Hi all,
I purchased the 8X on Bell Mobility Friday night. Since then, the phone has been completely discharged three times and battery life appears to be gradually improving.
I have left my Samsung Focus S (i937) for this device, and I must say there is a few discrepancies between the two.
Screen:
I bought the phone in the evening, and as soon as I got outside in the parking lot of the mall, I noticed immediately that the Super-LCD2 screen had significantly lighter blacks. No longer am I unable to tell the difference between the edge of the screen and the darkness at night, which I could with my Focus S. Also worth noting is the viewing angles on the Focus S were way better - when I look at the 8X from the side or the top, there's a very bright/grey/white tint applied to the screen. However, that's really a non-issue as I prefer to look at the screen head on (who doesn't?). Moving into the next point, the Super-LCD2 screen of the 8X seems to share a similar brightness, however adding in a high-def resolution and a 342 ppi density (vs 217 on the Focus S), the 8X comes out as a clear winner overall. The screen just looks so crisp. Also worth noting is the 8X does not seem to grab finger prints, where the Focus S screen was a grease fest.
Form factor:
The Focus S is only 8.5 mm, while the 8X is 10.1 mm. In itself, that's not a bad difference. Add in the case for my 8X (which I never had on the Focus S), and the thickness make it seem like a durable device, albeit being a little thicker. Without a case it feels great. I'm not a fan of cases, if you haven't picked up on that. As for overall ergonomics, the Focus S was a device which felt great in the hand because of it's thinness and 110 gram weight, but I found myself almost fumbling to type on the keyboard every time I used it. My hands are a little on the small side, but it's not even that. The area with the capacitive buttons at the bottom was very small, so with the keyboard deployed it was also very close the bottom of the device, and to move your hands down that far meant risking the stability of the device in your hand. The 8X's added height certainly solved this issue for me, and the added 20 grams is barely noticeable. My Focus S was very durable, like once realizing this I would actually drop it on tile flooring in front of my friends to show them how durable it was. I would throw it like a Frisbee across park lawns. No worse for wear than when I got it.. the worst thing that ever happened was the battery door popped off and the battery fell out, so I had to reboot the phone. I'm not confident the 8X can take the same beating and will do everything possible to avoid subjection to drops or scuffs of any kind.
Performance:
No comments here, the 8X obviously kicks 7.5 generation hardware's ass.
Battery Life:
I just purchased a new battery for my Focus S, and for the first time ever, made it 19 hours on a single charge with my usual moderate/heavy usage. It would be unfair to comment on the 8X at this point in time as the battery hasn't really been "broke in" yet, but it's going to match. GSMArena gave the Focus S a 38-hour endurance rating, the 8X achieving a 31 hour rating.
Audio:
The loudspeaker was louder on the Focus S, but the 8X's sounds infinitely better. With Beats turned on and my usual iFrogz Quake earbuds in, the volume can be no louder than 20. I put them in, and started playing a dubstep song at 30... Let's just say I'm lucky my ear drums didn't break. I am very impressed, and can't wait to test it out in a car using 3.5 mm.
Xbox Music:
This is a complete f****** mess. The "sync" app is terrible, it's really just a drag and drop for dummies app. Either way, when I sync my content, when I try to play it, it will often times tell me it can't confirm media usage rights... It creates duplicates of songs I've downloaded on Xbox Music and songs I have "matched in my cloud collection" on Xbox Music. It even told me it couldn't confirm media usage rights on a song which I downloaded myself and is not even available in the music store. Overall, it's a very piss poor job which I can only hope is improved in the future. It's like what they want me to do is just keep all my music in the cloud.. and if it's not available in the cloud, I'm just not allowed to have it. This post does a fair job of explaining all the issues: Master List Of Issues With XBox Music On WP8 - Microsoft Community... Does anyone else have these issues? I'm surprised there's not more humbug in these forums about it.
Camera:
The Focus S was a favourite of mine... It took great pictures, mind you it had terrible auto white balancing. The pictures were often times very over saturated though, and while this made for some great pictures of sunsets, it was overall more of a downfall. The 8X takes great shots indoors, I haven't had the chance to take any outdoors yet, or at night but I'm confident in its abilities. My only issues here are: when first initializing the camera on the 8X, it lags around a bit for the first few seconds. Also, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but I can't for the life of me get autofocus to take a macro shot. Is there some secret to it?
What are other peoples thoughts in relation to what I mentioned above?
I purchased the 8X on Bell Mobility Friday night. Since then, the phone has been completely discharged three times and battery life appears to be gradually improving.
I have left my Samsung Focus S (i937) for this device, and I must say there is a few discrepancies between the two.
Screen:
I bought the phone in the evening, and as soon as I got outside in the parking lot of the mall, I noticed immediately that the Super-LCD2 screen had significantly lighter blacks. No longer am I unable to tell the difference between the edge of the screen and the darkness at night, which I could with my Focus S. Also worth noting is the viewing angles on the Focus S were way better - when I look at the 8X from the side or the top, there's a very bright/grey/white tint applied to the screen. However, that's really a non-issue as I prefer to look at the screen head on (who doesn't?). Moving into the next point, the Super-LCD2 screen of the 8X seems to share a similar brightness, however adding in a high-def resolution and a 342 ppi density (vs 217 on the Focus S), the 8X comes out as a clear winner overall. The screen just looks so crisp. Also worth noting is the 8X does not seem to grab finger prints, where the Focus S screen was a grease fest.
Form factor:
The Focus S is only 8.5 mm, while the 8X is 10.1 mm. In itself, that's not a bad difference. Add in the case for my 8X (which I never had on the Focus S), and the thickness make it seem like a durable device, albeit being a little thicker. Without a case it feels great. I'm not a fan of cases, if you haven't picked up on that. As for overall ergonomics, the Focus S was a device which felt great in the hand because of it's thinness and 110 gram weight, but I found myself almost fumbling to type on the keyboard every time I used it. My hands are a little on the small side, but it's not even that. The area with the capacitive buttons at the bottom was very small, so with the keyboard deployed it was also very close the bottom of the device, and to move your hands down that far meant risking the stability of the device in your hand. The 8X's added height certainly solved this issue for me, and the added 20 grams is barely noticeable. My Focus S was very durable, like once realizing this I would actually drop it on tile flooring in front of my friends to show them how durable it was. I would throw it like a Frisbee across park lawns. No worse for wear than when I got it.. the worst thing that ever happened was the battery door popped off and the battery fell out, so I had to reboot the phone. I'm not confident the 8X can take the same beating and will do everything possible to avoid subjection to drops or scuffs of any kind.
Performance:
No comments here, the 8X obviously kicks 7.5 generation hardware's ass.
Battery Life:
I just purchased a new battery for my Focus S, and for the first time ever, made it 19 hours on a single charge with my usual moderate/heavy usage. It would be unfair to comment on the 8X at this point in time as the battery hasn't really been "broke in" yet, but it's going to match. GSMArena gave the Focus S a 38-hour endurance rating, the 8X achieving a 31 hour rating.
Audio:
The loudspeaker was louder on the Focus S, but the 8X's sounds infinitely better. With Beats turned on and my usual iFrogz Quake earbuds in, the volume can be no louder than 20. I put them in, and started playing a dubstep song at 30... Let's just say I'm lucky my ear drums didn't break. I am very impressed, and can't wait to test it out in a car using 3.5 mm.
Xbox Music:
This is a complete f****** mess. The "sync" app is terrible, it's really just a drag and drop for dummies app. Either way, when I sync my content, when I try to play it, it will often times tell me it can't confirm media usage rights... It creates duplicates of songs I've downloaded on Xbox Music and songs I have "matched in my cloud collection" on Xbox Music. It even told me it couldn't confirm media usage rights on a song which I downloaded myself and is not even available in the music store. Overall, it's a very piss poor job which I can only hope is improved in the future. It's like what they want me to do is just keep all my music in the cloud.. and if it's not available in the cloud, I'm just not allowed to have it. This post does a fair job of explaining all the issues: Master List Of Issues With XBox Music On WP8 - Microsoft Community... Does anyone else have these issues? I'm surprised there's not more humbug in these forums about it.
Camera:
The Focus S was a favourite of mine... It took great pictures, mind you it had terrible auto white balancing. The pictures were often times very over saturated though, and while this made for some great pictures of sunsets, it was overall more of a downfall. The 8X takes great shots indoors, I haven't had the chance to take any outdoors yet, or at night but I'm confident in its abilities. My only issues here are: when first initializing the camera on the 8X, it lags around a bit for the first few seconds. Also, I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but I can't for the life of me get autofocus to take a macro shot. Is there some secret to it?
What are other peoples thoughts in relation to what I mentioned above?
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