Nokia Officially Announces Lumia 920

At today's event with Microsoft in New York, Nokia announced its new top-of-the-line Windows Phone 8 device, the Lumia 920.

A cut above the Lumia 900 (Nokia's current top-end Windows phone) in just about every way, the 920 looks to be competitive with the rest of the US smartphone market, not just other Windows phones. So before we get into the details here's the bottom line: if you're looking for a Windows Phone 8 handset this fall, then (pending a price announcement, and maybe HTC's Sept. 19 hail-mary) the Lumia 920 should make your decision easy.

Nokia has packed the 920 with a bevy of novel, exciting features; but first let's talk about speed. With a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM, the 920 leaves previous Lumia generations in the dust. More importantly though, it's as fast as the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, at least according to Gizmodo's hands-on report. And unless the rumor mill has been underestimating Apple, it's not unlikely the Lumia 920 will be able to keep up with the iPhone 5 too. All that power requires, well, power, but Nokia assures us the 920's beefy 2,000mAh battery is up to the task.

The Lumia 920's NFC chip and Qi-standard wireless charging support should make for some pretty awesome accessories, and ought to keep the device (foreseeable-)future-proof as mobile payment infrastructures expand and wireless charging becomes more commonplace.

The phone's 4.5-inch screen, which boasts a resolution of 1,280 x 768 pixels, is super responsive in more ways than one. Hands-on reports are reporting no detectable touch latency, and Nokia's Kevin Shields demonstrated the 920 this morning while wearing a pair of fuzzy mittens.

The 8.7-megapixel PureView camera will likely be one of the Lumia 920's top selling-points. Integrated image-stabilization and 1080p video is all well and good (okay, it's awesome), but what got us most excited is the Cinemagraph app, which promises to make it just as easy to waste entire days making your own animated gifs as it's always been to waste entire days looking at gifs.

For the smartphone mortals among us, Nokia has also updated its mid-range Lumia 800. The Lumia 820 looks to be the 920's scrappy younger brother. A slightly smaller (4.3-inch) display with half the pixel-count and no PureView upgrade for the camera are the chief differences, though on the 820 wireless charging becomes an optional feature.

When the time comes to make calls from your Lumia 920 or 820, both phones will support HSPA+ or LTE, presumably depending on carrier availability.

Whether you love the Windows Phone 8 UI or hate it, there's no denying that the current state of the Windows Phone marketplace will probably be the Lumia 820 and 920's main shortcoming. This is the catch-22 of device adoption: developers won't make Windows Phone 8 apps until everybody buys Windows phones; but lots of folks won't buy them until the app selection improves. Preloaded apps like Nokia Maps and Nokia's ESPN app are great; but Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play store will definitely have a leg up for a while.

Can sweet hardware compensate for a limited app market? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

Is this the Next Flagship Nokia Phone?

Two images of Nokia's Lumia 920 have surfaced today, featuring a touch interface with 3 soft buttons, what appears to be a PureView camera, and (allegedly) a 4.5 inch screen.

While the image is pretty clearly computer-generated, it's not unlikely what we're seeing is an incomplete press rendering. In other words; this probably is the Lumia 920.

A leaked image of the 4.3-inch Lumia 820, showing more of Nokia's bright colors, appears below.

Nokia will announce its Windows Phone 8 offerings at a press event with Microsoft in New York on September 5th. We'll have more details for you as they come out.

Stoked for Nokia's upcoming Windows Phones? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com

One Kyocera, Two HTC, and Three Nokia Phones Revealed

Unannounced smartphones (that aren't Apple products) hit the web in a six pack this week, three of which reportedly belong to Nokia, two to HTC, and one with a keyboard to Kyocera. Yes, there is more speculation about the iPhone 5 chipset, but those rumors had their chance last week. Today is all about the other guys.

According to The Verge, an unnamed source "familiar with [Microsoft and Nokia]" confirmed that the companies would be using their joint event on September 5 to talk about the newest Windows phones (running Windows Phone 8), currently codenamed "Arrow" and "Phi" and reportedly coming to AT&T and T-Mobile stateside. A similar model for Verizon also got the nod from the source, making three total rumored phone announcements for the event.

These devices would sport much the same trappings as the Lumia 800 and 900 phones, including the trademark polycarbonate body and shape. The display on these phones will reportedly be "large curved glass displays". While purported prototypes of the "Phi" model have been making the rounds recently, Microsoft and Nokia are maintaining typical pre-announcement silence.

Even earlier in September, the HTC One V will start showing up in Cricket Wireless stores for $269.99 with no contract. While this release isn't the most salacious bit of news today, HTC did get in on the rumor action today when a picture of the unofficial HTC Proto showed up on The Verge.

According to the tech blog, the codename "Proto" doesn't place the phone in any of HTC's existing series of phones, but the specs are most similar to the One V. A 5 megapixel camera, rounded case, 1 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, and 4-inch WVGA screen are all the juicy details so far, but it's likely that we'll hear more from HTC at an international conference in Germany next week.

Finally, Kyocera is bringing the slide-out keyboard back to smartphones with the release of the Kyocera Rise into Sprint stores this week. The phone features a full QWERTY pad, a 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen display, and runs Ice Cream Sandwich. Early reviews peg the phone as a solid return for those looking to get that physical keyboard functionality back into their pockets, but the additional hardware makes the phone a bit bulkier and heavier than most these days.

Be sure to check back in with IGN for all the latest in smartphone tech news.

Dan Crabtree is an I.T. guy and freelance writer with words on IGN, and a league of other gaming news outlets. His dog is considered handsome and well-read. You can find him (the human) on Twitter and IGN.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com