Samsung's smartphones running Android are its most popular, but the company also makes Windows Phone handsets. A new Samsung Windows Phone 8 smartphone has been spotted on a benchmarking site.
Samsung is among very few companies that release smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 OS. Just like HTC, it had a previous relationship with Microsoft and licensed its previous smartphone operating system, Windows Mobile. Samsung and HTC were among the two biggest players at a time when Android or the iPhone even existed. Unlike HTC, who will reportedly stop developing new smartphones based on Windows Phone 8, Samsung still plans to maintain its relationship with Microsoft and is planning to release a new WP8 smartphone in the near future.
The upcoming smartphone was recently spotted on the GFXBenchmark site and has a model number of SGH-1187. The device has a screen resolution of 1280 x 720, which is currently the highest Windows Phone 8 can support. Microsoft will be releasing a GDR3 update for Windows Phone 8 in the coming months that will add support for 1080p displays. The listing does not reveal the smartphone's processor clock speed, but it's likely using a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and includes an Adreno 305 GPU (graphics processing unit). The source believes that the mid-range handset is likely to either be offered by AT&T or T-Mobile and could be "a significant drift from the ATIV S in terms of design and specs" due to the model number listed in the database.
The smartphone has a slightly better score using the online benchmarking tool than both Samsung's current ATIV Neo S and the HTC Windows Phone 8X and is reportedly coming in slightly slower than the Nokia Lumia 920, which further indicates its mid-range status.
There's no word on when this smartphone might be released, but it will likely make its debut in the coming months, since Microsoft's GDR3 update will add support for higher resolution displays when it is released later this year. We'll keep you updated as more details come in.
