Now, you wouldn't know it looking at the packaging of these two phones. This is
the packaging for the 8X. This is the packaging for the 8S. But the 8S is
actually the little brother of the 8X. So, it has a bit of a lower spec
overall, a 1 ghahz processor versus the 1.4 GHz S4 processor in the 8X. It also
has 512 megs of RAM, 4 gigs of onboard
storage, which probably seems like not that much in the context of installing
like a ton of apps or anything like that, but this is more of an entry-level
phone overall. So, the screen resolution is only 800x480, which is still a fairly
respectable, I think 226 pixels per inch or something along those lines. It is
smaller than the 8X. So, if you guys don't know already, I'm using an 8X as
my daily driver phone. I switched from my iPhone 4 cuz I'm doing a 30-day
challenge where I'm trying to see if I can survive in the sort of fewer apps
available and sort of less wellestablished ecosystem that is
Windows Phone 8 as a as an avid OS user.
So, I'm in the middle of that. Um, I don't remember where I was going with
this, but yes, it is the younger brother of the 8X. It is smaller. It has more of
a rounded shape to it that I actually find more natural to to hold. And I'd
actually go as far as to say I like the finish on the back of it better than the
8X as well because the 8X is a little bit slippery on the back, whereas the
soft touch feel on the 8S is uh is a bit
more grippy. So, the fact that I have small hands makes it easier to hold from
the get-go. And then the roundedness and the uh and the grippyiness means I
should be able to actually type more easily on an 8S than an 8X. One of the
cool things about Windows Phone is the fact that the way they've optimized the
UI, it should be snappy pretty much regardless of the processing power
available on the phone. But while that's uh while we're waiting for that to turn
on, there's the screen. It's using Super LCD versus Super LCD 2 in the 8X
version. Uh so while we're waiting for that to turn on, let's do a quick iPhone
size comparison just because, you know, it's what I do. So this is an iPhone 4
and then this is the 8S up here. You can tell because they look very, very, very
different. Um, so the 8S has a slightly
slightly larger screen. There you go.
Terms of the width, it's fairly similar, but it is a little bit taller because it's 16 by9. And then you can tell my
iPhone 4 is uh pretty beat up overall. The rear camera is a 5 megapixel camera.
It does have a built-in flash. Um, unlike the 8X, which has notification
LEDs on both sides. So, there's actually one built in here and then one built in
under the grill on the front. It looks like the 8S doesn't get that feature,
and it also doesn't get a front-facing camera, unfortunately. Now, I don't want
this to turn into a whole huge list of what the 8S doesn't have, because it
does have a few things going for it. It's got a micro SD expansion slot,
which you can access by removing this bottom piece right here somehow. I
actually haven't uh I haven't had it out of the box yet, so I don't know how to
access it, but you the SIM installation is uh not down there. Yeah, is down
there as well as micro SD expansion. But
part of that is to compensate for the fact that the 8S has 4 gigs of onboard
storage. So that means for installing applications, you're going to have 4
gigs of space, including Windows Phone
8. All right, so we figured out a couple of things off camera. Number one is that
we all agree that it has a really nice feel to it just with the reduced weight,
the size, the the grippyiness of the back. And we figured out There you go.
That's how to remove the chin from the phone. So, it actually comes off
reasonably easily. And it looks like there's a built-in sensor there that uh
will allow the phone to know that you've opened it up. So, that's good. There's
your micro SD expansion. There's your SIM card. And then you can go ahead and
close it back up. It because it wasn't easy to remove, I would say that it was
Oh, yeah. There it goes. SIM error. I would say that it's um not easy to
accidentally remove because you have to actually put pressure on it this specific way. We had to check the
instructions in order to figure that out. So this is the Windows phone
interface. Uh we can click get started. Now most uh okay the general consensus
about this phone seems to be that the UI is still very snappy. Remember that's
what that's what Microsoft has done. So here we're going to sign in later.
That's what Microsoft has done with Windows Phone 8 is they've attempted to
say okay well regardless of whether it's a 1 ghahz processor or 1.7 GHz processor
or whatever else we still want the UI to feel very smooth and responsive. Now,
I've noticed this with the 8X, but obviously I haven't spent any time with the 8S yet. So, I won't have uh I won't
have any specific feedback on that. In terms of dedicated buttons, it's again
in line with that Windows experience. So, you've got a back button, a Windows
key. The back button also serves as a multitasking button. So, you hold that
down to access your multitasking applications. So, for example, here on
I'm sorry, I'm demoing on an 8X, but that's not what we're unboxing right
now. So, you just hold that down and you can skip between all of your different
uh all your different applications that you have open. So, that's what that
button's for. The Windows button goes back to sort of the main home screen,
which is where you keep all of your live tiles. So, there you can see little
previews and notifications. You can scroll down and access other live tiles.
And then the search button. So, this is a dedicated search button which takes
you to a Bing search. Now, the Bing search attempts to look at whatever
you're searching for when you press it and go, "Okay, he's pro if he searches
for Hello Kitty, he's probably looking for pictures." Whereas, if he searches
for uh guide on how to drywall
something, then he's probably looking for a video or whatever else. So, it
tries to be intelligent that way. One of my complaints about Windows Phone is I
wish it was more like a contextual search and it searches for whatever you
happen to be looking at, but that's not the way it's designed. and they want it
to be very sort of searchable. Um, the phone does include 7 gigs of storage on
Sky Drive. So, that and the expansion
using micro SD should help to aliate some of the some of the issues people
might have with having only 4 gigs of storage for installing apps. And for
entry-level users, it may not be an issue. For me personally, I would find 4
gigs to be restrictive, but if that's the case, you can always step up to, you
know, the bigger brother, the 8X. Um, in line with that consistent Windows
experience, you've got the buttons that are included. So, there's your 3 and a half millimeter jack here. There's your
power button here at the top, your volume buttons here on the side, and
finally a dedicated two-stage camera button. So, this is for the 5 megapixel
camera. That is a back mounted camera. And the way that it works, if the phone
is The phone's booted up now, right? Nope. Still setting up your phone. Okay.
Again, I'm going to do this. I'm going to show it to you on the 8X because this is the one that I actually have booted
up. So, the way that works is you actually hold it down to launch your
camera app and then you can focus with a half
click and then take your picture with the second click. So, I actually found
it very very quick, very responsive to use on the 8x and we clearly haven't
tried it on this one yet. Um, right,
last thing to mention is that Beats audio not I was going to say sticker,
but that Beats audio branding on the back. Um, the 8X actually has one of the
better speakers that I've encountered on a phone yet, including uh Slick S3 that
we've got handy here for size comparison as well. Here, I'll let you guys enjoy
that size comparison while I talk about the audio. Um, so it has one of the
better built-in speakers, but that's not actually what the Beats Audio branding
is about. The Beats Audio branding is all about the headphone experience. So,
you can actually turn it on or turn it off. And what it does is it boosts up
the audio level. So, it does make the audio louder. And it also uh amps up the
lows and the highs. So, I personally didn't find it to make much of a
difference for me. Well, I found it to make a difference, but I found turning
on Beats audio didn't make my music more enjoyable for me. But I didn't find the
onboard audio for the 8X, again, I'm talking about the 8X to be objectionable
either. So, you can turn Beats audio off and then it's a perfectly good audio
chipset in there. So, it wasn't an issue that I had it turned off. So, the Beats
audio branding is here. So, this one has Beats audio as well. We can have a look
at what's included in terms of accessories. So, you get a couple HTC
stickers. D. You get a Windows Phone 8S
by HTC quick guide that shows you some basic stuff like installing the SIM,
which we used um customizing your start
um your start menu, customizing your ringtone, uh keeping in touch. So, the
people app is actually very useful. It takes sort of your Facebook, your
LinkedIn, your Twitter, and all that stuff and just kind of puts it all in
one place. And it works very well. It
works better, I'd say, for consuming information than it does for posting
information because I found things like tweeting from the people app somewhat
limiting and a little bit non-intuitive, but it's great for just kind of seeing
what's up with the people that you follow or the people that you're connected to at a glance. uh rooms and
groups. Keeping things in sync. Another thing that I absolutely love about
Windows Phone. Ah, all the apps finished installing. All done. There we go. So,
the 8S is fired up. One of the other things that I love about Windows Phone
is moving media on and off of the phone is absolutely drag and drop. You plug in
a micro USB cable and then it's just a folder, which is the way that every
phone should work for copying music. I should not have to deal with iTunes to
get some music on my stupid phone. That's just ridiculous. So, here we go.
That's what the uh that's how the UI smoothness is on the 8S
here. So, again, I can't really see anything that would particularly bother
me about it compared to the 8X. Now, if you're browsing the internet, for
example, you'd probably run into things that are a little bit slower on the 8S
versus the 8X, but the Windows phone ecosystem is designed for
this. I don't know if I mentioned this before. It has 512 megs of RAM. And
right, let's see if there's anything else included. Right, so you do get a
wall wart. There we go. As well as the
USB cable that I mentioned before that you might need. And I think that pretty
much covers it. Thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the 8S
from HTC. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings,
reviews, and other computer