Nokia has officially launched two of its most-awaited Windows Phone 8 smartphones Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820 at a media event in New York. The phones were introduced by President and CEO of Nokia, Stephen Elop. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also attended the event.

Talking about Nokia, Elop said:

It was just 18 months ago when Nokia outlined a new strategy to deliver people great new mobile products… at that time we recognized the industry had shifted from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems. As a result, we outlined deliberate steps that Nokia would take to realize our strategy and bring to people great mobile products. First, we joined the Windows Phone ecosystem. We shared a vision with Microsoft that we could create a new mobile phone experience… and alternative to the faceless tech specs, the grid of applications…

As we reported earlier, Nokia Lumia 920 is indeed Nokia’s latest flagship smartphone. The innovative phone features a brilliant 4.5-inch IPS PureMotion HD+ touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass, 332 ppi pixel density and 1280 x 768 pixels screen resolution. It includes a powerful 8.7 Megapixels PureView technology camera with Carl Zeiss lens and short pulse dual LED flash to take mobile photography to the next level.

The device runs on the latest Dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor and will be available in yellow, red and white colors. Another unique feature on offer is Qi-compatible wireless charging. Other key features include Wi-Fi & LTE connectivity, NFC, HSDPA Cat 24-42.2 Mbps data speed, HTML5 support, memory card support, SkyDrive, Nokia signature location apps and a 2000mAh battery.

At the end of Nokia Lumia 920 brief, the CEO remarked:

This is Lumia, and it’s time to switch.

Elop then invited Steve Ballmer on stage, who spoke about Windows Phone and collaboration with Nokia:

The Windows Phone is unlike any phone that is on the market — it keeps you closest to the people and places that matter to you most.

We integrate in the Microsoft account, a single place to log in and get access to SkyDrive, photos, Skype, Outlook.com and much much more… you see the integration of Xbox services across all the Windows Phone and Windows devices…

He further added:

Make no mistake about it, this is a year for Windows. All of the devices are designed to be beautiful and functional, to work for you, your personal life and in your professional life. With Windows 8 the software is all out there — people have a chance to really go use it now. In a month or two we’ll see the rest of Windows Phone software.

Ballmer was also very optimistic about the future of Windows Phone and Lumia:

Certainly in the one year from now, between Windows Phones and Windows tablets and Windows PCs, we should see close to 400 million new devices running those operating systems. That means Lumia, that means Surface, that means a variety of devices that you saw introduced in Berlin last week.

I certainly want to share my congratulations and thanks for the work that Nokia is doing… my great thrill for the coming weekend will be to shoot video of my son’s night games with my new Nokia Lumia 920.

According to Stephen Elop, Nokia Lumia 920 will hit markets globally in Q4 2012. An introductory video released by Nokia can be viewed here:

The other Nokia smartphone launched yesterday is the mid-range Lumia 820 which features a 4.3-inch ClearBlack OLED touchscreen, a Dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor along with 1GB RAM. Other specs of the shiny device include – 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 8GB storage, LTE & HSPA+ variants, Nokia signature location apps, GPS, memory card support and wireless charging support.

Introductory video for Nokia Lumia 820 can be viewed below:

Source: Engadget |Nokia Conversations