14 DAY TRIAL // South Korean handset maker Samsung has already announced the upcoming release of the Ativ S, though the company did not mention any launch dates for its Windows Phone 8 device.
However, during a press conference held in Italy, Samsung revealed the Ativ S won’t be hitting shelves until December, WindowsPhoneItaly reports.
Even though this might only apply to the Italian market, it’s a bit concerning that Samsung won’t be able to launch it’s only Windows Phone 8 device around the same time as Nokia and HTC.
According to the latest hearsay, Nokia plans to launch the Lumia 920 on November 12. The smartphone will reach other countries as early as late October, so it’s possible that Ativ S will land in other regions earlier than it will reach Italy.
Samsung Ativ S is the only Windows Phone 8 that can barely stand against Nokia’s Lumia 920, which is why we thought it would be best if both launched at the same time. If the Ativ S reaches the market one month later than Lumia 920, sales might not go so well.
The handset is powered by a dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5 GHz built on Krait architecture. It packs an Adreno 225 graphics processing unit and 1GB of RAM.
For the time being, it’s unclear whether the Ativ S will ship with 16GB or 32GB of storage, but the phone packs microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
Furthermore, the Ativ S comes with the same module camera as Galaxy S III, so expect the former to feature an 8-megapixel rear photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as a secondary 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.
Another selling point of Samsung’s flagship device is the large 4.8-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution and features Corning Gorilla Glass 2 coating.