Sprint could be the first U.S. carrier with the Samsung Ativ S and HTC Tiara

Back in January, Sprint announced that it would be getting a pair of Windows Phone 8 handsets to sell by the summer. What made this so interesting is that previously, Sprint had offered only one other Windows Phone model in its history, the HTC Arrive. So what are the two Windows Phone models coming to the nation's third largest carrier? According to the latest buzz, the Samsung Ativ S and the HTC Tiara are the handsets running Microsoft's mobile OS that will be available this summer from Sprint.

The Samsung Ativ S has many similar specs to the Samsung Galaxy S III. It features a 4.8 inch SuperAMOLED screen with resolution of 720 x 1280 which works out to a pixel density of 306ppi. A dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 processor is under the hood with the Adreno 225 GPU crunching graphics. With 1GB of RAM on board, the handset comes with 16GB of native storage which can be expanded by as much as 64GB with the microSD slot on the device. The 8MP camera on back captures video in 1080p at 29fps and there is a 1.9MP shooter up front. A 2300mAh cell powers the show.

Meanwhile, the other expected Windows Phone 8 device heading to Sprint is speculated to be the HTC Tiara. The Tiara will be one of the first Windows Phone devices running on Windows Phone 8 GDR2 (General Distribution Release). It features a 4.3 inch WVGA LCD2 screen with a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor doing the heavy lifting. 8GB of native storage is on board and an 1800mAh cell keeps the lights on. The back and front cameras weigh in respectively at 8 MP and 1.6MP.

The word around the water cooler is that these two phones will be launched in May or June. If you're a Sprint subscriber and want to give Windows Phone 8 a shot, your chance could be just a few weeks away.

source: TheVerge via TechRadar