Some of Samsung and Apple's biggest competitors in the smartphone game will release the flagship devices for their respective operating systems Nov. 13. Google's LG-branded Nexus 4 Android smartphone hit stores today, and is already sold out in the Google Play store, and Windows Phone 8 phones like the Verizon-exclusive Nokia Lumia 822, and HTC's Windows Phone 8x are now shipping to customers.
Google, LG Nexus 4
Just minutes after going on sale in the U.S., the new Nexus 4 smartphone from Google and LG was already sold out. Visitors to the Google Play store are greeted with a "coming soon" notice for both the 8 GB and 16 GB of the device. It's unclear how many units Google was able to produce by launch time; the company has not commented.
Google releases only one Nexus-branded handset per year. It is meant to serve as the developer device for its Android smartphone platform. The device went on sale first in Australia, where it sold out in mere hours. Later, the Nexus 4 hit the Play Store in the U.K., where it also sold out in about an hour.
The LG Nexus 4 smartphone features a quad-core processor, "which means its super fast," says Google. The phone's display is a "crisp" 4.7-inches (320 ppi) "that's perfect for looking at photos and watching YouTube." The phone offers wireless charging, so, you just have to set the phone down on a power mat to recharge the Nexus 4's battery.
"While Nexus 4 is incredibly powerful under the hood, it also features the latest version of Jelly Bean, Android 4.2-the simplest and smartest version of Android yet," the company said in its statement.
"Starting with the camera, we've reinvented the photo experience with Photo Sphere, which lets you capture images that are literally larger than life. Snap shots up, down and in every direction to create stunning 360-degree immersive experiences that you can share on Google+ with friends and family-or you can add your Photo Sphere to Google Maps for the world to see."
"Android 4.2 brings other great goodies like Gesture Typing, which lets you glide your finger over the letters you want to type on the keyboard-it makes typing fast, fun and a whole lot simpler. Android 4.2 also adds support for wireless display so you can wirelessly watch movies, YouTube videos and play games right on your Miracast-compatible HDTV."
Price/models
8GB for $299; 16GB for $349; available unlocked and without a contract on Nov. 13 on the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Canada. The 16GB version will also be available through T-Mobile for $199, with a 2-year contract.
Lumia 822
The Lumia 822 is a Verizon exclusive handset, and will arrive Nov. 13 in white, black and grey for $99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
The Lumia 822 has a 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor, the same one you'll find in Samsung's Windows Phone 8, the Ativ S. "Being a dual-core, it shouldn't be too much of a drain on the phone's 1800 mAh battery," says Tech Radar.
Like the Lumia 920 and the Windows Phone 8X, the 822 will also support wireless charging. There's 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage with the option of microSD expansion.
The Lumia 822 features a camera with 8-megapixels, dual LED flash, and comes encased in a plastic body.
The Lumia 822's display is a 4.3-inch OLED screen. "The resolution is only 800x480, but the phone's color saturation is very nice," says Tech Radar.
HTC Windows Phone 8X
HTC's Windows Phone 8X features the same SoC as the 820, and with a screen-size of 4.3-inch with a 1280x720 resolution, we have a market-leading ppi of 341 (it could be argued, and rightfully so, that over 300 the differences are difficult to appreciate without the use of a magnifying glass). This phone is also NFC-capable, and offers an 8 megapixel camera at the back and a surprising 2.1 megapixel offering at the front.
Jeff Bradley, AT&T senior vice president of devices and developer services, called AT&T's lineup of Microsoft-running smartphones "the best designs for the fantastic experience of Windows Phone 8."
The HTC 8X, introduced in New York two weeks after the Lumias, features a 4.3-inch 720p high-definition display, a front-facing 2.1MP camera said to be "more than an afterthought," as most front-facing cameras are, and a rear-facing 8MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and an ultra-wide lens, capable of capturing the faces of four people at once when held in self-portrait mode.
The 8X will be available with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
For T-Mobile, the Phone 8X will hit shelves Nov. 14. It will cost $199 after a $50 mail-in-rebate.
Verizon also plans to carry the 8X for $199 on a two-year contract by Thanksgiving. The phone will come in blue, red, and black.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, introducing the 8X alongside HTC CEO Peter Chou, said it was a "magically thin" handset with a "beautiful design at the heart of both the hardware and the software." He added, "This is the first phone to, from the inside out, put people first."
AT&T is exclusively offering an 8GB version of the HTC phone in California Blue and a shade of yellow called Limelight for $99.99.