the 822 has a more vibrant screen. The Nokia apps are a huge plus. I don't know how much I care about the wireless charging, but it's an option. I'm fairly certain that the 822 will get a couple hours more battery life than the 8X.
The body was a concern, but the phone looks very solid to me. It might feel "plastic", but there's been talk of flaking on the 8X and I have a feeling the plastic shell on the 822 may prove more durable. I'm not a huge photo guy, but the camera looks to be good. It may not be the industry leader, but I expect it probably is about equivalent to many of the other 8mp cameras out there - it will get the job done and have Nokia's software to back it up.
I'm a big music person. I've been with Zune Pass for over three years and have stayed over through Xbox music. I can load a decent amount of stuff on my 16GB Trophy, but I'd like more. I'll have the same problem with the 8X. Then there's the issue of Nokia Maps. We all get it on WP8 now, but storage is an issue. Downloading the whole US map is over 2GB. When I go on a road trip in the future, I'd prefer to have the whole map. But 2GB is a lot of storage to eat up that could go to music for the trip. Enter microSD expansion. I can grab a 64GB microSD and out a ton of music on the phone. I can also bring extra cards with me and hot swap them. Plus when I use the maps I can use Nokia Drive+.
The major selling point of the 8X to me is the music amps, but that is not enough to sway me to spend an extra $100 on the phone upfront. Wireless charging is not a big deal. It might be if it becomes more ubiquitous, when I can lay my phone down on the table as I eat lunch and let it pick up a bit more charge. But I have plenty of micro-USB chargers for wall jacks and for cars.
I will wait until my upgrade is available on December 17 and will see the pricing on the ATIV (the VZW version is pretty much just the ATIV S). That one might be a bit big and I must admit that Nokia Drive is a big deal to me.
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