HTC revealed its mid-range Windows Phone 8 smartphone HTC 8S at a press event in New York on Sept. 19, along with the company's WP8 flagship handset HTC 8X. The HTC 8S' features are several notches below its flagship HTC 8X sibling, and it offers fewer high-end features than other smartphones in the mid-range bracket. With stiff competition from Nokia's mid-ranged phone Lumia 820, the HTC 8S may struggle to attract mobile phone users looking to upgrade to a smartphone.

The HTC 8S sports a 4-inch WVGA screen protected by Gorilla Glass. A dual-core S4 SoC processor, clocked at 1GHz, with 512MB of RAM powers the handset. The smartphone offers 4GB of on-board storage which can be expanded using a microSD card. The device is equipped with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash, autofocus, and is limited to 720p video capture. ,The handset does not offer a front-facing camera, unlike other smartphones in this bracket.

The HTC 8S is 10.28mm (0.40 in.) thick, which makes it the thickest WP8 device currently on the market. A 1700mAh battery boosts the device and the handset supports Wi Fi connectivity but is not NFC enabled. The HTC 8S will be available in four colors: red, yellow, blue, and gray.

The nearest competition to the HTC 8S is Nokia's Lumia 820, which packs in higher-end features than the HTC offering.