A few weeks ago, those from Orange Romania gave me the opportunity to test the HTC Windows Phone 8X, the newest HTC smartphone running the operating system Windows 8. I described in an article my first impressions about the terminal and this mini review they will resume some of them, but I will complete with the user experience I had with the device before returning it, with quite a bit of regret, because to be honest I liked it.
To begin with, I was pleasantly impressed by the design of the terminal and the quality of the material used on the case, contrasting very nicely with the Windows Phone 8 interface installed by HTC. The material has a texture similar to that of velvet, it hardly scratches at all, it's nice to hold it in your hand and you don't drop it easily, it gets dirty relatively easily, but I can say that I'm sorry for Apple's decision to not to release iDevices with multiple colors. I was less impressed throughout the use of the device's lock button which can barely be pressed, but also the volume/camera buttons, and from my point of view HTC made a mistake by choosing to cut the size of the buttons to do not take them out of the case. Although Apple has been criticized for not giving users the possibility to change the battery of their terminals, HTC does the same with this device, but fortunately fewer and fewer terminals have battery problems.
Leaving the exterior alone, I move on to the 4.3-inch screen, which makes use a little difficult, but if you have a large hand, you won't be too bothered by it. The quality of the colors displayed on the screen is comparable to that of a iPhone 5, but the Retina Display manages to reproduce everything a little clearer, more vibrant and more correctly. Even so, the difference between the quality of the images displayed on the screen is small, and I'm glad to see that Apple is brought to the situation where it has to improve this component of the iPhone. The resolution of the two screens is 1136 x 640 for iPhone 5 vs 1280 x 720 for Windows Phone 8X and although you will see a little more content on the screen, only in the case of HD/Full HD video clips will you see noticeable differences. I don't think that the difference in resolution will matter much, but the difference between the size of the screens will probably make some people choose the HTC.
In terms of performance, I could say that both are doing extremely well, the Windows dual-core processor running everything almost perfectly, the lag being almost non-existent. Comparing it with iPhone 5, the games, few otherwise for Windows Phone 8, it loads quickly, runs quickly, in the case of the rest of the applications things are identical, but the developers did not make it a priority to make titles for WP8, so you will be disappointed from this point of view. Moving on to battery life, I will tell you initially that the terminal does not heat up very much during charging/use of 3G connectivity or during games, but you will not have many hours of use. In my tests, the autonomy of the HTC was similar to that of the iPhone, a little lower in the case of constant use of 3G, but I think that a software update could solve some of the problems.
On the 3G connectivity side, because 4G was not available, I can tell you that on the Orange DC-HSDPA network we reached speeds of up to 20 Mbps, and in your case the performance depends only on the quality of the network you are connected to and the type of internet subscription you have active. You have fast internet, but are the pictures taken with your smartphone good enough to be uploaded on social networks? In my tests, I noticed that there are notable differences between the cameras of the two terminals, the Apple iPhone being equipped with superior hardware. Even so, the HTC has several options for changing the settings based on which the pictures are taken, so you could gain something on the quality side by using them. Before moving on to the software, I will tell you that the set of built-in headphones is superior to the EarPods from iPhone 5, sounds are heard better, clearer, and the external speaker is only slightly better than the one in the iPhone.
Moving on to Windows Phone 8, I can say that I am pleasantly impressed by Live Tiles and the way they work, but if you end up using applications and walking through the settings, you start to wonder what Microsoft forgot to do. Many applications have an inferior interface to those for iOS or even Android OS, and when you get to the brightness settings and you don't have a slider, but 3 options: low, medium, high, you start to question the decision to buy a Windows Phone terminal 8. If you go over these and start using the included Internet Explorer and notice that certain Javascript elements refuse to be displayed, you understand why Microsoft's browser has long been out of control for those who know how to use the Internet.
The interface of Live Tiles is the one that attracts Windows Phone 8, but the interface of many applications is not really that well thought out, and unfortunately some of them do not offer anywhere near the same functionality as those in iOS. Of course there are exceptions, but it all depends on your tastes, the way you are used to using a mobile phone and what you expect from it. To be honest, I was pleasantly impressed by the way it works HTC Windows Phone 8X, I was pleasantly impressed by the evolution of Windows Phone 8 and I expect it to become better in the future.
Unfortunately, the lack of an ecosystem as complex as Apple's and the lack of a community of developers to produce very interesting titles is probably the biggest problem that Microsoft's operating system currently has. I would buy an HTC Windows Phone 8X as a secondary terminal and use it with pleasure in parallel with an iPhone, but I would not be willing to give up the iPhone completely in favor of the operating system offered by Microsoft.
I thank those from Orange Romania for the terminal and I recommend you to sign up for the program Orange smartphone tester if you want to have the opportunity to test the future high-end smartphones that appear on the market.
