Gadgetory

hi this is Brian Bennett for cnet.com and right now we're taking a first look at the HTC 8xt priced at 9999 the 8xt is available now on sprint and is the carrier's first Windows Phone 8 handset if the HTC 8xt looks familiar that's no coincidence it's practically a splitting image of the HTC windows phone 8x which debuted on AT&T t-mobile and Verizon last year in some respects that's a good thing the 8 XC shares the same sleek line slim profile and rounded edges of the 8x the phone comes in a similar blue color scheme as well on front of the 8x t is a 4.3 inch LCD with a wxga resolution that's far below the sharpness of more expensive phones with HD resolutions still while it won't exactly blow your socks off the screen is bright enough and colors sufficiently vivid not to detract from video text and other mobile content HTC also claims that the 8xt features its boom sound audio technology which first appeared on its HTC One flagship in a nutshell there are two stereo front firing speakers each equipped with their own amp the goal is to boost the volume of music video and other audio above the display is the 8xt s 1 point 6 megapixel front camera for self portraits and video chat running along the bottom of the screen are typical windows phone controls for back start and search there are no physical keys on the 8x T's left edge but you'll find a thin volume rocker and dedicated camera button on the right side up tops it's a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and a trim power key around back is the 8 megapixel main camera and LED flash they're both housed in a metallic circle 2 which is one difference from the Windows Phone 8x while the 8x t's 1800 milliamp battery is embedded you can remove the back cover to get at the SIM card and micro SD card slots running Windows Phone 8 the HTC 8xt uses Microsoft's much-touted live tile you I where square and rectangular application tiles actively twinkle with alerts and other data in real I'm living on the vertically scrolling home screen you can also move tiles around resize them or delete them to suit your tastes the HTC 8xt comes with the standard windows phone camera app but has the HTC camera application pre-loaded as well it offers multiple color filters plus they burst mode to snap multiple shots in a row supporting sprint's LTE network the HTC 8xt will also connect to the carrier's 4G infrastructure for fast data that is if you're within sprint's LTE coverage area I'm Brian Bennett for cnet.com and this has been a first look at the HTC 8xt be sure to check back soon for a full review