Hey team, it?s Michael, with Pocketnow.com. If you haven?t noticed, AT&T has really turned
up the heat in advertising for its latest smartphone heavyweights, their HTC One X and
the Nokia Lumia 900. Some of my friends are AT&T customers, and they?re first-time smartphone
buyers. They wanna know what the differences are between these two devices. Both these
phones offer awesome user experiences, but they take very different roads to get there.
So let?s dive in and check them out. The first thing users are going to handle, notice, get
a feel for, is the phone?s exterior. These phone both offer unique design for their respective
platforms. The HTC One X is available in white or dark gray, with a polycarbonate shell that
really feels amazing in the hand. It?s quite light at 135 grams, it?s got a big 4.7? Super
LCD display at 720p, and the design, especially on the white one here, suggests something
retro-futuristic, almost like a 1950?s sci-fi concept of what a portable television would
be like.The Nokia Lumia 900 also features a polycarbonate shell, which also comes in
several available colors. As you can see, the design here is very different, with bold
square angles contrasting interestingly with rounded curves, depending on what angle you
look at the device from. It weighs in at 159 grams, and when I first took it out of the
box, that added weight over the One X was apparent. That said, it?s not a heavy-feeling
phone; just substantial. The display is a smaller 4.3? AMOLED panel with Nokia?s ClearBlack
technology. Now it?s not HD, but it does offer enhanced readability outdoors.It?s not until
you power on the devices that you realize just how different these experiences are.
The AT&T HTC One X is running Android Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense 4.0, and the Lumia
900 is running Windows Phone 7.5. The differences between these two platforms have been well-covered,
but even a beginner can easily see the huge aesthetic difference right off the bat: Android
offers a huge amount of customizability- I?ve got widgets here for time and weather, various
applications, power management, custom apps like Evernote, Twitter, a stock ticker, a
calendar, etc. (Reverse pinch to see all) I have 7 different homescreens to customize
however I like. Moving into an Android phone is a lot like setting up a computer; you can
do pretty much anything you want, but it takes a long time to get it all configured just
right.By contrast, Windows phone is pretty elementary-looking at first. You have these
big tiles that seem almost toy-like in their simplicity. But don?t make the mistake of
conflating simplicity with stupidity; this is a very smart OS. It?s just smart in a very
Spartan way. Windows Phone?s debut marketing message was ?get in, get out, get on with
life,? and you can see that here in Windows Phone?s notification scheme; big bold numbers
to tell you how many emails, tweets, missed calls, etc. Now, a smartphone is something
you?re constantly using, so how each of these high end devices performs is really important.
I?m not gonna talk about chipsets and clock cycles and RAM, because that?s not what the
majority of consumers care about. They wanna know how the device feels to use.Aside from
physical appearance, this is possibly the most subjective of all categories, because
everyone values slightly different parts of the user experience. For example, I prefer
fluidity and responsiveness to raw ability, and in this respect, Windows Phone is my preferred
device. Even though the hardware under the hood is less capable on paper, my day-to-day
user experience is more fluid ?? than it is on the One X, which has to contend with the
Sense skin running on top of Android weighing it down a bit. Don?t get me wrong; this is
one of the most usable Android devices I?ve ever carried, and the Lumia isn?t immune to
the occasional slowdown or system lag, but on the whole, I do find Windows Phone more
responsive. As far as browsing, both devices performed
well. Of course the Lumia doesn?t support Flash because it?s a Windows Phone, but as
I use Chrome on the One X, that?s not an issue for me because it doesn?t either. Load times
were comparable on each. In more mundane news, phone calls on each
device were clear, and callers said I sounded great. Reception seemed excellent on each
device in my well-covered area of Boston, and both phones feature LTE for a very fast
data connection. Battery life was about the same for each in my testing, with a slight
edge given to the One X. So if you value simplicity and responsiveness over raw power, the Lumia?s
looking like the better option for you. But what about apps? Most people know that Windows
Phone lags well behind Android in apps, at least as far as raw numbers go. But the Lumia
900 isn?t just any Windows Phone; it?s a Nokia Windows Phone. That means it carries some
special apps designed to fill a few gaps in the Marketplace.There?s Nokia Drive to compete
with Google Navigation on the One X, Nokia Maps to augment the Lumia?s Bing maps application,
and Nokia transit, for those who live in cities served by public transportation. Also, and
this is not unique to the Lumia - instead of hundreds of Twitter and Facebook clients,
the Lumia 900 uses Windows Phone?s ?Me? and ?People? hubs to aggregate all your social
content. So instead of separately hopping into your twitter client, then your Facebook
client, it?s all presented in one feed. You can get the same experience by downloading
any of hundreds of social feed apps on your OneX, but it?s not built right in to the OS
like on Windows Phone, and it?s rarely presented as beautifully. These apps are all good - especially
at their asking price, which is free - but whether they can replace the sheer number
of options available on Android is up to you. If you?re a power user who wants the newest
apps right away, even though MS is catching up, you?re definitely still going to want
to choose Android. But if you?re a more typical user, with a Facebook account, maybe one Twitter
account, a few emails, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Angry Birds, and other common stuff, Windows
Phone will serve you wonderfully - and simply. Finally, our talk about the cameras on each
of these phones will be very brief. Briefly: the camera on the One X isn?t the best, but
it?s got a lot going for it. The camera on the Lumia isn?t awful, but it?s really, really
not good. *Especially when it comes to low-light, the Lumia?s 8MP camera is unimpressive. Colors
are washed out, there?s a lot of noise in the shots, and considering the Carl Zeiss
lens, there?s not much to get excited about here. While the One X?s 8MP shooter might
deliver some more saturation than is called for, its photos are much better, with a warm
tone that might put some off, but looks a lot better than the Lumia?s dead, blue wash.
And the camera software, with its unified viewfinder, burst mode, ability to take stills
from video, and 1080p video recording, is heads-and-shoulders above the Lumia. Which
is still nice ? just not anything new. Again, simple. Most of that holds true for video
as well.So, they?re the top non-Apple smartphones on AT&T, they?re each available right now
- the One X is $199.99 and the Lumia is $99.99, each on a two year contract. Which should
you get? Well, if you?re a hardcore gamer, browser, power user maniac, you already know
the answer: it?s the One X. More than that, though, something to consider for you regular
folks: if you?re a heavy user of Google?s services, like Gmail, Google Drive (used to
be Google Docs), Google Calendar, Google Voice ? you?re really gonna wanna consider dropping
the extra hundo and going for the One X. Personally, I?m so tightly bound to Google?s services
- I use ALL of that stuff so much - that I need to carry an Android phone as my daily
driver. For me, that alone would be worth the extra hundred dollars. On the other hand,
if you?re not that tied in to Google - say you?ve got hotmail, MSN, Yahoo for email,
and your calendar is through Exchange and you use Microsoft Office or other alternatives
? or if you just don?t care about tight Google integration, Windows Phone is a really, really
attractive option. The OS is beautiful, thanks to Nokia, the hardware is now beautiful ? it?s
a contender, folks. ESPECIALLY for you people contemplating your first smartphone. That?s
not to say that it?s a kid?s platform or a toy; not at all. It?s simplicity is just very
appealing, especially to that segment. This has been Michael with Pocketnow. Drop your
thoughts in the comments section, let us know which phone you went for, and give us a thumbs
up if you liked what you saw. See you next time.