[Guest Post] Market thoughts for HTC windows phone 8X & 8s

HTC’s 8X is the trademark phone for Windows Phone 8, which arose out of a joint venture with Microsoft for the newest version of its mobile operating system. The new phone is set to make its debut with Verizon, AT&T and T-mobile. The HTC 8X is also one of the few phones in the market to be operating the popular Microsoft Office application. Giving competition to 8X is Nokia’s Lumia 920 that is backed by a herculean marketing strategy and Samsung’s stylish Window’s phone.

From its uni-body design with a polycarbonate back to a fabulous 4.3 inch LCD double screen, the 8X oozes a classes of its own. The 8X at 10.6mm is bulkier than both an iPhone 5 and a Samsung Galaxy SIII. But the 8X has sharp curvatures giving it a good hold and making it feel equally slimmer to its Apple and Samsung flagships. The phone is not very light but it grips the hand evenly and the polycarbonate makes other brands like Samsung SIII look cheap and slippery. Only the iPhone has a better body design and user-comfort than 8X it. But one of the biggest concerns with the 8X is its miniscule storage space of 16GB only and the absence of additional micro SD slots. HTC defends itself against the less storage space allegations by highlighting the presence of Sky-drive storage system enabling an additional 7GB of memory space for streaming online downloadable music directly to the phone using 3G or Wifi resources. This has serious repercussions in making the new model popular with the masses since compatriots like iPhone 5 and Nokia Lumia 920 offering 64 GB and 32 GB memory space respectively.

In combination with Windows Phone’s live tiles, the 720 x 1280 pixel high definition display of HTC 8X is stunning. The 342 P.P.I pixel density of the display is higher than that available in both Nokia Lumia 920 and iPhone 5. Colors are turned into accurately and, even the zoomed in, particulars are razor-sharp and apparent without any hint of over-saturation. Using the phone in direct sunlight was also not a big problem either.

The 8X consists of a 2.0 apertures and twenty eight millimeter lens on the rear end in addition to a devoted imaging chip that provide some of the best performances ever expected from a smartphone. The pictures whether taken at close up or at some distance are better than average for a point and shoot device. Intensity of field is good as is color duplication with spiky, accurately delivered colors that don’t get over-saturated easily. Making videos on the 8X is also among the best in the class by conveying 1080p at 30fps with striking absence of wind clatter and speedy dispensation.

At the front end, a 2.1 mega pixel, f/2.0 extensive angle camera, enabling facebook and twitter addicts to include up to 3 of their friends in profile and status shots.

The beats technology has been incorporated by HTC into the 8X resulting an incredible intensity and range of sound on even the cheapest of ear-phones that may be used. In fact, the inclusion of a world class sound system only makes the decision to restrict the phone’s memory space to 16Gbs even more surprising

The idea of integrating the MS Office application is what has essentially separates a Windows phone with respect to the other media-centric phones in the market. Although track changes on Word documents are eagerly awaited, tables and tabulation are now delivered with precision and worksheets appear and function exactly like actual MS-Excel creations. The OneNote Integration comes in handy for users intending to use the phone for clicking pictures or making notes and sharing them on their desktops, laptops or tablets.

Although web browsing on the 8X has been more-or-less pleasurable, there are certain operational deficiencies carried forward from the Windows7 series that Microsoft has still not corrected. Web pages still don’t open properly resulting in text and picture overlapping while opening up some pages and giving the updated Internet Explorer a Symbian like feel of the 2002 era. Bookmarks too are not managed properly in folders or any other understandable format, which is indeed inexplicable and inexcusable.

The 8X is a beautiful creation from HTC and is one of the best smart phones doing the rounds. With respect to the power of its features like the cameras on the front and the back, in addition to its aggressive marketing strategy, enables HTC to score more over Nokia’s Lumia 920. It is certainly one of the better phones designed by HTC over the years but that doesn’t render it without flaws. A notable shortcoming relates to the inexplicably low memory space for music streaming and data-storage in addition to an average web-browser that still leaves a lot to be desired.