Okay so I got my 6-month itch when I saw the HTC M8 Windows Dot Case finally had been released.  For those of you who have paid attention to the minuscule Windows hardware market it’s been pretty much all Nokia ala Microsoft (with their purchase). While some of the other hardware companies had Windows phones out there, with the anemic sales (as compared to Android) not many were willing to continue the R&D budget of developing Windows Phones.

In comes HTC with a new idea.  HTC has always been an innovator and much like Samsung (albeit without the sheer breath of models) has produced many exemplary phones. What HTC has done different is they’ve taken a hardware platform they developed for Android and made sure that it would run Windows too — so now, a few (many) months since the HTC One’s release with Android,  it’s now available on most if not all carriers with Windows.

So what do you get?  I’m not going to go into the exacting technical specs other than to say the screen is gorgeous and bright and when you compare it side by side to other phones the colors are sharp and the text and pictures are even sharper (other phones go from looking vibrant to looking washed out when you hold them side-by-side).  This has got to be simply one of the best 5″ phones out there.  Created in gunmetal gray it’s both the right size and weight for one handed use.  The phone simply exudes quality.

The Windows Metro interface has never looked better, flashy vibrant and fast, this phone has clear quality calls, nice panache in the looks department and some of the best speakers for listening to music (if that’s what you want to do on a $700 phone) of any phone out there.

So what’s this dot case?  Well, it’s an attempt to add a little retro look and interest to a phone that probably doesn’t need it. Similar to the Samsung window cases, this case protects the phone but displays information through it in a useful manner.  If the phone rights you can swipe and answer it, want to talk to Window’s siri-like assistant?  Just swipe down.

However unlike the Samsung case which is additive to the phone — it looks like it belongs with a case that matches the phones native back of stitched (albeit plastic) leather —  the dot case just feels…. cheap,  It takes a beautifully crisp screen and let’s you see through pin prick holes in the cover images designed to look retro (think block-style clock display).

But where you once had smooth brushed gunmetal sheathed device you now have cheap, smooth plastic.  It just really kind of ruins the otherwise subliminally classic look and feel of an otherwise spectacular phone.

You might get some interest or raised eyebrows when a phone call comes in or it lights up with the time, but past that it’s kind of blase and ‘has-been’.

So if you want the most beautiful, functional phone in the 5″ range running Windows then go out and upgrade to the HTC One.  But, like a date with a tacky coat on, loose the case.