First Windows 8 Phone Unveiled: The Samsung ATIV S [IMAGES]

When the somewhat disappointing news came down that none of the current Windows 7 Phones would be getting an upgrade to Windows Phone 8, we knew one thing was certain: there’d be a wave of new hardware leading up to the October launch of Windows 8, and it would all be designed specifically for the Microsoft OS. The first of this wave of shiny new gadgets arrived today, in the form of the ATIV S from Samsung.
Announced at IFA 2012 in Berlin today, and shown off on the official Windows team blog shortly thereafter, the ATIV S makes the prospect of switching to Windows Phone a whole lot more appealing than it was yesterday. The shape of the device is reminiscent of the Galaxy S II, but with the specs and build quality kicked up a notch.

The plastic chassis we’ve grown used to from Samsung has been replaced with a handsome brushed aluminum unit, which is a build quality upgrade that’s been sorely needed in the Samsung flagship phones. The specs are pretty solid, too: a 4.8″ AMOLED screen, dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of memory, and both 16GB and 32GB options available for internal storage (plus a MicroSD slot, of course). The same 8-megapixel camera that can be found on the Galaxy S III is present on the ATIV S too, along with a 1.9-megapixel camera on the front.
All this power is packed into a form factor that measures just 8.7mm. That’s about the same thickness as the Galaxy S III, and .6mm thinner than an iPhone 4S.

Pricing and availability are still a mystery at this point, but if they’re announcing it now, the ATIV S may be destined for inclusion in the Windows 8 launch lineup. That means we may well see this thing as early as this October. Pricing will likely be similar to the Galaxy S III, as their specs are similar and they’re both the flagships of their respective platforms.