Comments Locked

25 Comments

Back to Article

  • LB-ID - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    With Nokia now firmly married to Microsoft and Windows Phone, I wonder how they feel about seeing HTC getting so chummy with Steve Ballmer? Of course the competition is great news for the consumer, but perhaps not so rosy for Nokia stockholders...?
  • dagamer34 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Any Windows Phone sold that isn't an iPhone or Android makes them far more happy because it takes a LOT of work to get someone to actually consider a Windows Phone. More Windows Phones means more app developers paying attention, which means more potential customers and ultimately more sales, even for Nokia.

    Someone is far more likely to consider Windows Phone if it has all the apps they need, and that is the biggest hurdle the tech press keeps complaining about.
  • bigboxes - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Since when has Microsoft had an exclusive relationship with Nokia?

    *crickets*
  • ascian5 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Should be interesting, you get different features from each phone, but HTC has the trump card of availability. It will be interesting to see how they price out for sure, but my gut says that the availability will be Nokia's downfall here unless they can manage something before November.

    Qi and 32gb of storage vs Beats Audio and... I couldn't say what else. You get competing but compelling camera options for both, but from the previews, the low-light and motion compensation of Pureview seem like the better route to me.

    Personally the 32gb of the Lumia wins over the 16gb and no expansion of the HTC. (none for Lumia either) The One X almost dragged me to the Android camp and I was excited to see this until I saw the handicapped storage. It makes less than no sense. That's right, less than none. Was NFC mentioned for the 8X?

    The other thing that nags me is battery life on the HTC 8X. Between the screen, audio driver and the question mark that is the OS (OS equal for both companies) I just am not as sold on this in comparison to Nokia. Fortunately I have AT&T.

    My iPhone 4 has long been showing it's age and I'm ready to upgrade. I do not like the screen decision from Apple I want usable real estate and width alone doesn't cut it. I'm sure there's plenty of jokes for that comment. I'll wait til all players are available this fall and make my decision once I can go hand on. I'd be glad to see any insight from others.
  • Tourist - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Hello ascian 5.

    The 8S and 8X have both a MicroSD card slot.

    I don't know for the 8S but the 8X has NFC.
  • kyuu - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Hello Tourist.

    Where do you get the info that the 8X has a microSD slot? Reporting by both Anand and Dailytech say that it does not.
  • Tourist - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link

    Hello Kyuu,

    Here you will find it described in the following video http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/19/3345684/windows-... around 28 or 38 secondes. (Sorry, very tired at that time...)

    Also it is mentioned here http://www.theverge.com/products/windows-phone-8x/... in the full specs sheet.

    May I mention by that times reports may be wrong on either it has or it hasn't....I saw it on this website and I am pretty confident it is true. At least, I hope so.
  • JHBoricua - Monday, September 24, 2012 - link

    Tourist,
    The 8x doesn't have a MicroSD card.

    The first link you quoted, on the video, it says that there's a MicroSIM slot on the side, which is not the same.

    The specs on the second link do not show that the 8X has a microSD slot either. It only shows that it has 16GB of internal storage.
  • vision33r - Friday, September 21, 2012 - link

    Nokia always made better handsets than HTC. Even way back with Symbian and HTC had WinMo.

    Not to mention a good portion of Europe is patriotic to Nokia so there's nothing to worry about.

    The only thing is whether MS can swipe customers from Android and Apple.
  • Lonyo - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    More than just chummy, apparently:

    http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-slaps-htc-with-wind...

    "The tension has seemingly been prompted by HTC’s deal with Microsoft to brand the 8X and 8S as the “signature Windows Phones.” Microsoft will use HTC’s handsets for its promotional material and advertising around Windows Phone 8"
  • agent2099 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    How easy is it to make google the default search engine on Windows phones?
  • Spivonious - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    You can't. Bing search is present throughout the entire OS, it's not just the search app.

    Honestly, Bing results are just as good and in some cases better than Googles. Try it out: www.bingiton.com
  • agent2099 - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    That's unfortunate. So I'm assuming there is no turn by turn Google navigation either? Does Bing have an equivalent, with voice?
  • armodons - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Nokia Drive will be available to all Windows Phone 8 devices. With full offline capability (as in the option to cache up to the entire world's mapping data and not just a few areas) and also the option to choose the voice for turn-by-turn navigation (I find Google Maps's lady voice really annoying), the navigation in Windows Phone 8 will be equivalent if not better than what Google has to offer (and already so current Windows Phone 7.5 Lumias).
  • B3an - Friday, September 21, 2012 - link

    Agreed. Nokia Drive/Maps is superior to anything Google have.

    Nokia Maps > Google Maps > Bing Maps > a turd in a box > Apple iOS 6 Maps.
  • Reikon - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    I've tried using Bing exclusively for search for about a month and was very disappointed with the search results compared to Google. It might work fine for very popular terms, but searching anything more complex or obscure and Bing fails.
  • kmmatney - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link

    I'm assuming you can still bookmark the Google home page and search from there? I've tried Bing many times, and it just doesn't give me the results I want - especially searching for scientific research, etc...
  • kyuu - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    These phones look really nice, and should feel great in-hand with the soft-touch coating and shape. Everything would be good to present a viable alternative to the Lumia 920 for those who prefer a smaller, lighter phone... but then they went and put in 16GB of NAND with no microSD slot. For some people that might be fine, but many (myself included) don't want to upgrade to a new phone with such limited memory. At least Nokia put 32GB of NAND in the Lumia 920, making the lack of microSD storage less of an issue.
  • InTheBoilerRoom - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    I feel like HTC missed an opportunity. Nokia is really able to differentiate itself in the Windows Phone realm based on optics. HTC should leverage their Beats marketing and differentiate themselves with audio. They've started with the higher line-out voltage. They could have taken it a step further by putting in the best DAC ever in a portable music device and providing an HTC and Beats branded music app that is able to playback not only mp3, aac, and wma, but also lossless audio such as flac, wav, aiff, etc., as well as providing unique functionality not currently available in Windows Phone music apps, such as creating an on-the-fly music queue. I find the built in music app to be one of the weakest points of Windows Phone, both in functionality and navigation.

    In conjunction with this, they should have included a micro-SD slot the high end device so that a user can bring their large music collections (or larger file sized lossless files) along. They really should leverage their Beats marketing into putting out the best audio experience ever on a mobile device. I don't even care that Beats headphones suck, it's about using a popular marketing name along with quality audio specs to carve out their niche in the Windows Phone (and even Android) world. Combine that with at least the current baseline for other specs (which they hit here), and that would have made me seriously consider an HTC Windows Phone.
  • Impulses - Saturday, September 22, 2012 - link

    What's funny is you can do all that (software-wise) on Android already, even though it's rarely touted as an advantage over iOS/WP, and there's some pretty good DACs inside some Android phones too... Beats is one of the worst gimmicks out there though. Glorified EQ basically.

    I'm mildly intrigued by the amp on the 8X, but truth be told, the vast majority of portable headphones have a low enough impedance that they don't really benefit much if at all from an amp. I'm really digging Nokia and HTC's new Windows Phone designs overall though, I don't even mind the color choices.

    I'm still not sold on WP but if it isn't doing better next year it certainly won't be for lack of inspired phone designs anymore. They really oughta think about pressing on with the aggressive pricing though, even Android flagships like the One X are dropping to $50-100 mere months after release.

    I'm sure SGS3 hype played a role in that, but there's always gonna be something applying that effect on the market (next Nexus in the fall, next SGS/iPhone hype a few months after that, etc.).
  • Luscious - Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - link

    Still rocking a HTC TouchPro2... because I'm still yet to find a high-end smartphone that can beat it!

    HTC knows how to make great hardware, so why can't they produce a modern alternative? Sliding keyboard, tilting display, MicroSD slot, LTE support, HD support - these should all be doable on WP8. I get the feeling Microsoft is putting too tight a grip on what hardware manufacturers can build.
  • a5cent - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link

    Microsoft has a "grip" on only ONE essential thing and that is the SoC. Standardizing that is a very good idea with many benefits. Beyond that (with a few small exceptions like minimal camera resolution and USB placement) any manufacturer is free to do whatever they want. How can that be too tight of a grip?
  • piroroadkill - Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - link

    I thought they defined physical buttons and screen resolutions too.
  • piroroadkill - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link

    Go buy yourself, off contract, a Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro (not the mini or anything like that). They're pretty cheap now, and is your best alternative. My girlfriend used to have a Touch Pro 2, and I bought her an Xperia Pro when the screen started to go, and she really likes it.

    Screen doesn't tilt, but there you go. No LTE of course.
  • Runamok81 - Thursday, September 20, 2012 - link

    Go TP2! One of the best phones ever manufactured. Dual booted Android and Windows. I shed a tear, but work supplies us with iPhone 4S's now. The TP2 went to ebay this week. Still having a hard time letting go.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now