Yahoo! CEO offers employees free phones, Nokia sweetens the deal

You may or may not have heard that Yahoo’s CEO is giving every employee a free smartphone! Their choices of phones are as follows:

• iPhone 5
• Samsung Galaxy S3
•  HTC One X
•  HTC EVO 4G LTE
• Nokia Lumia 920

While this would be an easy choice for me - being a Windows Phone fan - Nokia wants to help Yahoo staffers make up their minds. Nokia has decided to offer a free wireless charging pad to anyone that chooses the Lumia 920.

How do the Windows Phone 8 offerings stack up? Compare HTC, Samsung and Nokia.

With the next line of Windows Phone 8 handset announced I'd like to take a look at the three main contenders and their flagship Windows Phone offerings to see how they stack up side-by-side.

Note: This picture is from a WMPowerUser article linked below.

While the HTC 8X weighs less and has the highest resolution screen it also has the smallest screen at 4.3 inches, Beats Audio sounds system and only 16GB memory storage. The Samsung Ativ S features the largest screen, a single color option, and the largest battery. The Nokia Lumia 920 weighs the most at 185g, offers a slightly better 8.7 megapixel camera (with the much touted Pureview technology) and offers wireless Q Standard charging. They all feature LTE and HSDPA connectivity, Near Field Communication (NFC) and a dual-core qualcomm 1.5Ghz processor.

Each offers something(s) different for everyone, which one appeals to you? Why?

*Picture from a WMPowerUser article.

HTC introduces the next line of Windows Phones

HTC introduced the latest addition to the Windows Phone 8 lineup in New York City today, September 19th 2012 in their press announcement.

Impressive colors, but do the insides match the surface?

Peter Chou started off the conference to the sounds of booming music and a nod to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. After a brief introduction by Microsoft's own CEO Steve Ballmer the floor was yielded back to Chou. He was sure to mention the over 15years of partnership between HTC and Microsoft, stating "HTC and Microsoft have an opportunity to go bigger and better than ever."

Bigger and better were the themes of the night. After a stunning display of auditory prowess to make an New York DJ proud the darlings of the show were finally introduced: The new line of phones. Under the title "HTC8" these new Windows Phone 8 handsets came in standard and high-end offerings by HTC dubbed the HTC 8S and HTC 8X respectively.

The new 8X color palette.

The high-end HTC 8X offer a 4.3-inch Super LCD 2 display with Gorilla Glass 2 protection and 720p resolution, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 16 GB of storage. While the backfacing camera is an industry standard 8MP it does shoot in full 1080p video. The front-face camera however pushes this with a 2.1MP, 1080p-capable camera with an impressive 88 degree viewing angle. The 8X comes in California Blue, Graphite Black, Flame Red, and Limelight Yellow as seen in the picture above.

At a slightly smaller 4-inch Super LCD display the HTC 8S features Gorilla Glass, dual-core 1GHz processor, 5MP rear camera, and 4GB of internal storage. In another method to differentiate itself, the 8S comes in a two-tone polycarbonate body and offers four color combinations.

While no mention of price was made at the conference a release date in the November time-frame was teased.


What do you think about these new HTC Windows Phone offerings? Do they compare to the Samsung and Nokia Windows Phone 8 handsets (hint: look for my next article)?