HTC Windows Phone 8 phones in South Africa

WP8-powered HTC Windows Phone 8X goes official

HTC's event is underway and we just got to see the company's first two Windows Phone 8 handsets, with the HTC Windows Phone 8X being the flagship.
Unlike the Titan, the HTC Windows Phone 8X is rather compact with its 4.3" 720p screen. It measures 132.4 x 66.2 x 10.1mm and weighs 130g. The HTC Windows Phone 8X (now that's a mouthful) uses a polycarbonate unibody, similar to that of the One X.

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Going back to the screen, it's a Super LCD 2 unit with Gorilla Glass protection and it's laminated to reduce glare.

The HTC Windows Phone 8X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with two Krait cores clocked at 1.5GHz, Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It runs Microsoft's latest phone OS, Windows Phone 8 (as the name quite clearly indicates).

The camera on the back should be familiar to HTC users - 8MP BSI sensor, f/2.0 aperture and 28mm field of view (in 35mm terms). It contains a dedicated HTC ImageChip and can shoot 1080p video with stereo sound.

There's a 2.1MP front-facing camera too, which can also record1080p videos and makes use of the ImageChip.

Having mentioned sound, HTC has included its trademark Beats Audio sound enhancement, but no Beats headset as is the norm with some of its Android phones.

The HTC Windows Phone 8 comes with 16GB of built-in storage, which you can expand with a microSD card.

For connectivity, the HTC's WP8 flagship relies on dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, NFC, Bluetooth 2.1, microUSB and 3.5mm audio jack.
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HTC announces Windows Phone 8S with 1GHz dual-core Krait

HTC just unveiled its second Windows Phone 8-powered smartphone - called Windows Phone 8S. It’s more compact than the 8X and should go easier on the wallet as it comes with with less capable hardware.

The HTC Windows Phone 8S is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset and runs on a 1GHz dual-core Krait processor and Adreno 220 GPU. It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage expandable via a microSD card slot. The screen is 4-inch capacitive Super LCD of WVGA resolution, which has Gorilla Glass protection.

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The rest of the specs include a 5MP camera (F2.8, 35mm lens) with LED flash, 720p video recording and dedicated camera key. The 8S comes with the usual connectivity package – Wi-Fi, GPS (with GLONASS), and Bluetooth (no LTE) and packs a 1700 mAh battery.
HTC Windows Phone 8S runs on the latest Windows Phone 8 (yes, really) and has the Beats Audio enhancements.
There is still no info on the pricing and the availability.
The HTC event in New York has just started, so stay tuned for live picture and hands-on impressions.
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According to gsmarena.com, contrary to the diagram in the MyBB article :

8X :
The HTC Windows Phone 8 comes with 16GB of built-in storage, which you can expand with a microSD card.
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8S :
It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage expandable via a microSD card slot
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These new WP8 devices are looking rather tempting. The design is refreshing from the touchscreen phones we currently have on the market.
 
Indeed. As long as I can find the same apps that I am using now then yes... very tempting.

/wonders if they come in lumo-lime green

Fox1 said:
These new WP8 devices are looking rather tempting. The design is refreshing from the touchscreen phones we currently have on the market.
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Is MS forcing them the funky colors?

Not complaining, love the lime/yellow/green one. Just haven't seen HTC make such colors.

Nokia soon to sue HTC cause of the color.
//too soon?

Also, I would love to see a 12mp camera at the back and perhaps a 5mp on the front?

Ps. I know the front is meant for video calls and 3g can't always handle better quality, but provide a 5mp camera and limit 3g video talk to the standard quality and let me enjoy my 5mp Skype video chat on WiFi .
 
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Toitjie said:
Is MS forcing them the funky colors?...Just haven't seen HTC make such colors.

Nokia soon to sue HTC cause of the color.
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Toitjie said:
Is MS forcing them the funky colors? ... Just haven't seen HTC make such colors.

Nokia soon to sue HTC cause of the color.
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Naa. Nokia will not sue.

And yes, Microsoft is twisting their arms to use numerous colors IMO.

I have speculated before that mobile devices (phones) will be the biggest advert that MS will have in its rebuilding process. Have a look at what this article says:

"The branding might sound Microsoft-like, but there's a good reason for that — the two companies have joined forces on a marketing campaign that will make HTC the face of Windows Phone 8". Link.
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In my opinion, the OEMs have been given different segments of the Microsoft operating system rejuvenation strategy.

Nokia is firmly integrated in the OS and is the key and foremost OEM for WP8. It also is the mobile content provider with its maps and city lenses. It gets royalties for Navteq from all Win8 OEMs. It also has a huge patent portfolio that Win8 and WP8 can use and is already using. So, not using the various colors is really a small trade off for getting regular income for its patents from the other Win8/WP8 OEMs.

Samsung plays the part of premium tablet and laptop OEM. That is why HTC was barred by MS from making a Win8 tablet and Nokia too is not big on info on their tablet.

HTC will play the part of representing the Microsoft brand in the mobile space. That is why it will / is going all out with the MS four color theme (red, blue, green and yellow).

Huawei (mobile) and ZTE (tablets & possibly laptops too) will be the bottom of the barrel OEMs with an important market for Win8/WP8 - China.

HP & Dell = US laptop/tablet market.

Asus and Acer = Asia because Samsung is the lead in worldwide sales for virtually everything. Further, Samsung tells the whole Windows 8 story and will not go big in terms of branding or advertising for Microsoft because of this advantage it has over other OEMs. It is everywhere.
 
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Not much point drooling over the phones when we do not even know if W8 is a good phone OS.
 
Great to see that HTC SA had a change of attitude since WinPhone 7 release. AFAIK the local distributor, Leaf, used to say "We're not bring Windows Mobile to SA" - showing their gross ignorance :whistling:
 
Those look really nice. But the Nokias and HTC's look the same. Some microsoft imposed template?
 
There is just something about a Windows Phone that entices more than Android ever did....

I wants one my precious
 
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