HTC Windows Phone 8X first impressions

Along with the 8S, HTC was kind enough to also lend us its bigger and better sibling, the HTC 8X. Catch our brief overview of the Taiwanese manufacturer’s high end Windows Phone 8 offering after the break.

It can be a bit tricky to differentiate the 8X from its meeker counterpart. In fact, the only immediately noticeable dissimilarity between the two handsets is the chin where the three iconic Windows Phone capacitive buttons are located.

Though both handsets are available in stylish and vibrant colors, it’s evident from the get go that the 8S is the more fashionable one with its two-toned paint job while the HTC 8X bears a more straightforward appeal with its plain single-colored body.

Most of the buttons and ports placements are identical with the exception of the Micro-SIM card slot and the absence of a Micro-SD card slot on the 8X. The SIM tray is found just above the 8X’s volume rocker which can be accessed by pushing a pin-sized material to the eject hole beside it.

Similar to the smaller brethren, the HTC 8X also has that unibody form factor with a flat back that tapers towards the edges which not only gives it a deceivingly thin profile. Moreover this tapered design, paired with its rubbery-matte finish, also aids the user to have a firm grasp of the handset when held.

One thing that bothers us about the 8X’s design is that the back portion creaks like hells when firmly held. We’re not sure if this is the case for all of the units or it’s because HTC handed us an engineering unit.

The significant difference between the two handsets lies in the display and the hardware configuration under the hood. This 4.3-inch handset ships with a dual-core S4 processor which is clocked at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM and a non-expandable 16GB of storage.

HTC Windows Phone 8X specs:
4.3-inch Super LCD @ 1280×720 pixels, @342ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 2
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Krait (MSM8960) 1.5GHz dual-core
Adreno 225 GPU
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
3G/HSDPA
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.1
GPS with aGPS support, GLONASS
8MP rear autofocus camera, 2.1MP secondary camera
1080p video @ 30fps
1800mAh Li-Po battery
Windows Phone 8

HTC’s flagship Windows Phone handset has a Php26,550USD 452INR 38,354EUR 431CNY 3,295 price tag. It made its first public debut when HTC held a one day sale earlier this week. Alternatively, you can also get the handset for a fee or for free through Smart’s UnliData postpaid plans.