Nokia Lumia 822 (black, Verizon Wireless)

Pros: Nice screen. Decent battery life. Reasonably easy to use but I would suggest looking up the user manual and downloading it. Excellent accuracy on the speech-to-text feature (better accuracy than Android or Siri, imo).

Cons: Phone is slightly thicker than I like. A bit of a learning curve coming from Apple/Android - more "refined" interface than Android, but not quite as refined as Apple's OS, but, you're not tied in to iTunes, either! Lack of non-major apps.

Summary: Window's 8 is kind of like moving to a new city in Middle America. Whereas Android is like living in the untamed wild West, and Apple is like living under communist rulers, Windows 8 offers "freedom", but with some conservative leanings here and there, as well.

The Nokia 822 has a very nice, bright, screen. Decent size that isn't too large for a pocket, but slightly bulky in terms of thickness. The call quality is a 7.5 on a scale of 10 with signal strength being good but not among the best. 4G speeds seem very good with good signal. The Nokia maps work well for navigating roads when a dedicated GPS isn't available. Battery life is slightly better than average by smart phone standards, especially if you turn off unneeded background updating apps.

Android can at times be an uncontrolled mess. Apple goes too far telling people what they should have, based on what Apple thinks they should have. Windows 8 phone OS offers a bit more flexibility than Apple, but not the same level of customization as Android, so it may still seem slightly restrictive to some. The app store has most of the primary major apps but chances are your hometown news station won't be coming out with a Win8 very soon, too. The text-to-speech voice recognition however, is excellent (hold the front window button down on the front of the phone to pull up that menu).

For those who don't want the wildness of Android, or the Stalin-like control of Apple, Windows 8 and the Nokia 822 offer a good mix of a pocketable phone with decent features. You'll be disappointed if you are the type to have 300 apps on your phone - chances are many will not be available in Win8 format (yet), but it's a growing and evolving system.