HTC sends out press invites for August 19th event in NYC – One W8 on the way?

A few days ago, it was widely reported that HTC is repositioning their flagship One M8 as a new Windows Phone dubbed "One (W8) for Windows." The phone may be the same as the hot selling Android phone, but with Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 on board and destined for Verizon.

Windows Phone Central reported the phone could go on sale as early as August 21 and coincidentally enough, HTC has sent out limited press invites for August 19 right in New York City. No clues or themes were present on the invite, though the timing is suspect.

The HTC One W8, if accurate, should have some fantastic specifications, including their BoomSound and Duo camera, along with what is arguably one of the sexiest all-metal phone designs in 2014. Further hardware specs include:

  • 36 x 70.6 x 9.35 mm
  • Weight 160g
  • Colors Gunmetal Gray, Glacial Silver, Amber Gold
  • Display 5.0 inch, Full HD 1080p Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3
  • CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor
  • 2.3GHz quad-core CPU in US/EMEA (MSM8974AB)
  • SIM Card Type nanoSIM
  • Memory Total storage: 16GB/32GB, available capacity varies
  • Expansion card slot supports microSD memory card for up to 128GB additional storage (card not included)
  • RAM 2GB DDR2

All of those specs are perfectly in line with what the Windows Phone OS can handle, in addition to now having support for 'smart covers' like the Dot View case, thanks to Update 1. The One W8 may also be one of the first phones to support Verizon's new Voice over LTE (VoLTE) as Update 1 adds that to the mix as well.

We should note that fellow Editor in Chief at Android Central, Phil Nickinson, has not received an invite and Windows Phone Central never gets invited to Android events - so connect the dots. Speculation by CNet that this is an Android tablet is false.

Read Android Central's full review of the Android One M8.

Windows Phone Central has received an invite and will be on location to cover the event, so stay tuned.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.