How good is the 8XT?

[beachedwhale42]

Hello all, I'm currently on a Galaxy Nexus with Sprint, and I'm due for a new phone. I've been eying Windows Phones since.....well, since they first came out. Now that 8.1 is out, the last of my serious issues have been solved (notification center, Cortana, Word Flow, and few others). I'm not too concerned with losing the perfect Google experience, since I'm mostly just vested in Gmail. There will be a few apps missing, but I can either live without them or use the (slightly less convenient but still working) website.

Anyways, since it doesn't look like Sprint will be getting new WP devices anytime soon (and the Icon is exclusive to friggin Verizon), I was considering grabbing the 8XT, especially since it's free. I do have a couple concerns with it though:
1. Really, how good is the screen? My Gnex is a 4.65" 720p screen, and dropping down from ~315ppi to a 480p screen at 217ppi concerns me.....is it still a good screen though? Edit: The size doesn't bother me, especially since the Gnex has on-screen nav buttons, so it's really only about 4.5ish" of usable real estate.
2. Battery life on my Gnex is pretty terrible (I have to work hard to make it through a full day with low-medium usage). How does the 8XT compare?
3. Signal strength....my Gnex is consistently weak (which just makes the battery life even worse). It gets worse signal than my wife's 5c, and I'm a bit jealous of that, but I don't know if I can bring myself to get an iPhone. Besides, WP.
4. How is the performance of the 8XT? It seems like Snapdragon S4 (original 8X) and 400 are pretty similar, and I guess I don't want to be stuck with hardware that is already showing lag.

Thanks for your help....I know Sprint is a tough place to be for WP, but they seem to have a solid balance of coverage and price, and I can roam on Verizon for free, which is good in the back country of New Hampshire (but at least I'd get offline maps, so that would be even less of an issue).

 

[worldspy99]

Hello all, I'm currently on a Galaxy Nexus with Sprint, and I'm due for a new phone. I've been eying Windows Phones since.....well, since they first came out. Now that 8.1 is out, the last of my serious issues have been solved (notification center, Cortana, Word Flow, and few others). I'm not too concerned with losing the perfect Google experience, since I'm mostly just vested in Gmail. There will be a few apps missing, but I can either live without them or use the (slightly less convenient but still working) website.

Anyways, since it doesn't look like Sprint will be getting new WP devices anytime soon (and the Icon is exclusive to friggin Verizon), I was considering grabbing the 8XT, especially since it's free. I do have a couple concerns with it though:
1. Really, how good is the screen? My Gnex is a 4.65" 720p screen, and dropping down from ~315ppi to a 480p screen at 217ppi concerns me.....is it still a good screen though? Edit: The size doesn't bother me, especially since the Gnex has on-screen nav buttons, so it's really only about 4.5ish" of usable real estate.
2. Battery life on my Gnex is pretty terrible (I have to work hard to make it through a full day with low-medium usage). How does the 8XT compare?
3. Signal strength....my Gnex is consistently weak (which just makes the battery life even worse). It gets worse signal than my wife's 5c, and I'm a bit jealous of that, but I don't know if I can bring myself to get an iPhone. Besides, WP.
4. How is the performance of the 8XT? It seems like Snapdragon S4 (original 8X) and 400 are pretty similar, and I guess I don't want to be stuck with hardware that is already showing lag.

Thanks for your help....I know Sprint is a tough place to be for WP, but they seem to have a solid balance of coverage and price, and I can roam on Verizon for free, which is good in the back country of New Hampshire (but at least I'd get offline maps, so that would be even less of an issue).

I have an 8X on TMO and it is a great phone. I updated it to WP8.1 via Preview for Developers since TMO dropped support for it.
1. Screen is actually quite good, no issues from my side despite the 217ppi.
2. Battery life was excellent on WP8 but is a little bit worse on WP8.1, I am still fine tuning what tasks to allow in the background. It is almost 90% close to the performance of WP8. Overall, I would say it is good.
3. I did not notice any issues with signal strength but this may vary carrier to carrier so....
4. Performance is snappy, a little bit better than the Nokia 8xx series from the same time frame.

Hope this helps.

 

[beachedwhale42]

Thanks for the response. Glad to hear the battery life is good....I'm sure the 8X's battery life is roughly the same as the 8XT. Glad to hear about the performance too. It's amazing to see how my Gnex went from snappy in 4.0 to sluggish/laggy in 4.3, and that seems to be a common thing among Android devices (and iPhones from what I hear too). Seems like WP may not suffer the same fate, at least for now.

 

[AUCLABruin]

Thanks for the response. Glad to hear the battery life is good....I'm sure the 8X's battery life is roughly the same as the 8XT. Glad to hear about the performance too. It's amazing to see how my Gnex went from snappy in 4.0 to sluggish/laggy in 4.3, and that seems to be a common thing among Android devices (and iPhones from what I hear too). Seems like WP may not suffer the same fate, at least for now.

Yup. WP almost never suffers from lag, even with high usage or time passing. You should take a look at the Samsung Ativ S Neo. I know someone with one, and they are pretty happy with it.

 

[worldspy99]

Yup. WP almost never suffers from lag, even with high usage or time passing. You should take a look at the Samsung Ativ S Neo. I know someone with one, and they are pretty happy with it.

Microsoft store has good deals on Sprint WP as well, never hurts to check.

 

[beachedwhale42]

I was trying to avoid the S Neo....Samsung has lost me after the last couple phones I've had. Plus, I hate their mix of physical and capacitive nav buttons.

 

[dorelse]

I avoided the Ativ S Neo for the same reason as you...though at the time, Sprint wasn't even stocking the Ativ S Neo in stores, so I took that as a sign of their commitment (or lack thereof.)

Personally, I love the 8XT, it has some genuinely nice features over its 8X cousin. I love that it isn't massive, (easily pocketable), boom sound is awesome, the SD storage makes its a step above the 8X, and I have awesome battery life.

The screen is small enough that the ppi doesn't bother me. Its not cutting edge, but honestly, its a perfectly good screen. I'm assuming you've played with one at the Sprint store.

Things I don't love. The small tiles (when using the extra columns in the 8.1 DP), are really too small for meaningful live tile usage, only really good for shortcuts to launch something...again, that's a function of screen size & resolution. I use the extra column, but its small!

8.1 DP basically will disable Wi-Fi to secure networks...so know that going in.

I get between 14-16 hours per charge, but I'm a light user. (short phone calls, some texting, a little FB checking, etc.)

I've been extremely happy with my decision, but I got it almost 9 mos ago now.

If it were me...I'd hang on until we see an HTC One -WP variant...that'll be the dream phone, IMO.

Until that comes along though, I'd find an 8XT to buy outright (if you so desire) and use that until you can upgrade. I don't have any lag issues, and all my apps are running off of the Class 10 32GB SD card....I've noticed no difference.

Its such a great upgrade...totally love 8.1 on my 8XT.

 

[beachedwhale42]

Thanks for the info! Sad to hear that 8.1 DP disables Wi-Fi to secure networks...sounds like I'd need to wait for the official 8.1 FW for the 8XT if I was going to do that, so I guess I have some more time to wait....for a Sprint version of either the Lumia Icon or an HTC One. ~le sigh~

 

[dorelse]

Thanks for the info! Sad to hear that 8.1 DP disables Wi-Fi to secure networks...sounds like I'd need to wait for the official 8.1 FW for the 8XT if I was going to do that, so I guess I have some more time to wait....for a Sprint version of either the Lumia Icon or an HTC One. ~le sigh~

I should clarify the Wi-Fi & 8.1 comment.

There's a bug in that connecting via Wi-Fi to a secured network will cause the power button to become unresponsive (or extremely slow to respond, if it does). For me, it becomes slower and slower to respond until I'm forced to do a reboot and turn Wi-Fi off.

The work around that I'm using is that I'm connected to my open (but secured) guest network...that works great. So I really don't have any loss in function anymore on the 8.1 DP. Its such a great upgrade, and the 8XT runs it perfectly (again, on my device).

I just can't in good conscious say its worth a 2 yr commitment at this point when we will hopefully see new devices this summer/fall.

I think you'd regret not waiting for something better...but WP 8.1 is awesome...so you could always sell the GNex after purchasing an 8XT to pay for the change over...and not have any out of pocket costs. Then you'd be setup on WP 8.1 and still have an upgrade in your back pocket.

I switched over from an HTC One, (great device), to my 8XT and I honestly don't regret it. (Though I miss blinkfeed, a lot.) Its not laggy, its very stable & reliable, and it gets the job done nicely.