I've been a big HTC fan for years, every smart phone I've owned has been HTC, so I was pretty excited about the M8, with it's TV remote features, the sleek design and technical features. I was even more excited about the fact that it also could come as a windows phone.
I had a windows phone through work about 8 years ago -- pre-iPhone and android, back when blackberry was the major player. I liked that phone, the push notifications were impressive, there wasn't a touch screen but it also gave you more feature access...I could see network settings and set up a VPN without 3 party downloads. I was tempted but never jumped in when HTC skinned the old windows phone, and instead went the way of HTC.
I've had the HTC thunderbolt (first 4G LTE phone verizon offered), then the DNA (sleek, fast, but the charging port was easily damaged...I had to use the warranty 3 times, I broke the screen once, got an insurance replacement, then that replacement had to be replaced 3 times before I lost it a few months before my contract came up...the biggest plus was that the battery was encased so they couldn't do the quick battery check for water damage, which was always positive).
I ordered up this phone the first day I was eligible for an early upgrade (you can actually upgrade a month before your contract is up, I'm not sure if it's because I've been with verizon without an issue for 10 years or that's for everyone, but I've been able to do this the past few upgrades). Of course they sent me the wrong phone -- the M8 with android. They wanted me to mail it back so they could visually inspect before mailing me a new one. After waiting months to get this phone there was no way I was going to do that..so I ran out to my nearest Verizon Experience store and did it in person. They tried to charge me a $35 restocking fee. I threw a minor fit and they waived it.
Got home and cranked it on. After a simple set up process -- logging onto my live account I was up and running. After playing for a week I have to say the entire experience is much nicer than android, and from what I've seen from others, iOS. The integration between applications is much nicer than with Android. I can configure all my account integration on the microsoft website and my phone immediately knew the changes.
The look and feel of windows is also superior -- in my opinion -- than android. Everything is more cohesive and makes sense.
The downsides: the live tiles don't work too well, in my opinion. I can't configure things as well I would like to -- to show more info or get better info. I'd like more sizing options also, a 4 tile square, for example.
The obvious downside is that there aren't as many apps available. I went through and checked things before hand and pretty much everything that I used before was still available, so it was an easy change for me. The apps look different. Twitter has more of the WP style, which is nice, but some of the functionality is slightly different. It takes some getting used to, but even after a few days I like it better.
I'm impressed, and am looking forward to more.
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