AT&T has finally announced the prices for its new Windows Phone 8 smartphones. The Lumia 920, and 820 will be available for preorder today, Nov. 7, on the AT&T Website, and go on sale Nov. 9. The carrier will sell Lumia 920 for $99.99, and the Lumia 820 for $49.99 with a two-year contract. The HTC Windows Phone 8X with 16GB of memory will be priced at $199.99 and available "before Thanksgiving," AT&T said Nov. 6 in a statement.

As an added bonus, AT&T will throw in a free wireless charging plate (likely to retail for about $50 itself) with purchase of a Lumia 920.

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.

As a quick recap as to what these phones offer, Nokia's Lumia 920 comes equipped with a dual-core Snapdragon S4 at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, a 4.5-inch IPS LCD with a 1280x768 resoultion (332 ppi), an 8.7 megapixel camera at the back (1.3 megapixel at the front), NFC and too much more to mention. As its price hints, the Lumia 820 scales things back. Its SoC is identical, but its 4.3-inch screen is AMOLED in lieu of IPS, and offers only a 800x480 resolution (217 ppi). Its cameras are also a little different, offering 8.0 megapixel at the back and 0.3 megapixel at the front.

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.

The Lumia phones are available for pre-order tomorrow, and available on the 9th, while HTC's 8X is slated for release closer to Thanksgiving.

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."

HTC Windows Phone 8X

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."

Nokia Lumia 920

The Lumia 920 features a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack display with Gorilla Glass and a touch-screen that's so sensitive it can be used while wearing gloves and responds to the touch of fingernails. Its 8.7-megapixel (MP) camera features floating lens technology said to enable great shots even in low light, when the shutter remains open longer, by eliminating the blur from subtle hand movements.

According to Nokia, the camera can take in five times the light of a typical smartphone.

Specs

2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

4G Network: LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600

LTE 700 MHz Class 17 / 1700 / 2100 - Nokia Lumia 920 for AT&T

SIM: Micro-SIM

Body           

Dimensions: 130.3 x 70.8 x 10.7 mm, 99 cc (5.13 x 2.79 x 0.42 in)

Weight: 185 g (6.53 oz)

Display

Type: IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size: 768 x 1280 pixels, 4.5 inches (~332 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch: Yes

Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 2

- PureMotion HD+ display

Sound           

Loudspeaker: Yes

3.5mm jack: Yes

Memory

Card slot: No

Internal: 32 GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Data

GPRS: Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

EDGE: Up to 236.8 kbps

Speed: HSDPA, 42.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL

WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth: Yes, v3.1 with A2DP, EDR

NFC: Yes

USB: Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support

Camera           

Primary: 8.7 MP (8 MP effective, 3264 x 2448 pixels), Carl Zeiss optics, optical image stabilization, autofocus, dual-LED flash

Features: PureView technology, geo-tagging, touch focus,

Video: Yes, 1080p@30fps

Secondary: Yes, 1.3MP

Features

OS: Microsoft Windows Phone 8

Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon

CPU: Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait

GPU: Adreno 225

Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM

Browser: HTML5

Radio: No

GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS

Java: No

Colors: Black, Gray, Red, Yellow, White

Battery

Standard battery, Li-Ion 2000 mAh (BP-4GW)

Stand-by: Up to 400 h (2G) / Up to 400 h (3G)

Talk time: Up to 17 h (2G) / Up to 10 h (3G)

Music play: Up to 67 h