The Nokia Lumia 928 is officially coming to Verizon on May 16.
The phone was already leaked earlier this week, thanks to an ad in Vanity Fair, but now the release date -- and carrier -- is official. The Lumia 928 is the latest flagship phone in Nokia's Windows Phone 8 stable.
Nokia revealed details of the Lumia 928 on its blog Friday. Just as the Lumia 920 was exclusive to AT&T, the Lumia 928 is exclusive to Verizon.
While the design of the two phones are slightly different, the specs are remarkably similar.
The Lumia 928 features:
A 4.5-inch display
8.7 megapixel PureView camera
Wireless charging
1GB of RAM
1.5 Ghz dual-core Snapdragon processor
32GB of storage
If that sounds similar to the Lumia 920, that's because it is. The big changes to the Lumia 928 include a change in screen type -- the Lumia 928 is OLED rather than IPS -- and the addition of a xenon flash. It will also have three microphones for better audio recording.
A xenon flash is much brighter than the LED flash included in most camera phones (including the Lumia 920) and it's good for capturing motion without blur. It brings the Lumia 928 one step closer to being a stand-in for a regular digital camera.
I spent 10 days with the Lumia 920 and still enjoy that phone even as a camera.
For Verizon users who don't want to wait for the Galaxy S4 and aren't satisfied with the iPhone 5, the Lumia 928 is certainly a phone to watch. We look forward to getting a better look at the phone once it debuts.
The phone will hit stores at $99.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate with a two-year contract.
Verizon users -- are you excited about the Lumia 928? Let us know.