HTC is the latest handset maker to show its Windows Phone 8 cards and revealed two new smartphones coming to the Microsoft OS in early November.
Unveiled at a press conference last night in New York, both phones will be coming to the latest iteration of Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 which is expected to launch October 26.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that both phones actually look like Nokia's at a glance, as they both come in a multitude of glaring colours; which seems to be a unique selling point of Window Phone 8: customisation.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and HTC CEO Peter Chou held up both phones in Fiesta red, Domino black-white, Atlantic blue and High-Rise grey-yellow.
Until now, HTC devices have always shared a similar design DNA throughout their handsets, but with these handset it's as if HTC’s design team were allowed to let their hair down and have a bit of fun with it.
Windows Phone 8S
The Windows Phone 82 is the more affordable of the two new handsets and you'd expect it features a bevy of mid-range specs. You'll find a dual-core S4 Qualcomm processor clocked at 1GHz, alongside the power-plant is 512 GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage - but unfortunately you can upgrade the memory with SD-cards.
Despite being the middle-of-the-road handset the 8S still comes with a bright 4-inch S-LCD display, sporting a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and is protected with a decent slab of curved gorilla glass.
As you'd expect for a mid-range handset the 8S comes with a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, and unfortunately no front-facing camera - which is by anyone's standards is a glaring omission.
There's a large 1,700 mAh battery which powers the whole show and although there's no NFC connectivity, you will get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G (US) and 3G (UK), and Beats Audio integration.
Windows Phone 8X
The 8X is the flagship phone of the two and is better in almost every conceivable way than the 8S.
You'll find the same 8-megapixel camera which is on the HTC One X, with the same f/2.0 lens which should make it perform admirably when faced with low level lighting.
The 8X has four times the internal memory of the 8S and comes with 16GB of onboard memory - but it can't be supplemented via SD-cards - which, again, is a rather shortsighted decision.
The 8X also features Beats Audio integration, but takes things a step further with a dedicated audio amplifier that works for both headphones and the external speaker.
HTC have added a class-leading front-facing camera on the 8X, as it comes with an impressive 2.1 megapixel camera which is capable of recording in full 1080p quality, with an even more impressive 88 degree field of vision. And in case you were wondering that's twice the angle of any other smartphone.
The 8X comes with a de facto 4.3-inch display, which once again uses S-LCD 2 screen tech to generate a resolution of 1280 x 720 and clocks in 342 PPI.
It is, as you’d expeced, protected by a sheet of curved Gorilla Glass 2, which wraps around from the front of the phone to the back.
Processing power is provided by a dual-core 1.5GHz Krait chip from Qualcomm, coupled with 1GB of RAM.
Both phones should be launching very shortly, and are classed as the flagship phones for Windows Phone 8. Three UK has already confirmed it will be stocking both models.
HTC has confirmed that both phones will hit shops early November, shortly after Windows Phone 8 is completed at the end of October.
