Time to unbox what some people are calling the new flagship Windows Phone, the HTC 8X or as they're officially calling it the HTC Windows Phone 8X.
They are pretty fired up about this partnership.
Now this is actually a preproduction unit so we don't get the whole super-duper unboxing.
I don't even need my cool box cutter, which is kind of a bummer, but nevertheless, let's see what we've
got.
Oh it is taped up.
Yes.
Box cutter time.
The Windows Phone thing seems to be like make a really colorful pretty phone, so this one comes in sort of a lime yellow, and this blue one which I will never ever, ever get out of this box like look how flush that is.
It's gonna live in here forever, with this.
Sorry, phone.
Torture test starts early this year.
Not really.
How do you--
That wasn't very smart.
That was not my smartest move ever.
Okay.
Oh, I know.
How about this?
You push it out.
I did it.
Great.
That's a little ridiculous.
Also in our box, congratulations.
You're one of the first in the world to experience the new Windows Phone 8X by HTC for AT&T.
You probably won't get that in your
box.
Well, let's have a look at our power, Rick.
Oh, a nice curve design.
Doesn't look just like the Apple one which is kind of a refreshing change and then of course what appears to be an extremely short little USB cable, micro-USB charging.
That is it.
Let's have a look at the phone.
This is pretty.
This definitely gives the Lumias a run for its money in terms of looks.
It's kind of a curved back here, not the hugest phone
so it's nice for those people who are feeling like phones are getting a little too big these days.
Let's turn it on.
Now Microsoft is not letting OEMs customize the operating system the way that Android is or the way the Google is with Android, so you should get a pretty consistent Windows Phone experience across the board.
This phone is also available on 3 US carriers, the T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T, which is a change from the Lumia, so the Lumia 920 I think is only available on AT&T.
You have the now
familiar Windows Phone tile interface here which I like.
Alright.
Let's talk about the guts.
The 8X has a 4.3-inch touchscreen display.
It's Gorilla Glass 2, so it should be pretty tough, and it's a really nice HD display, 1280 x 720 resolution, and it looks good with movies.
It comes in 16 gigs only.
It has an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing 2-megapixel front camera.
That's a pretty nice
front-facing camera.
It can also record 1080p HD video.
There's a dual-core Qualcomm processor running at 1.5 gigahertz, so it should be plenty powerful.
We don't know too much about battery life.
It does have NFC, Bluetooth 3.1, and of course WiFi.
One cool thing to note if you buy this phone on Verizon, it has support for wireless charging.
That's a pretty good feature.
One note about the camera, we've heard that some of the photos can be a little disappointing.
Read our full CNET review for more information on that.
One
reason might be that even though the 8X has an 8-megapixel camera, it defaults to 6 megapixels for some reason.
All in all, the 8X is a really nice phone.
It has a great design.
If I saw someone using it, I'd wanna know what it was.
It's beautiful, it's lightweight, and this operating system is very good and usable.
The biggest problem with Windows Phone of course, there aren't really very many apps available.
If the only app you use is Microsoft Office 13, then you're in good shape, but if you want something else,
you might be in trouble.
This phone starts at 199 on most carriers with a new contract of course.
You can find all the details in our full review over at CNET.com.
