Eneko at One Aldwych

This month sees the opening of Eneko Atxa's newest restaurant at the basement of One Aldwych hotel in the Strand. Eneko at One Aldwych is a more casual version of his three-Michelin Azurmendi restaurant in Bilbao, Spain. Azurmendi has recently been rated as one of the world's top twenty restaurants, so we were excited to dine at Eneko's newest restaurant today.

The simplified menu consists of several seafood and land-based dishes, as well as vegetarian options. We had the anchovy tempura and a trio of pork consisting of  mushroom and Iberico ham, suckling pig brioche and crispy pork jowl. The anchovy tempura were served in a cute fish and chip style cone. Despite being a battered dish, I found the anchovy tempura to be light, but the trio of pork (trexxi boda pork festival) stood out for its generous portion and delicious variety of pork.

Apple iPhone 6S digested review

Say what you will about Apple, they really do know how to design a lovely looking phone. The iPhone 6S is the latest iteration in their never ending quest to change everything, again.

The 6S follows through Apple's previous strategy of reusing the design of its predecessor. The 'S' moniker is there to indicate a performance update (Speed, see what they did there?), and boy does it perform. The Apple A9 CPU is a beast. Its single core performance is blazing fast, and its multi-core's none too shabby either. Without getting technical, the 6S is the fastest phone you can get on the market today.

iOS9 comes preloaded with the 6S and is optimised for the larger screen. I had been testing it on a 4S previously and found it highly unusable on a small display, but on the 6S - it works just fine. It just isn't for me. As someone who loves the design of Windows (Metro) or the fluidity that Android provides, iOS's garden wall restriction hampers my enjoyment somewhat. Still to some, it is perfect, understandably, and I won't slate anyone who prefers it.

Setting sail on Royal Caribbean's newest smart ship 'Quantum of the Seas'

Me, on board our first ever cruise

Last week my partner and I were invited to board Royal Caribbean's newest ship, Quantum of the Seas, at their pre-inaugural sail from Southampton for two nights. This was an event catered for the media, members of the press, bloggers, VIPs, travel agents and staff members.

Two70 lounge which can be reconfigured as a performance theatre

This was our first cruise so I had no idea of what to expect. The closest I have ever experience anything like this was in Vegas almost twenty years ago. A mini city resort on a giant boat is probably the closest I can describe this ship. Quantum of the Seas is the first of a new breed of smart ships called the Quantum-class, and is currently the second largest cruise ship in the world, just behind Royal Caribbean's own massive Oasis-class ships. Read on for my impressions.

Taruna Homestay review

Taruna Homestay is a family run bed and breakfast in Pemuteran, North Bali. We stayed there for two nights during our trip to Bali last month (wow, has it only been that long?). Of all the places we've been and stayed in, Taruna was in one of the least touristy and developed area, which suited us just fine.

Each of the twelve bedroom is designed as an individual villa, with their own private entrances and terrace via the courtyard (which leads to a small but nice swimming pool). The bedrooms comes with their individual outdoor shower and toilet area, which we found unnerving at first.

Pemuteran beach

Our room has air conditioning but we did not use it often preferring to use the ceiling fan instead. The room was clean, if a bit outdated in decor and dark. As a budget homestay, there isn't such luxuries like a TV (why would you want one?), but you do get a kettle, daily mineral water and free wifi access for your Instagramming needs. You won't get much privacy as each rooms are on the ground floor unless you have the curtains shut at all times.

EasyAcc Powerbank PB5000C review

Despite the ever increasing power of smartphone, with high guzzling 1080p and hopelessly useless but diserable 2.5K displays, as well as quad core (and octa-core processors on the way), more powerful cameras and operating systems that are so woefully inefficient, battery technology has yet to catch up. Manufacturers insistence that we need ultra thin smartphones at the expense of battery capacity is also a culprit.

I have been a huge fan of my Nexus 5 device, but its sheer power is only matched by its inadequate battery. The Nexus 5's pitiful 8Whr battery lags far behind even the groundbreaking Motorola RAZR MAXX, which was released two years ago with a still unsurpassed 12.5Whr battery (only bigger unwieldy phablets like the Lumia 1520 has a larger battery capacity, and only just).

Captain America: The Winter Soldier mini-review

Yesterday I attended an advance screening of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, courtesy of Skype (thanks!). The screening was held at the Odeon Marble Arch and was shown in 3D, perhaps the only two negative things I can make about the evening (okay, three if you count the forgettable soundtrack). I visited that Odeon 14 years ago and it is still as bad as it was back then. As for 3D, well my hatred for the format is well documented. Moving on...

After a day to think about it, I can safely say that The Winter Soldier has elevated itself to perhaps my favourite movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a full rung above the Avengers. Which is pretty neat as the first Captain America movie was pretty meh. Coupled with the fact that the godawful Iron Man 3 and incredibly meh Thor 2 has me worried on whether MCU is a sustainable franchise. Good thing they got it with Captain America 2.

While CGI heavy in places, The Winter Soldier feels like a much more realistic movie thanks to some brilliant Bourne franchise-style fighting choreography and use of heavy artillery and proper weapons (lasers, who needs them?). Captain America has learned some new modern fighting movies and some of his take downs are pretty epic. I could watch Cap destroying that plane after escaping the Triskelion on repeat.

Browns of Brockley review

I have a confession. When I was first introduced to Brockley, the area we now live in, it was through the wonder of London's specialty coffee scene. Brockley is an odd place to visit for coffee, but it was how it was. In any case, our chance visit to this part of Lewisham opened our eyes to its lovely Victorian housing stock, many of which were largely ignored, but so many potential. The rest was history.

Browns is located conventionality in a row of terrace opposite Brockley railway station, making it an ideal spot to hang out in the wee morning when a train breaks down somewhere down the line. The shop is small and unassuming from the outside, and neutral and unpretentious on the inside. Delicious cakes and bagels greet you as you enter the shop. Oh, and the sweet smell of good coffee.

SGP Spigen Neo Hybrid for LG Google Nexus 5 case review

SGP Spigen's Neo Hybrid is one of my favourite cases for smartphones. Each time a new phone is announced, SGP will normally be one of the first port of calls where I would search for a compatible case. It isn't surprising then that when Google and LG announced the Nexus 5 that I quickly ordered a Neo Hybrid case.

The Nexus 5 isn't exactly a looker, so covering it up in a case is a no brainer. The Neo Hybrid is a two piece hybrid case. It comes in two separate parts: an inner layer which is made of soft flexible TPU, and a polycarbonate skeleton bumper frame, which is designed to go over the silicone bit. It is available in dark grey, silver and champagne gold, which is a bit of a bummer as I would have preferred to get one in yellow.

Simply slip the silicon case over the phone and once that is fitted, you then slot the outer glossy skeleton frame over it. You would not want to be removing this case often as the case is very tight. Not that you would need to as the Nexus 5 has no expandable storage option of accessible battery compartment.

Meridian Explorer review

Meridian is a Cambridge based audio company known in the audiophile circle as a good trusted brand when it comes to sound quality. Their products are on the upper end of the market and, as all their products are designed and manufactured in the UK, therefore comes at a premium. The Meridian Explorer is a product aimed at cornering the slightly lower end of the market, and to a different segment of audio lovers.

The pocket size USB DAC is designed for those who mainly listen to music using computers. It is a growing segment of the audio market. Long gone when you need a PC size amp and book shelf speaker in order to enjoy good audio quality. The Explorer in intended to do two things. It is designed first to bypass a typical PC's soundcard (which are normall inadequate), routing the digital file through the USB onto the Explorer's on board Texas Instrument DAC. This by itself will almost always make a difference for the better. The second thing the Explorer does is up sample the audio file.

A CD and MP3 file typically contains audio tracks in 16-bit resolution and 44.1kHz sampling, which is adequate for majority of music listeners. However to some, this isn't enough. You can find albums encoded in 24/192, but these are rare and expensive. The Meridian Explorer on the other hand is designed to take these 16/44 files and resample them. This isn't quite the same as buying audio files encoded in native 24/192, and is similar to buying a Blu-Ray player that is capable of up sampling a 1080p source for playback onto a 4K monitor.

My review of a dead Samsung Galaxy S4

Well this is awkward. This blog post should have been a review of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android smartphone but alas, circumstances beyond my control has lead to this diatribe instead.

About 12 days ago I bought a white Galaxy S4, replacing my seven month old HTC Windows Phone 8X. I didn't need a new phone, I just wanted one. Before yesterday, the phone already had some teething problems but nothing too unusual. It doesn't charge as quick as it should but charge it does. Other problems are typical of a Samsung Galaxy phone - cheap build, scratch easy material and a laggy almost-forked Android OS. This despite a powerful Snapdragon 600 SoC - you know, the same one that powers the incredible HTC One with gusto.

In any case, yesterday I left the phone on the charger after a furious session of Temple Run 2, then went out for lunch. Returning I found a phone that is hot to touch, that refuses to boot up and wouldn't charge. I re-inserted the battery and tried again. Nothing. I switched to another micro USB cable as these cables breaks every other day. I even used a clean toothbrush the clean the S4's USB port (seriously, micro USB is the worse standard the industry has ever forced on us). I tried other USB chargers including one by Apple, another by Sony, another by Motorola and another by Google/Asus. No luck.

So there you go. A dead S4 was all I have to report for this blog post. Fortunately for me, the shop I bought it from refunded me. Still it kinda has put me off the Samsung Galaxy S4 (and its millions of variants) somewhat. I was back in the market for a new phone, and I almost bought a Lumia 925. Still, I think I will be waiting until Nokia announces the Lumia 1020's availability in this country (there is more to the world than the Americas, Nokia), and see what Apple and Google has in store for the next iPhone and Nexus revision.

The camera's pretty good though, despite the narrower focal length.

SGP Spigen Neo Hybrid for Samsung Galaxy S4 review

The Samsung Galaxy S4 might not be the prettiest smartphone out there, so when I recently acquired the soon to be former Android flagship, I set out to search for a case that would not only protect my investment, but also 'prettify' the phone. It wasn't easy. Fortunately I had an old case I once used on the Galaxy S2 lying around. A quick search on the web reveals that there is a version for the S4.

The Neo Hybrid is a two piece hybrid case. It comes in two separate parts, the inner layer which is made of silicone rubber, and a polycarbonate skeleton bumper-ish frame. This frame is designed to go over the base silicone layer. This gives the case a unique look, as well as offering users a small degree of customisation. In addition to the yellow I ordered, SGP also offers the Neo Hybrid in black, white and red variants. Three jelly bean button stickers are also included.

Unlike the many dodgy silicon cases you find on eBay, the silicon rubber inner case is soft and flexible. Installing the case is easy enough. First slip the silicon case over the phone. Once the inner case is fitted, you then simply slot the outer glossy skeleton frame into place. This isn't as easy as it appears as the frame is very tight and snug so make sure you have your largest memory card already installed. You would not want to be removing this case often.

Five Guys & Shake Shack London burger joints review

The last couple of years has seen the rise of good burger joints. The surprising thing is it has took so long for people and restaurateurs to realise that people want good quality burgers with proper meat than the bland we've grown used to from either fast food or pub chains like Weatherspoon. And we are willing to pay for it.

We in the South East are blessed as fine burger joints in the form of Meat Liquor, Lucky Chip, Patty & Bun, Mother Flipper, Honest Burger and many others open shop around London serving their own style of awesome burger. You will never have a bad burger at either joints but they are all different enough to have their own band of burger fans. Just don't ask me which is my favourite as I love them all equally (okay, some more than others but hush now!).

Last week saw the opening of two new burger joints in London. Both are established American chains operating on the upper end of the fast food burger market. Will these two big name burger chains be enough to take on London's burgeoning indie burger scene?

First up, Five Guys. With over a thousand restaurants and a thousand more in development, they are the fastest growing fast food chain in the US. Their new restaurant in Long Acre (on the site of the former The Long Acre bar) is their UK's first and no doubt more shops will follow if it proves to be a success.

KeepCup reusable coffee cup review

As a coffee addict, KeepCup has been one of the best investment I've ever made. Originating from coffee cultured Australia, this is the first barista standard reusable cup - meaning it should fit most professional espresso machines. If you drink as much coffee as I do, then this will reduce the consumption of disposable cups, of which billions are consumed and thrown away each year. Less waste = better for everyone. Released in 2011, KeepCup reusable cups has proven to be so popular that even Starbucks is getting into this whole reusable cup business.

KeepCup cups comes in four sizes: XS, S, M and L, which equates to 4oz, 8oz, 12oz and 16oz. Now I don't know about you, but I like my coffee strong, so 4oz and 8oz are perfect depending on the type of drink you like. 4oz cups are for espressos and 8oz are for milk-based espresso drinks like flat white and latte. If you like iced drinks, then either 12oz and 16oz will suit you, and I suspect these two larger cups will be popular among fans of Starbucks brand of bland coffee.

My partner's KeepCup

In fact, you don't even need to like coffee to want to own this - it is fine for any hot beverage including tea, chai latte (whatever that is) or any other trendy hot drink is at the moment. The removable rubber band allows you to highlight your drink preferences, including whether you want sugar or sweetener (or none), soy milk (ugh), low fat milk (double ugh) or your coffee decaf (triple ugh).

The Attendant coffee shop review

The Attendant in Fitzrovia, London, was recently brought to my attention by the budding London coffee snob community. This lovely new coffee shop's rise to fame is its venue - a refurbished Victorian public toilet, built in the 1890s and closed since the 1960s. For all we know, George Bernard Shaw and George Orwell, who both lived in Fitzrovia once, probably frequented this establishment - so there's a lot history in this place.

Now, the idea of turning an old Victorian loo into usable modern space isn't exactly new. Cellar Door, a cocktail bar in Aldwych is one such example. But The Attendant takes it further by retaining many of the original features. Things reserved  includes the cistern towering above two Hector BTC lamps, porcelain urinals since repurposed into bar tables, where you can have your coffee at; and even the original attendant's office, which now houses a kitchen.

Have a flat white on an old Victorian porcelain urinal

You might be tempted to think this is all just a gimmick, and I won't blame you. Too often have we been conned by new cafes and bars who would rather trade on the the niche of their venues, rather than the value of their food or drink. However, you will be glad to know however that the same care that was put into transforming the venue has been put into their food and coffee as well.

HTC One review

Last year's HTC One X was one of the best efforts put into by HTC. Announced alongside two other HTC One phones at MWC, HTC promised to reined in their portfolio, putting more emphasis into quality rather than quantity. Sadly that was proven not to be the case, as the One series was overshadowed by the release of a dozen of so phones throughout the year, diluting their portfolio and as a result, focus.

For 2013, HTC appeared to have learned their lessons regarding the desire to over saturate the market with identikit phones. Announced just last week before MWC, the HTC One is a flagship deserving of its own spotlight and launch. Sporting a new design, the former HTC M7 looks the part of how a flagship should - it is luxurious, beautiful and premium, and it doesn't skim on the specifications. Not to say that the One X wasn't beautiful (it was), but it is nice to see HTC discarding their typical old habits of recycling old ideas.

Special thanks to Three UK for loaning the device. You can pre-order the One from them now.

Before we head into the review, let's get the specs out of the way, shall we?

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 with quad core 1.7 Ghz Krait 300 and Adreno 320 GPU
• 2 GB RAM and 32/64 GB built-in flash storage (no expansion slot)
• 25 GB Dropbox storage for two years
• 4.7" Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen with 1080 x 1920 resolution (468 pixels per inch density)
• Quad band GSM and 3G, 4G where available
• 42 Mbps DC-HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, LTE where available
• 4 Megapixel UltraPixel camera with LED flash and 1080p30 HDR video recording, OIS
• 2.1 Megapixel front facing camera with 1080p30 HDR video recording
• Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi 802.11a/ac/b/g/n
• GPS receiver with A-GPS, GLONASS
• NFC and micro USB with MHL (HDMI out)
• 2300mAh battery (none user replaceable)
• Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5.0
• 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm, 143 g
• Available in silver or black colour

The biggest upgrade over the HTC One X and One X+ is the screen. The 1080p Super LCD3 display has a resolution of 1080 x 1920, offering a retina-busting pixel density of 468 pixels per inch (ppi), or mind boggling 1404 sub-pixels per inch. To be fair, the jump from 720p to 1080p isn't nearly as apparent as say from 480p to 720p, but there is a very slight difference.

468 pixels per inch: eat your heart out Retina

Still, from a technology point of view, this is incredible. It took many years before PDAs with 240x320 and 320x480 displays were displaced by 480p screens, but it took only a year for 720p to flourish before going fashionably out of date. Suffice to say, you will need very good eyes to notice the difference, and 720p is still more than enough for the majority of people. Even then, from a technology's perspective, 1080p over a panel measuring a mere 4.7" diagonally is amazing.

Crate Brewery review

I have found the holy grail of pizza. And it's in Hackney Wick.

Crate Brewery resides in an old disused building called the White Building. It is, you can guess, white in colour so you won't miss it. Despite it's rather pretentious and grandeur name, the White Building is just an average sized building that happens to house a pizzeria and brewery, it also houses a creative lab with studio spaces for hipster East London artists. The building can be found right by the western side of Hertford Union canal, happily on the other side of Stratford. You can also just about see that ugly towering monument known as the Orbit sticking out somewhere from the Olympic Park.

As evident from their name, Crate Brewery also brew their own goddamned beers. Now I don't pretend to be a beer expert, but I do know that craft beer is supposed to be all the rage these days, as if it confirms your cred - so I guess that is rather impressive (they taste good actually). Oh and they also make pizzas. Bleeding good pizzas actually.

HTC One UltraPixel camera review

The new HTC One, has a lot going for it - a fantastic design, an ultra crisp 1080p display and crazy fast specs. But when HTC announced their new flagship in London two weeks ago, they also surprised the tech world by announcing that the One would feature a 4 megapixel camera sensor. Now, 4 megapixel might not sound a lot, but I have always been an advocate of scaling back megapixel for raw quality for smartphones and digital compacts where it is just physically impossible to cram a large sensor. (Many thanks to the good people at Three UK for loaning the HTC One)

In an age where the megapixel myth is more popular than ever, it took a lot of guts for HTC's designers and management to have actually decided on this, and I admire them for it. From a marketing perspective, this new strategy could easily backfire. But in a post PC smartphone world, where the majority of images are shared and viewed on smartphones via social sharing networks like Instagram, Flickr and Facebook, this renewed emphasis on less resolution in exchange of higher quality images makes total sense.

Disclaimer: This review is based on a HTC One running on a pre-release firmware (version 1.26.401.6). I have been told that the firmware that is due to be released with the retail HTC One will feature a few camera tweaks. I will update this review accordingly when the new firmware is released.

The sensor, which HTC calls the UltraPixel, is a backside illuminated (BSI) sensor measuring 1/3" in size - the same size as most typical sensors found in slim smartphones. But that is where its similarities ends. Because the sensor only packs 4 megapixels of data, HTC was able to increase the pixel size to 4 µm2, roughly less than half found on a SLR's sensor but almost double the normal pixel size found on other smartphones and some leading digital compacts like the Canon S110 and Fujifilm X10. This is a fair upgrade, as HTC's own previous One X has a camera sensor with a pixel size of 2 µm2. The same goes for the Lumia 920. HTC's strategy in having a physically larger pixel is in contrast to Nokia's preference to using multiple sensor pixels to create a single final pixel, in their PureView product.

From a physical point of view, it was the only way to get a reasonable quality imaging module into a slim phone, such is HTC's obsession with thinness. Unflattering reports of Sony Xperia Z's low light performance may also have vindicated HTC somewhat. Whether or not the public would buy into this remains to be seen, and it will take massive amount of effort and marketing to educate a public who has already been conditioned to believe in big numbers.

HTC has also fitted a standard five elements 4mm (28mm in 35mm equivalent) f/2.0 lens with optical image stablisation (OIS) to boot. Combined with the new sensor, on paper the HTC One should be capable of delivering some neat low-light photography. A single but powerful LED flash sits on the side.

Real Racing 3: A Commentary

"Hei, I got this new game. It's Real Racing 3 and it's awesome. Best of all, it is free!"

"You mean the franchise racing game that plays the game for you? But because it looks nice, everyone raves about how mobile phone gaming is close to dispatching console and PC gaming, even when it isn't?"

"That's the one!"

"So how does it play?"

"You tilt the phone to turn, and tap the screen to slow down. Most of the time the game brakes for you."

"You can't even accelerate yourself? Pfft, modern gaming eh? And this is supposed to be hardcore?!"

"Well, look, it is just as pretty as Gran Turismo 5."

"Here, let me try... Ooh, that Porsche is sweet. Reminds me of the last good Need For Speed game EA ever made. You know, Porsche Unleashed. No? You are probably too young to remember... Holy crap Batman, that's a lot of jaggies!"

"It looks better in motion. You saying PS3 games doesn't have jaggies?" *rolleyes*

"Whatever. Argh, why the hell are these opponents trying to ram me out GTA style?!"

"The A.I. is a bit poor, that can sometimes happen. But who cares? Look at the graphics, dude!"

"Yeah yeah. The physics is a bit bouncy too."

"Stop being an old man and appreciate an obviously pretty game."

"Yay, I won this race. Okay, so I have incurred some damages. Wait, why is it asking for real money to have my car fixed quicker?"

"Yep, that is EA's fantastic new business model where you pay to get trivia stuff done faster. I should have mentioned that earlier."

"So, what you are saying is Real Racing 3 is a racing simulator of what it is like to race with psychopathic mechanics who are out to damage your car, just so you will have to pay them to fix it later?"

"Pretty much."

"Worst. Game. Ever."

"You complain a lot."

"Fuck this shit." *whips out Outrun*

2/10

Tested on iPhone 4S

Bone Daddies Ramen Bar review

Ramen is making a come back splash in London. After Tonkotsu, we sample out the latest in Soho ramen scene, Bone Daddies. Opened last year, each of our visit to Ross Shonhan's newest noodle bar continues to stun our palette. Alongside Tonkotsu at nearby Dean Street and Shoryu on lower Regent Street, Bone Daddies is the ramen joint to visit in London.

With all the rage of tonkotsu-style ramen, perhaps the biggest surprise with Bone Daddies is the T22 chicken ramen. The soy-based ramen, which is made up of a bowl of delicious chicken bone broth, slices of chicken and out of this world cock scratchings. Now, there is something about these cock scratchings that get to me each time I visit. It destroys everything else on their menu. Utterly delicious and brilliant. And the soft boiled Clarence Court eggs? Mind blowing. This deadly combination? A snip at £9.

Chicken ramen for the enlightened soul

Still, if you are here for some tonkotsu ramen, then you won't find yourself disappointed. Tonkotsu is created after boiling bone marrow for 20 hours, resulting in a deliciously cloudy and heart attack inducing (everything in moderation) pork broth that is one of the best I've tasted in London yet. No cock scratchings with the tonkotsu, but you can have them as extra.

The starters, with the exception of the soft shell crab, are a little uninspired so if you are a little hungry, ask for extra ramen noodles instead. With the exception of the poor beer selections, the drink menu on the other hand is rather extensive - including oodles of sake, Japanese whiskey and sake-based cocktails. The Maiken-Me, a combination of shochu sake, ume shu and watermelon laced with salt is one such fine example of what you can do with sake.

If there is a disappointment with Bone Daddies, it is how popular it is with Soho hipster crowd. Expect queues from the moment they open up for business. One hour queues are not unusual during peak weekend hours (it doesn't help that you can't book). The small premise is also hardly the most comfortable, with tall stools dominating the venue. Fortunately turnover is quite quick, particularly during lunch.

London's affordable noodle scene is evolving rapidly - and not only with Japanese ramen, but Vietnamese Pho and Chinese la-mian. We haven't had it this good. Here's to a more mature London noodle scene in 2013.

8/10

Bone Daddies Ramen Bar
31 Peter Street
Soho W1F 0AR
London
Tube: Piccadilly Circus

HTC Windows Phone 8X vs Nokia Lumia 920

The HTC Windows Phone 8X and Nokia Lumia 920 are two of the best Windows Phone 8 smartphones currently on the market, so it makes sense to put these two head to head. Consider this a rematch of my HTC Radar vs Nokia Lumia 710 post.

Both the 8X and Lumia 920 are first generation Windows Phone 8 smartphones and comes powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 SoC with a pair of Krait CPU and Adreno 225 GPU. Both these devices are clocked at a modest 1.5GHz speed and are augmented by 1GB RAM. While the SoC here is regarded as mid-range, the processor is more than capable of everything thrown at it. Windows Phone 8 appears to be efficient.

The Lumia 920's 4.5" display is a tinge larger than the one on the HTC Windows Phone 8X. With a smaller display, the HTC 8X's 4.3" screen features a slightly higher pixel density and hence sharper, on paper. In real life, there is little to distinguish between the two when it comes to sharpness, though the Lumia 920's has an advantage when it comes to outdoor readability and display sensitivity, and its high contrast ratio thanks to Nokia's proprietary ClearBlack Display filter. Regardless, whichever device you go for, you won't be disappointed by the display. Despite the almost similar size in screen and thickness, the 8X is significantly slimmer due its narrower aspect ratio. Keep in mind that some apps, such as Netflix, has not been updated to support the new 16:9 aspect ratio, as used by the 8X.