I have made my final decision.
So tonight, right after work, I went my local AT&T store (La Habra, CA... the best AT&T store EVAR... talk to Wells if you go) to review my options. I had my 8X in my hand... a great phone, kinda shy on storage, sucky buttons (my ham hock fingers couldn't find the power button consistently, and because of the way I hold the phone the volume was ever changing). I compared it against the 920... a great phone, but it's bigger than I would prefer and I'm a little gunshy of it because of the issues with the one I had. And then, right next to it, was the 820... a great phone, kinda shy on the screen, but has a removable cover, battery, and microSD card.
After much deliberation, I opted for the 820. Here are my reasons: internally, it's the same as the 920. I'm getting older and my eyes are going (I'm a developer and so I stare at a screen all day) and I couldn't really notice an appreciable difference between the 820 and 920 screen. It feels... AWESOME in my hand; solid and perfect sized with easily manipulated yet not in the way buttons. AND it has a microSD slot for media content (yeah, yeah, all my apps have to fit in 8gb of internal storage minus what's taken up by system stuff, but that'll be fine for me).
I can honestly say that for me, I've made the right choice. I get all the cool Nokia stuff in a package that suits me better than the 920. And... I know this is my final choice, because (according to my rep) AT&T only allows 1 phone exchange for a different model on a contract renewal and this is my 2nd. My rep did me a solid because I brought both my dad and brother in for phones this last week, and he knows my original 920 was problem-laden.
So. There we go. An 820, and I'm happy.
