We're officially into Windows Phone 8 season, and now we finally have a few devices to compare. Today was an exciting day as we finally got to see Nokia's next-generation Lumia handsets, but not one week earlier Samsung beat the company to the punch by announcing the Ativ S.

So there's an obvious question to answer: which phone is better? What better way to answer that than by indulging in our favorite pastime: a new edition of Smackdown. For those unfamiliar, this is where we compare the raw specs between Windows Phones to see which one comes out on top, at least on paper. This time around it's a three-way dogfight between the Nokia Lumia 920, the Nokia Lumia 820 and the Samsung Ativ S.

Let's get ready to ruuuummmble!


And the winner is...the Nokia Lumia 920 by a hair! The company's new flagship won 7 categories on our Smackdown spec sheet, most notably with its display. It's the first Windows Phone 8 device with a WXGA screen resolution and just so happens to have an extremely pixel dense screen. In fact, the 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ actually beats the iPhone's Retina Display in terms of pixel density! (331 ppi versus 326 ppi.) Another area where the Lumia barely edged out the competition was with its camera. Even without the PureView software and fanciness, the 920 still won the category thanks to the camera's wide aperture and higher megapixel count.

The runner-up was the Samsung Ativ S, but it really was by a slim margin. If we had confirmation that the phone would ship with LTE, it would probably have been a tie, but alas there are a few gaps to fill in the specs sheet. Still, the specs that are there impress, especially the thickness and weight of the phone — a svelte 8.7 mm and feather-light 135 grams. Despite the slim waistline, the Ativ S still managed to pack in the largest battery, best front-facing camera and a MicroSD card slot. We have to give credit to Samsung, because they definitely have the know-how to pack every awesome little spec into a mean, slim machine.

Finally, third place belongs to the Nokia Lumia 820, which was probably predictable. The phone was especially hurt by the lack of an HD screen and a smaller battery. However, that's not to say there weren't any saving graces for the phone like the LTE and MicroSD support, or of course the mid-range price. Plus for the most part, the 820 managed to hold its own alongside the big boys with a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, and a fairly slim 9.9 mm thickness. So this so called "mid-range" handset is looking to be a very solid buy when it comes out later this year.

Which phone are you looking forward to the most?

Source: Samsung, Nokia Lumia 920 (PDF), Nokia Lumia 820 (PDF)