Samsung ATIV S Neo is Sprint's 2nd Windows Phone 8 smartphone

The Samsung ATIV S Neo is coming to Sprint on Friday. This will be Sprint's second Windows Phone 8 smartphone of the year, with the HTC 8XT being the first WP8 device earlier this summer.

The ATIV S Neo will be sporting a 4.8-inch display with a 1.4 gigahertz dual-core processor under the hood, which falls short when compared with some of the other high-powered quad-core smartphones, such as the 1.9 GHz Samsung Galaxy S4 or the LG Optimus G Pro at 1.7 GHz of processing power. You can also add 1 gigabyte of RAM and 16 GB if internal storage to the balance sheet.

The battery is a respectable 2,000 mAh lithium-ion, but there are other devices out there with larger capacity. The good news is that the ATIV S Neo features ATIV Beam for sharing photos, music and video with other WP8 devices using the NFC technology.

For snapshots, Sprint's WP8 baby has a eight-megapixel camera with LED flash and a 1.9 MP camera for video chats and self-portraits.

Despite a few shortcomings, the ATIV S Neo still might worth a test drive for WP8 fans. It'll only cost you $150 under contract if you want to take it home.

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Samsung London event offers a hint to new Galaxy and ATIV devices

Samsung chose Memorial Day, when our minds are not on hot tech news, to roll out a teaser for an event on Thursday, June 20, in London.

The hints in their poster point to maybe new Galaxy and ATIV devices, which means Android and Windows 8 flavored announcements. Then we have images of some pretty thin devices that might could be a tablet, laptop and something that resembles a camera lens.

Samsung announced Windows 8 devices just under a year ago at a conference in Berlin, Germany, which included a two notebooks and a smartphone, called the ATIV S. Since the launch of these devices, the ATIV S has suffered several delays and has not gained much traction among carriers in the United States.

The Samsung ATIV smart PC is currently available from AT&T, while the Samsung ATIV Odyssey smartphone is available from Verizon Wireless.

Maybe the London event will bring new features to these devices. So circle June 20 on your calendar for the latest tech news from the Samsung camp.

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Samsung announces new Windows 8 devices

The new Windows 8 devices announced by Samsung includes a smartphone, a tablet and two versions of notebook.

Samsung has announced several Windows 8 ATIV devices at a conference in Berlin, Germany.

They include two notebooks, a tablet and a smartphone that will be a part of Samsung's new brand for its Windows-based devices.

The smartphone, called the ATIV S, will run the Windows Phone 8 operating system with a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core processor. It'll have a 4.8-inch display and an eight-megapixel real camera, along with a 1.9 MP front camera.

The 2300mAh battery is quite impressive in size, which put the ATIV S in the same arena as the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, which has a 3300mAh battery.

The ATIV Tab tablet will run Windows RT, which will use ARM-based processors. It'll have a 10.1-inch display and will come with a five-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9 MP front camera.

According to Samsung, the ATIV Tab will boot up instantly and will come with Office Home and Student 2013, which is the new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One Note. Samsung says you'll be able to create and edit documents just like on a PC.

Samsung also unveiled two PC devices - the ATIV Smart PC Pro and ATIV Smart PC. Both devices will have Windows 8 functionality and Windows 7 compatibility.

The notebooks will have detachable keyboards for switching between a traditional notebook and a tablet environment. The S Pen, used on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and earlier Note device, will be incorporated into both devices for drawing and writing.

The Smart PC Pro, with one USB 3.0 port, will use the Intel Core i5 processor, while the Smart PC, with one USB port, will have the Intel Atom processor. Both devices will two-extra USB 2.0 ports on the keyboard.

Battery life is rated at up to 13.5 hours for the Smart PC and up to eight hours for the Smart PC Pro.

As for the branding, Samsung says "ATIV, the reverse order of the word VITA, meaning “Life” in Latin, is a pledge to make everyone’s life extraordinary with excitement."

The new Windows 8 devices will be on display at the IFA Consumer Electronics show in Berlin through Sept. 5.

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