HTC 8X over other Nokias?

holzlondon

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As a WP8 user, I've been using my Lumia 920 since day 1 back in November last year and don't regret it at all.

My wife has had her Lumia 800 for almost 2 years, and it's slowly showing its age - battery life is waning, app support is dwindling, etc.

Now we've started looking at some successor models for her, and have come across the HTC 8X. She loves it because it's just a bit smaller than my L920, and because it is substantially lighter - "feels good in the hand" kind of feeling.

On top of all this, it's available on amazon.de for under ?230 SIM-free, which seems an awfully good price.

My question is, do some HTC users feel somehow "crippled" by the lack of Nokia apps etc.? If I'm not mistaken, Nokia's Here Maps, Drive+, Transport and Citylens have been made available also to non-Nokia WP8 handsets.

Does anyone out there have any tips, suggestions, warnings? Thanks in advance!
 

WhippedKream

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Drive+ no, drive yes. Only difference is u can't use drive internationally, just your country. As for warnings... Hmmm... Others can get pretty big if she has a large collection of apps, but iunno... I hve an 8 GB 8X (I know, stupid), but I have like 50 apps and 1.4 gbs of music and the others is about 3 GB. So if you have a 16 GB variant and are not an appoholic, but still have a decent size of apps, it's awesome. She'll enjoy the beats audio that's for sure. And the display is nice too :). As for crippled though, not really besides the camera apps, but there are ways around it.

Oh and SkyDrive is your best friend for keeping photos and making the most out of your space :p just don't do it manually or automatically from phone. It has been said to increase the others space lol. So put it on desktop and upload :) it's a mehh scenario but good
 

holzlondon

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Drive+ no, drive yes. Only difference is u can't use drive internationally, just your country. As for warnings... Hmmm... Others can get pretty big if she has a large collection of apps, but iunno... I hve an 8 GB 8X (I know, stupid), but I have like 50 apps and 1.4 gbs of music and the others is about 3 GB. So if you have a 16 GB variant and are not an appoholic, but still have a decent size of apps, it's awesome. She'll enjoy the beats audio that's for sure. And the display is nice too :). As for crippled though, not really besides the camera apps, but there are ways around it.

Oh and SkyDrive is your best friend for keeping photos and making the most out of your space :p just don't do it manually or automatically from phone. It has been said to increase the others space lol. So put it on desktop and upload :) it's a mehh scenario but good

Funny what you say about the "other" storage.... My L920 never seemed to have a problem with that until a few weeks ago. It always hovered around 400-500 MB. Got the Storage Check settings app from Nokia some time ago, and whenever I would clear "other" it would come back with only 250-300 MB in use.

Now, just recently it's jumped to 1.2-1.3 GB, and when I clear it it only clears down to 1.1 GB. I've had the automatic upload to SkyDrive in full resolution on ever since I bought the phone, so no idea what else has all of a sudden caused the jump.

Anyway, my wife is no appaholic. She has her 15-20 main apps she uses, and that's it. The SIM free version in Germany is 16GB, so I'm sure it'll be enough. Her L800 also has 16GB, and it's only ever been half full even though she's never gotten rid of any photos, and has quite a substantial music selection on it.

Drive+ is a shame though. We would gladly pay for the option because we travel through different European countries quite often. May have to think about this....
 

WhippedKream

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Funny what you say about the "other" storage.... My L920 never seemed to have a problem with that until a few weeks ago. It always hovered around 400-500 MB. Got the Storage Check settings app from Nokia some time ago, and whenever I would clear "other" it would come back with only 250-300 MB in use.

Now, just recently it's jumped to 1.2-1.3 GB, and when I clear it it only clears down to 1.1 GB. I've had the automatic upload to SkyDrive in full resolution on ever since I bought the phone, so no idea what else has all of a sudden caused the jump.

Anyway, my wife is no appaholic. She has her 15-20 main apps she uses, and that's it. The SIM free version in Germany is 16GB, so I'm sure it'll be enough. Her L800 also has 16GB, and it's only ever been half full even though she's never gotten rid of any photos, and has quite a substantial music selection on it.

Drive+ is a shame though. We would gladly pay for the option because we travel through different European countries quite often. May have to think about this....

Yeah, i miss my 16 GB on my old Optimus 7.. *sigh*. Oh wells, and as for international, its 20$ for me, iunno in euros how much that would be! But that isn't bad for a person who always wants to travel so :). Also it says regional, and the fact that Canada is huge leaves me to think it covers a lot of Europe already in default drive. Can anybody confirm this?
 

Chregu

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My car has a built-in navigation system so I don't need one on my phone. And if I have to look up something I use a Google Maps app anyway as it has by far the highest quality in my country.

Apart from the tape-fix I had to apply and the decreased performance of the systems since GDR2 mostly when Spotify is running, I'm very happy with my 8X. I don't miss Nokia apps, but maybe it's just because I never had them and don't know what I am missing.
 

holzlondon

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Yeah, i miss my 16 GB on my old Optimus 7.. *sigh*. Oh wells, and as for international, its 20$ for me, iunno in euros how much that would be! But that isn't bad for a person who always wants to travel so :). Also it says regional, and the fact that Canada is huge leaves me to think it covers a lot of Europe already in default drive. Can anybody confirm this?

Aha, so Drive+ is available to purchase. From what I know of the Lumia 520 (with Drive, not Drive+) here, it really only covers Germany, and you have to upgrade the app to Drive+ at a fee to go international. I had no idea what the cost is, but if it's $20, it will probably be €15-20 here.

Thanks for the tip!
 

danj210

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My gf just got the 8x because of the size and weight. I have the 920. Both phones are pretty neck and neck with hardware except that I have a lot more space than she. Since I'm the appoholic and not her, it works out. I've been playing with it and the screen is pretty sharp, has a little more PPI in a smaller screen so the 8x screen looks pretty crisp. Definitely fun to play with the rooms feature of wp8 with someone. Someone should create a windows phone central room!!!
 

montsa007

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Have you showed your wife the Lumia 720?
Am absolutely sure its much cheaper than 8x and also has a memory card slot, better camera and also better battery life.
 

holzlondon

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Have you showed your wife the Lumia 720?
Am absolutely sure its much cheaper than 8x and also has a memory card slot, better camera and also better battery life.

You see, we saw that the other day too, and it's pretty much the other contender. Downpoints are that there are only 8GB built-in storage and the screen resolution is lower. Plus, the 720 is currently about €50 more expensive than the 8X, believe it or not. It's a bit of a tie between the two currently.
 

montsa007

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You see, we saw that the other day too, and it's pretty much the other contender. Downpoints are that there are only 8GB built-in storage and the screen resolution is lower. Plus, the 720 is currently about €50 more expensive than the 8X, believe it or not. It's a bit of a tie between the two currently.

I'm using the 720 since 20th of April.
I'm extremely positive that your wife won't install a tonne of apps after a few weeks so 8GB would be sufficient (7.2 usable, approx 2 from that eaten by OS).
I'm not sure how much data she'll be putting into the phone but I've popped a 32 Gig card so I don't have to worry in the middle of a night sweating whether I'm running out of memory as I store half of my music inside the phone.

If she's comfortable with 13GB usable, non expandable memory, Beats Audio (A marketing gimmick imo), 8x is cool for her. But remember as and when you install apps, its cache accumulates and adds up to the "Other" storage, a big issue as of now.

If she wants room for expansion, good battery, navigation capabilities and Nokia support, I'd suggest a Lumia series device. Also Lumia 625 is coming soon, do have a look at it. Why only Amazon, check other vendors :), whatever you buy, make sure it has warranty as HTC's GDR2 update bricked their phones :'(.

I'd also like to say that the HTC 8s is an extremely sick device, it looks fabulous and feels amazing in hand, but the biggest issue is that it has just 4 Gigs of memory, 2 Gigs eaten by the system so am literally left with nothing!, but hey that device is 1 cool piece of hardware to flaunt!
 

WhippedKream

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I would say always go for 16 GB to be safe and never feel limited during the OS experience (hey you never know how much you wanna download, even if you aren't a appholic), whether it be Nokia or HTC I don't mind! But 8 GB with an SD card works well too!
 

envio

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I got my 8x because at the time of WP8's launch, the L920 was exclusive to another carrier otherwise I would have got that. I actually prefer the looks of the 8X, it's light, it feels great in the hand and the unibody design works extremely well.

The camera is much better than the HTC HD7 that I had previously but obviously not a patch on the L920 or any Nokia for that matter. The front facing camera does come with a very wide angle lens so taking self portraits is a joy. The battery life is so so; it's not fantastic but I get a full day's use out of it. I charge my phone every night so it's never really an issue for me. The screen is excellent and the gorilla glass 2 is amazing, I've resisted the temptation to apply a protector because I actually don't need it!

Where it all falls down is HTC. The available 1st party apps from HTC are woeful (there are 7), the only sad highlight is the flashlight and that says it all. Perhaps the worst app in the entire WP app store is 'Make more space' from HTC which doesn't do anything on the 8X and certainly can't make any additional space. Even with my old HD7, HTC tried a little harder and supported DLNA - now missing on WP8. HTC literally drop you off at the checkout and there, the relationship ends. There's no additional gizmo's or manufacturer customizations added to the phone except Attentive Phone (passable) and Beats Audio (a joke at best). There's no exclusivity apps and deals, no continuous development that is evident, certainly nothing to give you hope that HTC really care about you after your purchase. Nothing.

I would take a small hit on the 'feel in the hand' and general looks and get a Nokia next time and every time. I will never go back to HTC again, I've learnt my lesson (again).
 

envio

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^Did you try looking for a contract free phone then?

No, I wasn't interested in a contract free phone, I didn't have the funds to afford one (at that point in time) and I didn't want to change carrier. I was also hooked on the lure of the 8X in limelight yellow which is what I settled on. Ironically, that too was exclusive to one third-party store but at least it wasn't tied to one carrier so I knew I could get it. Compared to my previous HD7, the 8X is a great improvement but HTC themselves have gone into reverse and then stepped on the accelerator when it comes to software innovation on the platform.
 

Twitter@Firas_MD

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The only thing I disliked about my HTC 8x is that: some of the apps are not compatible with the screen aspect ratios leaving a black bar on the top of the screen. But not a big issue as the apps are fully working.
Great design and high resolution screen with a great camera and FF Camera of 2 mpx.
 
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I owned an HTC 8x...a red and the blue one. I originally had a Nokia Lumia 810 and went to the 8x because it is such an attractive phone.

That being said the lack of storage in comparison to the lumias and the fact that that HTC really is not as invested in their windows phone as Nokia is and the fact that the Nokia exclusives are the reasons why I went and got a Lumia.

Not to mention the issues with 8xs discoloring.

The 8x is a phone that looks good but certainly doesn't have much substance when compared to other phones I.e Lumia
 

amb9800

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The 8X feels awesome in hand- ergonomics are probably the best of any high-end Windows Phone. The tapered design is also striking enough that people are still amazed to see the phone ("how is your phone sooooooo thin?").

But after eight months, I'm switching to a Lumia 925. The problem is that the 8X starts and ends at its industrial design. HTC has not created a single app for WP8 that wasn't on my HD7 on WP7 years ago. There are no fixes for platform bugs (like Other Storage, forcing me to hard-reset to regain use of the phone) or HTC's own bugs (firmware failing and thus being pulled, so looks like no GDR2, and things like T-Mo Wifi Calling are no longer coming to the phone since it's been EOLed), let alone new feature additions. Nokia's added more to the 8X than HTC has, with their HERE apps. The 8X is also not nearly as stable as HTC's WP7 devices, and from what I've seen to date, Nokia's WP8 devices.

Physical durability may also an issue-- the great-feeling and vibrant-colored back case unfortunately wears down quite quickly, and I'd fully expect other issues going forward (just like the HD7's buttons turning orange after a while). This is not HTC at its best (as in, say, the HD2) -- and if you do somehow drop the phone and crack the screen, good luck. The digitizer is fused to the display, as in many new phones, but even replacing the whole display module is very problematic (need to sort of bend the body to pop it out, which means it may never fully fit again, and a very good chance of damaging the motherboard in the process).

Windows Phones and their buyers are clearly now an afterthought for HTC-- so despite the design, I'd stay far away from HTC Windows Phones (and this despite my owning only HTC and Apple phones for the last 8 years). Stick with Nokia.
 

joe_easton

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I have used the 8X on Verizon in the US since late December. I loved it at first but now I am having some regrets (mainly because I want a Lumia 928). The phone does feel great; very think. I have the blue one and the corner started to get dirty so I put it in a think Incipio case. The body is coming loose near the volume rocker; this can be fixed via warranty but I haven't done it yet.

I have some issues with lag (yes on WP8!) but that is due to low storage space. I think this will fix itself with GDR2 and the other storage fix.

The camera is better than most people give it credit for. I know Nokia makes amazing cameras but my HTC 8X has done very well for me in most situations. I like the 16:9 aspect ratio as well as it stands out in the crowd.

If possible; I would buy a high-end Nokia but for the price you can't go wrong with the 8X.
 

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