The release of Windows Phone 8, and all the associated products and gadgets therein, has always seemed like a long way away, but with October now upon us, we’re just a couple of weeks away from the big launch, and if you’ve been looking forward to owning one of the first Windows Phone 8 handsets, your wait is almost over. Today, the HTC 8X has been spotted in the wild – just a week after the highly-anticipated Lumia 920 was also spotted out and about – and the world gets its first glimpse at the Taiwanese company’s Windows Phone 8 effort courtesy of some testing done on the streets of San Francisco.
As you can see from the image, all the 8X devices appear to be strapped down which, according to reports, is part of a setup to test signal strength and reception levels. A high quality, feature-rich smartphone is essentially useless if there’s a problem with the cellular coverage, and as you can see, this particular arrangement consists of mostly wood and plastic, eradicating metal which could affect the signal strength readings.
In order to promote the Windows Phone 8X, HTC has also released a promo clip of its new handset, and although the company has not been particularly open with regards to 4G LTE capabilities, the 4G icon at the top of the display in the video suggests we could be seeing the next-gen cellular data speeds with this device, as with other market-leading smartphones.
Upon seeing the launch of the 8X, Nokia was immediately critical of HTC’s apparent “tactical re-branding,” and suggested the new WP8 smartphones were a carbon copy of its Lumia design traits. Looking at them even now, it’s hard to argue the 8X is very similar to the Lumia 920, but the Finnish company certainly has the momentum in its favor when the pair go head-to-head for the affections (and wallets) of consumers.
Whilst HTC has struggled to deliver a smartphone of note in the past year or so, the Lumia 800 and 900 were heavily praised as the best smartphones for anybody wanting to try out the fledgling Windows Phone 7.x. Add to that the trouncing the Lumia 920 has given every other handset – including the iPhone 5, Galaxy S III, and HTC’s own One X – in the image and video capturing department, and it’s not difficult to see why Steve Wozniak was so full of praise for the Lumia and Windows Phone as a whole.
(via WPCentral)
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