Earlier today, at a press event held today in New York City, HTC revealed its first two Windows Phone 8 smartphones: the Windows Phone 8X and 8S by HTC. Comparable to Nokia’s next-generation Lumia series, HTC’s Windows Phone 8 handset line comprises of a high-end flagship and a more economical vanilla option.

htc windows phones

Processor & Ram

The 8X is the latest high-end device announced by HTC, whereas the 8S is the cheaper smartphone of the two. The 8X comes with Qualcomm’s dual-core Krait Snapdragon S4 (MSM8960) running at 1.5GHz. However, the 8S on the other hand uses a lower clocked MSM8627 (1GHz) with a slower Adreno 305 GPU. The two smartphones are also distinguished by the on-board DRAM (1GB for the 8X and 512MB for the 8S). Connectivity differs between the two, the 8X features LTE while the 8S is single carrier WCDMA.

Memory & Display

The real contrasting feature between the two devices is the display as the 8X features a 4.3-inch 720p Super LCD 2 display, while the 8S uses a smaller 4-inch screen with 800×480 resolution display. Internal memory storage is also distinct between the two handsets, with the 8X including 16GB of NAND on-board capacoty (no microSD card slot), and the 8S coming with only 4GB of integrated memory and a microSD card slot for expansion. The microSD card slot might not attract many consumers with rival handsets moving to more recent technology.

Camera & Microphone

HTC has really ramped up its emphasis on the camera with the 8X which is assisted by HTC’s external imaging processor. There are two cameras on the handset with the rear facing camera being of 8.0 megapixels f/2.0 with a 28mm lens and the front facing camera is apparently also pretty impressive at 2.1 megapixels with a f/2.0 aperture and an 88-degree, ultra-wide-angle lens. On the other hand, the 8S has a 5.0 megapixels f/2.8 camera. The audio capability has also been upgraded significantly for the 8X, which gets a 2.55V amplified headphone output for what looks to be a much better application of Beats. The 8X also features two microphones to minimise the noise effects. 8X is configured with dual-band WiFi while the 8S continues its cost-reduced approach by only supporting the 2.4GHz version of wireless communication feature.

HTC is looking to label the devices as the “signature” Windows Phone 8 devices, although it seems certain that another major Microsoft partner, Nokia, might beg to disagree. HTC’s latest Windows phones will arrive in the markets sometime in November and the 8X will cost $200 with AT&T; the phone will be obtainable on T-Mobile, Verizon and other carriers also, and price listing will be announced in future for those carriers as HTC looks to arm up to compete with the iPhone 5.