HTC's press event on Wednesday unveiled the company's, and Microsoft's, flagship Windows Phone 8 devices. THe HTC Windows Phone 8X and 8S represent devices for the high-end and mid-range consumer, respectively. HTC added during the announcement that it worked with Microsoft to create the flagship phones, though Nokia seemed to be the flagship partner. Before this announcement, Nokia's Lumia 920 was the flagship Windows 8 smartphone.

HTC seems to have managed to create a high-end device without the added width a larger screen brings. HTC said that it focused on design; it wanted to build a phone that represented a live tile in physical form.

Despite its the mid-range status, the HTC 8S arguably offers the more interesting design. It resembles the Lumia 800/900 in design, with a narrow four-inch display and multiple colors on the edge and the back of the phone. Like the HTC Legend Android smartphone, a "chin" at the bottom accentuates the device. Then a two-tone design contrasts the display with the 'chin,' with Red/Red, Black/Blue, White/Black, and Grey/Yellow. The feeling among some users is that 82 would have been the more compelling device if it had come with the 8X's internals. The focus on color and design sees to be a consistent theme in the upcoming mobile operating system.

The HTC 8X features 4.3-inch 720p HD super LCD 2 display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, NFC integration, a rear eight-megapixel camera, and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. Its mid-range sibling, the HTC One 8S, has a four-inch WVGA display, a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage with microSD expansion. A rear-facing camera is the only camera with a five-megapixel lens is the only camera on board.

HTC did not announce a specific release date for the smartphone, but November is the launch window, as HTC said that the device will launch almost immediately after the launch of Windows Phone. Recent rumors claimed that Windows Phone 8 is complete; the development team signed off on the milestone.