How the HTC 8X stacks up to other Windows 8 phones

20.09.2012
On Tuesday night, HTC posted a sly tease on its Facebook and Twitter pages--a photo that showed only the corner edge of a device with a banner that read 19.9. All became clear Wednesday morning when that . Along with the HTC 8S, the newly unveiled 8X will make up the company's Windows Phone 8 lineup.

Amid recent releases from and , HTC will be vying for the hearts of Windows Phone fans with handsets that feature exclusive Beats Audio and the proprietary HTC ImageChip, a f/2.0, 28mm wide-angle lens with HD recording.

Much like Nokia's Lumia 920, the 8X comes in a variety of bright candy-like colors (red, blue, yellow, gray, and black); the 8S comes in blue, red, gray, and black, but it features a bright strip of color along the bottom of the handset. The super-slim unibody is tapered, and the screens--at 4.3 and 4 inches, respectively--are both smaller than the competition. Samsung's ATIV S has a 4.5-inch screen while Nokia's Lumia 920 tops out at 4.8 inches.

The 8X features what is quickly becoming an industry standard of 1280 by 720 resolution as well as the super LCD 2 screen we previously saw in the , while the 8S's WVGA touchscreen has a lower resolution of 800 by 480. This puts it squarely in the same arena as the ATIV S and Lumia 920, which both have a 1280 by 720 resolution. (The Lumia 820 also has a 800 by 480 resolution).

The standout feature of the 8X, however, is its camera: The front-facing camera boasts the highest megapixel count of any Windows Phone at 2.1 megapixels and an f/2.0 aperture. It is also capable of 1080p video capture. The front camera features an ultra-wide angle (88 degrees) that can capture up to four people in one shot. The rear camera, meanwhile, offers up to 8 megapixels, a CMOS sensor, backside-illumination (BSI) for quality shots in low-light, and the aforementioned ImageChip technology. Sadly, the 8S does not have a front-facing camera at all.

While the 8X has some solid specs, so do most of its competitors, even with the . Both the 920 and the ATIV S offer 8-megapixel cameras, 1080p HD video recording, and a fairly high megapixel count in their front-facing camera. The Lumia 920 also features Nokia's floating-lens technology for image stabilization.