Review: HTC Windows Phone 8X for AT&T
Screen
The 8X has a 4.3-inch Super LCD II with 1280 x 720 pixels. It's excellent; sharp, bright, and colorful. I'm grateful that WP8 now supports HD displays. The 8X's screen was easy to use indoors and out. Text, icons, and graphics looked really good on the display, and finding individual pixels was a difficult chore. I had no trouble at all using the 8X as a camera even under a bright sun.
Signal
I was able to test the HTC 8X in both San Francisco and in storm-ravaged New Jersey. It performed beyond my expectations in both regions. The 8X always managed to find either AT&T's HSPA+ or LTE network with no problems and seamlessly jumped between the two. It never dropped to EDGE. No matter what the signal indicator read, the 8X was fast at browing the web, fast at downloading apps, and fast at updating Facebook and Twitter. I had no problem making calls even when the signal indicator read no bars at all. The 8X did not drop calls during my testing. It short, it was a reliable companion.
Sound
The 8X is a very good voice phone. Calls that I connected were loud and clear. Voices were always easy to hear and understand, and I thought they sounded warm and present. The volume of the earpiece isn't rock-concert loud, but it's loud enough for most environments. The same goes for the speakerphone. Call quality via the speakerphone was just as good as through the earpiece, and it's plenty loud for most uses. Ringtones and alerts will pretty much always get your attention, and the vibrate alert is jarringly strong.
Battery
I found the HTC 8X provided for an entire day of battery life no matter how it was used. I gave the phone a serious workout in LTE-soaked San Francisco, and it had more energy left at the end of the day than I did. It had no problem making it from 7AM to Midnight with 15% of 20% battery remaining when I plugged it back in. Whatever power management magic HTC has sprinkled into the 8X, it's working.
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