EDIT: I missed a big difference that I'll hopefully update in a bit -- The microphone has moved as well! So you have to drill a hole for the mic in the bottom of the case or folks will think you're talking from behind a wall. Oops.


The HTC 8XT is essentially an HTC 8X (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) changed just enough to work on Sprint's network (and, in my case, Ting's).

So I figured I'd grab a Speck case for the 8X, apparently the much more popular model, while they were on sale to use on my 8XT.

Whoa. Not so fast, my friend.

It turns out there are three distinct ways that the 8XT is physically different from the 8X, and two of those are pretty important when trying to use an 8XT with the 8X case.
  1. The USB port has moved from the bottom center on the 8X to the bottom side on the 8XT.
  2. The camera flash has moved from the side of the camera lense on the 8X to under the camera lens on the 8XT.
  3. The 8X's rear-facing speaker grill is gone (I'm assuming that's what it is).
I annotated this picture from Engadget's comparison of the two HTC 8s.



The Speck case for the 8X fits perfectly on the 8XT otherwise.[1] The power, camera, and volume buttons align exactly. But the charging port is inaccessible, which is, obviously, an absolute dealbreaker -- especially for me, as I managed to crack my phone's face in the Great Desk Drop of 2014, and it shatters a little more with each insertion/extraction from the case. I'm not, and I can't see anyone, removing and replacing this into the case with each charge.

It was easy enough to "fix" the USB port issue with a Dremel, though the modification is perhaps not as clean looking as some might prefer for their case. He's what my amateur Dremeling got me:



Note, however, that I've left the flash obstructed. I guess I could Dremel that (poorly) as well, but I rarely use flash photography; too stark a look, and I'm often in places that don't allow flashes when I'm using it. I don't think the hole for the speaker is a big deal; it just looks a little funny.

[1] Okay, not quite perfectly. I'm getting some pull-away on the top corner of mine. I'm finding it hard to believe that the 8XT is dimensionally different, though, and wonder if this would've happened if I was on an 8X too.


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