Gadgetory

i'm michael fisher with pocket nom if you're a Windows Phone fan on Sprint chances are you're asking yourself the question Samsung ativ s neo or HTC 8x t that's the question of today's comparison video so let's dive in and find out which of these phones is the right choice for you a Windows Phone as a platform mandates a lot of similarities across devices folks so it's actually interesting to see how different these two phones truly are not just on the spec sheet but in fit and feel and day to day usage we've already reviewed the 8 X T and a review of the ax T best neo is forthcoming so let's take what we know so far and dive right in right off the bat we're getting totally different messages from the hardware on each of these units the 8 xt with it's rubberized paint job and narrow edges it comes off as the faster of the two designs it manages to be at once slim soft and slightly sexy but also somewhat toy-like in appearance thanks to its lone color option of California blue on the flip side the achieve as neo is straight-up Samsung glossy polycarbonate and chrome accents with a very subtle pattern beneath the battery covers hyper glaze coating but otherwise precious little to set it apart visually from other phones in terms of dimensions HTC's phone is lighter than Samsung's and while the Samsung devices is actually almost a millimeter thinner it feels thicker thanks to the 8x T's tapered edges all this works together to make the achieve s neo feel like the beefier some might say clunkier device a good thing Samsung stuck with its guns and kept the power standby button on the side but that added bulk comes with some advantages the Samsung display gives the HTC screen the business in a pretty serious way it's a half an inch bigger at 4.8 inches but the main advantage of the atif screen is it's much higher resolution it's 720p to the 8x ts WVGA so while they're both LCD panels the achieves added pixel density will make for a sharper viewing experience to those of you who get personal with your phone screens for reading or Netflix hang or youtubing or what have you under the hood the ative s Neos supremacy continues further solidifying its place as the higher end of these two units while these funds are fueled by very similar variations of the same processor the Samsung phone offers 16 gigs of on-board storage to the HTC devices 8 gigs each one runs on a single gig of ram and each one offers microSD storage expansion but only the Samsung device allows a user to swap the onboard battery but which is also slightly larger at 2,000 versus 1,800 milliamp hours all this adds up to a pair of Windows phones that should do the job pretty well should we've talked before about the 8 X T's stumbles in the software Department lag and stutter aren't normally seen in great abundance on windows phones but even after asking HTC to replace our demo unit our software stumbles remained the 8 X T just isn't a terribly responsive device which is a shame the thing is neither is the achieve s neo it doesn't have that audio bug of the 8 X T that makes streaming music sound like a scratchy record but it's still more prone to software hiccups than most other windows phones we've handled sometimes the lock screen won't recognize a swipe up and other times it takes several seconds for the phone to come out of sleep when the lock button is pressed now is this like a showstopper nope not for everyone but this is the second Sprint Windows Phone that's exhibited lower than average responsiveness so we're wondering if something within the carrier's bloatware load is causing the problem speaking of added software there's plenty of customization on each of these phones we've seen Sprint's load of additions and the nice-looking HTC tile on the 8 XT that we really love that HTC app which presents news weather stocks and so forth in a very pretty fashion all covered up with a tile that drives very well with the Windows Phone design language on the homescreen unfortunately that's the only exciting thing about the 8 X t's custom software offering until we get to the camera anyway because the special HTC area of the Windows Store only offers 6 titles 6 folks now on the achieve s neo there's the familiar now tile which like the HTC tile is quite handy for news stocks and weather and other tools once you're inside at but it's a shame the company hasn't yet cleaned up that live tile for news which is still low res and just to get really ugly fortunately the company makes up for it with a hugely expanded Samsung zone in the Windows Store something we weren't necessarily expecting and which we'll get into in the full review but we've got a lot of useful stuff here from the long-sought app folder that lets you categorize apps on your homescreen two ports of popular Android titles like paper artist and a tea beam along with a really out of the blue avalanche of camera add-ons Samsung deserves kudos here for finally fleshing out its custom app offerings for Windows Phone its no nokia collection but staying within the lines of the comparison Samsung definitely has HTC beat here both of these phones pack eight megapixel shooters on their backside the new standard for mid to high-end phones and the results are fairly comparable the 8xt defaults to wide crops while Samsung likes to stick with square but aside from that there's a lot of similarity here on the whole the neo delivers more vibrant colors than the 8xt and the Samsung phone also seems less prone to distortion from handshake or a stumble that advantage reverses a bit in the video realm though where the Samsung phones quality lags seriously behind HTC s especially in sound performance each device offers many in-camera customizations atop the normal Windows Phone experienced add-ons that slow the software down somewhat but which also lend needed flavor to Windows Phones to Spartan viewfinder UI testing both phones on Sprint's networks in the Greater Boston area these phones continued to shine in different areas caller said they preferred our voice quality on the ateva CEO finding us sharper and clearer than on the 8x T and that held true on our end as well talking on the Samsung phone is more enjoyable as you might imagine the story completely flipped around though when it came to the speakerphone performance HTC's boomsound might be the most apt brand name in history because the dual front firing speakers on the 8x t destroyed the achieve s Neos tiny rear mounted unit in every category really it's not even a contest the 8 xt also offers a slight edge in terms of reception at least in our area it's been able to consistently hold on to both 3G and 4G signals longer and reacquire them faster after being out of service than the Samsung device as far as endurance goes will have more battery information in our full review of the atif earlier this year Sprint promised its users fresh new windows phones then technically we guess it's delivered but it's definitely more accurate to say that these devices are rehashes of phones we've seen before now would we spring for the extra 50 bucks for a healthier app store better call quality and display and a removable battery we'd hate to lose boomsound but yeah we'd probably go for the Samsung the real shame here though is that either way we went we wouldn't necessarily be all that excited we congratulate Sprint on finally rejoining the Microsoft party but if you're looking for a truly premium Windows Phone experience your ideal phones still lie on other networks that's gonna do it for this comparison video folks but we're gonna steal a trick from Jaime Rivera over at the pocket now daily and ask you a question to close out this video which of these devices would you choose doesn't matter what your reasoning is doesn't matter your answer is even if it is neither of them just leave it down below so we can get the discussion going for all those sprint customers looking for a Windows Phone 8 device it has been a long enough wait so let's give them something to talk about especially if you're one of them but before you go anywhere please drop us a like if you enjoyed the video follow us on social media so you don't miss future content from pocket now with the ax T s neo review up shortly please stay tuned for that but thank you for watching in the mean time and until next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow see you soon