design. On the phone, there are the usual array of buttons on the sides that you would expect from WP8 handsets; power, volume, and camera shutter. And beneath the screen are the standard three WP8 buttons: back, home and search. There is a headphone jack at the top and a Micro-USB socket at the bottom - it's placement dead-centre is presumably to make the phone ready for docking stations. There's also a micro SIM card slot that is accessible with a paperclip - as with the iPhone SIM caddy. The HTC 8X is a sealed phone. There is no access to the battery, and no microSD slot either to expand the storage capabilities beyond the 16GB included, although with SkyDrive successfully baked in, many of your photos and documents will be automatically stored in the cloud. Inside The HTC 8X is powered by the new Qualcomm S4 1.5GHz dual-core processor. The addition of dual-core support to the operating system has made everything that little bit more zippy and it's a welcomed inclusion. The processor's performance is boosted by 1GB of RAM and these new specs put the 8X much more in line with other smartphones than the last generation of Windows Phone hardware. There is no 4G version of the HTC 8X in the UK, although US readers will get 4G connectivity. In the UK we do get HSDPA+ support, so if your network supports it, you should find you'll be able to enjoy faster speeds than just HSDPA. The