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While console gamers eagerly await the officially announcements of next-gen consoles, mobile gamers have an exciting week ahead of them. Yesterday morning, during the Nokia World event in New York, the Finnish company unveiled their brand new flagship phone and successor to the current Lumia line of smartphones. Say hello to the Lumia 820 and the Lumia 920, their first Windows 8 phones.

While these devices are stealing the show this week, next week on September 12th is the big Apple event where the iPhone 5 is expected to be unveiled, potentially making up for the previous two events where the next-gen (at least numerically) iPhone and iPad were not announced, in favor of upgraded models (the iPhone 4S and the unnumbered "New iPad").

On the iPhone front, rumors and reports have spoiled a few of the surprises over the last year. We know the phone is coming with a larger screen and a different port. Sorry, all the accessories you have for the last few models are obsolete. The leaked video above offers another comparison between the new and the (now) old. What's showcased is a very similar design to the iPhone 4/4S, except with the obvious changes in that the entire unit is larger (more comparable to the Nokia Lumia 900/920 and the Samsung's Galaxy S III and AtivS models) and seemingly supports that rumored 4.6" screen. The other significant change can be seen from the bottom of the phone where the standard 30-pin connector has been replaced by the new, smaller and more rounded 19-pin connector. As for its insides, we'll have to wait a week.

Nokia Lumia 920 Colors

On the official side of next-gen smartphones, we have the tech specs that will be powering Nokia's Lumia 920, a phone which they describe as having the brightest screen of anything on the market.

  • 1.5ghz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor
  • 4.5" HD LCD (IPS) screen, 1280x768 px 332 ppi 16.7m-color, Gorilla Glass
  • 32 GB internal flash memory, 1GB RAM
  • Rechargeable BP-4GW 2000mAh Li-ion battery
  • Rear Camera: 8.7 Megapixel, Short Pulse High Power Dual-LED flash, 1080p video capture
  • Front Camera: 1.3 Megapixel, 720p video capture

Read all the official Lumia 920 specs here.

The device (and the 820) supports wireless charging and its super-sensitive screen allows users wearing gloves to interact with it. The new OS will allow users to re-size tiles on the homescreen, brings with it an improved offline map system and updated Nokia Drive (a feature I love and use religiously on the 800/900). With the new City Lens feature, you can even point the camera and look through the viewfinder while downtown and see exactly what's around you via augmented reality.

One of the most promoted features of the new device is its PureView technology — Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) that promises to help users take much smoother and cleaner video. The video ad showcasing the phone in action as one biker films another however, didn't quite serve its purpose and now there's quite a bit of negative buzz towards Nokia from savvy internet users who discovered the error in the ad: The footage used to show what the OIS can do... wasn't shot using OIS. Take a look:

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Combined with Nokia stock prices falling 13% after the announcement and another 4-5% today, and investors are as concerned as much as hopeful  wannabe Nokia cameramen. As a result of the announcements, Nokia is reducing prices on existing Windows phones including the Lumia 800 & 900.

Pricing and release dates have yet to be revealed for the 820 & 920 but they will hit retail in certain locations in the last quarter of the year, likely not until November.

Which hardware manufacturer and OS do you prefer?

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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Sources: Nokia, The Huffington Post, Reuters