Nokia announced two new Lumia smartphones today: the Lumia 920 and 820.  We look at the detailed specs to see if either could be coming to Verizon or AT&T.

We told you a little earlier today about Nokia’s new Lumia phones.  One thing that was not announced was the carrier support for either model.  This announcement was for the US, so the potential carriers break down as follows:

GSM:

• AT&T Wireless
• T-mobile

CDMA:

• Verizon
• Sprint

There are other smaller carriers in the US, but these four are by far the largest with AT&T and Verizon being the two largest.

Prior Windows Phones launched primarily on AT&T, which makes sense as GSM-equipped phones can sell on AT&T and on GSM carriers around the world.  This time, there was no exclusive deal announced.  Is it possible that these phone could launch on multiple carriers here in the US?  I decided to look at the specs and see which radios were on board.  If only GSM/HSPA+ radios are here, then AT&T and T-mobile are the only major carriers that could sell the phones.  What did I find?

Lumia 920 Specs

Here is the radio specifications on the Lumia 920, from Nokia’s website.

Operating Frequency

Bands

• GSM 850
• GSM 900
• GSM 1800
• GSM 1900
• WCDMA Band V (850)
• WCDMA Band VIII (900)
• WCDMA Band II (1900)
• WCDMA Band I (2100)
• LTE 800
• LTE 900
• LTE 1800
• LTE 2100
• LTE 2600

This phone appears to have quadband GSM support, quadband CDMA support and pentaband LTE support.  If all of these radios are indeed onboard, then this phone could run on any major carrier network in the US.  It also means that it would serve as an awfully nice world phone as all major international bands are available to the device.  You see the exact same radio specs for the Lumia 820 device.  This is not surprising as the SOC at the heart of these phones is the same ones as used on the Galaxy S III that was announced earlier this year, and that phone has been released on both AT&T and Verizon here Stateside.  And it is either available as a world roamer (AT&T) or will be shortly (Verizon).

Conclusion

In short, these new Lumia models are capable of running on all major US carriers.  This is huge as Nokia needs a real hit, and keeping the Windows Phone 8 Lumias on one US carrier only would impede market penetration.  Here’s hoping that we see the Lumia 920 and 820 on AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile and Sprint in the coming months, and as we see actual carrier announcements, we’ll let you know.

Nokia announced two new phones in New York today, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820.  We have some details!

Nokia took the wraps off of two new Windows Phone 8 handsets today, the flagship Lumia 920 and the mid-range 820.  Both of these handsets carry pentaband LTE and also HSPA+ radios, making them world-capable and compatible with the major US carriers.  Hoorray!

Here is some of the Nokia announcement:

The Nokia Lumia 920 brings a raft of technology firsts to the table, on top of all the great advantages offered by Windows Phone 8 and exceptional industrial design, making it our new flagship smartphone device and what we believe is the world’s most innovative phone.

Image is everything

This is the best camera we’ve ever put in a smartphone. It offers the latest in PureView technology to allow for photography in much lower light conditions than has ever been the case on a smartphone previously. This is combined with genuine Optical Image Stabilization for dramatically reduced blur and movement.

In the words of Nokia EVP for Smart Devices, Jo Harlow, the PureView technology found in the Lumia 920 makes “it possible for a smartphone camera to take the kind of images usually only seen on a standalone SLR camera”.

The Lumia 920 also features PureMotion HD+ display technology, powering its generous 4.5-inch screen with the fastest, brightest, most-sensitive and highest resolution display ever seen in this market.

More power; more speed

Power management for smartphones reaches unprecedented levels of usability with our largest ever battery (2000mAh). And now wireless charging – available on both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 – makes topping up your power level faster and more convenient than ever before, both at home and in the office, and at venues such as cafes and airport lounges.

Our second Windows Phone 8 device is the Nokia Lumia 820. Here again, you’ll be able to experience all the new features of the platform in a stunningly designed package, a 4.3-inch screen, and the same fantastic performance levels offered by the 1.5GHz Dual Core Snapdragon S4 processor common to each device. The Lumia 820 meets the needs of the modern phone user with an exchangeable shell design for sports, going out with friends or staying charged the whole day.

Windows Phone 8 offers advantages like Internet Explorer 10, deeper integration with your PC, improved business grade security, together with the more personal, people-centred approach to showing and using information that has delighted users of earlier Lumia smartphones.

Finding the future

On the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, our signature Location apps are extended and made more powerful:

• Nokia Maps for Windows Phone 8 is going to work offline and will integrate walk navigation, an augmented reality view and venue maps.
• We’ve refreshed Nokia Transport to support search history, to get automatic over-the-air coverage updates, to be more user friendly and to integrate Nokia Maps walk navigation.
• Nokia City Lens is even better on Lumia powered by Windows Phone 8: you can now decide to get information only about the places in your line of sight and pin category tiles to the start screen.

Location on the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 get a further, hardware-based boost with autonomous assisted GPS and GLONASS receivers. This means that you can see yourself on a map within seconds, even when you’re offline.

Our new Lumia phones come in a wide and vivid range of colours. The Nokia Lumia 920 comes in yellow, red, grey, white and black. The Nokia Lumia 820 goes two steps further with yellow, red, grey, cyan, purple, white and black models.

Both phones will be available in select markets in pentaband LTE and HSPA+ variants later this year. Prices and release dates will be revealed in separate, later announcements.

There’s a lot to take in here. And we’ll be covering each part of these announcements in separate, detailed posts and videos. Stay tuned over the next days to learn more about latest in PureView, wireless charging, Location, PureMotion HD+ and to see the two new devices in more detail.