HTC announces the 8X and the 8S, fresh new Windows Phones!
Today HTC has released to the world two new phone, both powered by Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system. Both of which will be branded as Microsoft 'Signature devices',
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| The HTC 8X |
The HTC 8X (as it’s likely to be known) has a 4.3-inch Super LCD II 720p display, which equates to 341ppi! A 1.5GHz dualcore Snapdragon S4 chipset, 8-megapixel f2/0 BSI camera and twin amps for its Beats Audio integration.
On top of this there's Gorilla Glass and an optical lamination touchscreen, 16GB of internal storage (though no microSD card slot), WiFi a/b/g/n, NFC, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and the usual sensors; digital compass, GPS, accelerometer and so on . Yes there's LTE on board, but only if you're a North American resident, those of us in Europe will be getting a HSPA+/DC-HSDPA variant.
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| The HTC 8S |
There's a more affordable alternative too, which comes in the shape of the HTC 8S. A solid little phone which offers a 4-inch WVGA display (480x800pixels), a 1GHz dualcore S4 chipset, a 5-megapixel f/2.8 camera, and a microSD slot to give the 4gb of internal storage a boost.
The 5MP shooter will only be capable of 720p, but if you're in the market for this sort of phone you can't expect to have all the goodies!
Both of these stunning phones go on sale in November, with the HTC 8X being up for sale on 126 operators in 50 countries, and the HTC 8S on more than 146 operators in 52 countries.
Us UK residents can get them both on; Three, Orange, T- Mobile, Vodafone, O2, and Virgin Media, unlocked versions will obviously be available too!
In the US, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon will be offering the phones1 The rest of Europe meanwhile will be able to buy them from Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile.
And even further afield you can get them on Telstra, Vodafone Australia, Singaport Telecoms, Chunghwa Telecom, Smartone, Optus, and Telecom NZ in Asia-Pacific region!
In other news:
- Apple has release iOS6 to the world today! Go get updating guys!
- Nokia has blasted HTC over their announcement of the new 8X and 8S today saying "Instead of changing a product name, we’re changing the game with benefits like PureView, nav & wireless charging” Nokia executive vice president of sales and marketing Chris Weber tweeted. “It takes more than matching color to match the innovation of the Lumia 920.” Slightly harsh but we can see his point.
Perhaps some of his upset stems from the fact HTC's new phones are “signature Windows Phones” and Microsoft has agreed to use HTC’s handsets for its promotional material and advertising for Windows Phone 8. Steve Ballmer did rave on about how the new smartphones embodied WP8 today.
To be fair to Nokia they do offer a suite of exclusive apps, such as Nokia Music and Nokia Transport, they have their own maps and HTC has chosen to just use the bare bones of Microsoft's new OS with their attempts, so we can understand their criticism.
- Are you interested in Samsung's new Galaxy Note 2? Well if you live in the United States then you will be able to get it from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular!
- There's been rumours today that LG's Optimus G, which is set for a November release, will become Google's new Nexus device by the time it's release date rolls around. It's very possible indeed, but remember we might be getting multiple Nexus devices this time!
And finally, Acer has unleashed a new Iconia Tab on Europe, it's the A110. The device is a seven-inch tablet running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and rocking an Nvidia Tegra 3 1.2 GHz quad-core processor. The tablet has a solid screen resolution of 1024 x 600 and 1 GB of RAM. There's 8GB of internal storage and a SD card slot. If you live in the UK it'll set you back £180!
