This morning at HTC’s New York Press Event, CEO Peter Chou and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage together to announce the convergence of both company’s efforts on a new smartphone series. On the heels of Apple’s iPhone 5, Samsung’s announcement of the Galaxy S4, and RIM’s leaked BlackBerry 10, the duo unveiled the Windows Phone 8X and the Windows Phone 8S by HTC.

While you may be sick of reading about smartphone announcement after smartphone announcement, the new Windows phones by HTC are truly something original. As noted by The Verge, Director of Product at HTC Graham Wheeler noted that “the designers actually took inspiration from the Start Screen and actually a live tile, they thought about a live tile and how that would look if that was actually a physical something you hold.”

The Windows 8 phone’s specs are impressive and many tech junkies are comparing it to Nokia’s Lumia phones. The 8X is the bigger of the two with a 4.3-inch, 720 HD Super LCD display. The Processor is a dual-core 1.5GHz from Qualcomm. Storage and memory don’t outpace that of other smartphone competitors, but feature a respectable 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage respectively. Unlike the iPhone 5, the Windows 8 series devices will have NFC compatibility. It weighs 130 grams (lighter than the Lumias), boasts LTE connectivity (no 4G?), and has a 1,800Ah battery.

As for the fun stuff, the gadgets will come in black, blue, red, yellow and white. The front-facing camera features 1080p video, f2.0 lens, and 2.1 megapixels. The audio is a big upgrade with Beats. Beats allows for a deeper bass, sharper treble, and emits smoother audio over larger headphones.

The 8S is basically the same unit, only with a 4-inch screen and is a little less powerful.

What do you users think of the Windows 8 smartphones by HTC? Will they be able to overtake Apple’s iPhone 5? Which device do you all use and why? We want to hear your feedback! Let us know which smartphone you use and why in the comments section below.