Last week, Nokia released its two new Windows Phone 8 models, which included its new flagship phone, the Lumia 920. Pricing and release dates weren't part of the announcement. Many speculated it will go on sale in early 2013, but fresh reports say it will hit some markets in early to mid-November. Now that we have this bit of information, I've compiled a list of reasons why you should buy the Nokia Lumia 920, and why you shouldn't.

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• Design

  Just like the previous Lumia phones, the Lumia 920 also has a polycarbonate body, but with a glossy finish as opposed to the matte finish on the earlier Lumia phones. The color palette now includes Spectacular Yellow, Lipstick Red and Slate Grey colors, but you won't get the cyan color option for this phone. The design of this phone is very unique and it clearly stands out from the rest of the crowd.

• Display

  The Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch curved glass display, dubbed the best smartphone display in the world by Nokia, and has a resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels, which puts it on the same level as its competition. But it's not just about high resolution anymore, a smartphone display should look good in bright sunlight. The Lumia 920's PureMotion HD+ display uses smart polarizing technology to reduce glare and reproduces the best colors and brightness even on a sunny day.

• Powertrain

  The Lumia 920 is powered by the 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM. Add Windows Phone 8 to this whole package and you're looking at one of the fastest smartphones out there today.

• Nokia-exclusive apps

  The advantage of buying a Windows Phone from Nokia is that you get a suite of applications that are exclusive to Nokia phones. The navigation experience that Nokia provides with Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive is as good as a standalone GPS navigation solution. They have now added true offline maps, which will work even if there is no data connection available. The new addition to the location suite is Nokia City Lens, an augmented reality app which displays information about restaurants, shops, businesses etc. when you point your camera at a city block or street. It can prove very helpful for tourists.

  Nokia has also taken care of music lovers by launching Nokia Music Store and Nokia Mix Radio. You can stream unlimited songs for free with Nokia Mix Radio. Not only can you buy and download tracks from the Nokia Music Store, but also add tracks from your existing library.

• PureView camera

  The most talked-about feature of the Lumia 920 is its PureView camera. The 920 has an 8.7 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens. It comes with what Nokia calls a floating lens OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) technology which produces sharper stills and smoother videos. The low-light performance of the camera is much better than rival smartphones.

• Battery

  The Lumia 920 packs a 2000mAh battery, the largest ever for a Nokia phone. The Snapdragon S4 processor is 30% more battery-efficient than the competition, giving the 920 great battery life. If you think it's still not enough, read the next point.

• Wireless charging

  This is not something new and has been around for the last couple of years but no handset manufacturer ever integrated it into its phones or ever included it as part of their accessories. The Lumia 920 is the world's first smartphone to have wireless charging support built-in. Nokia has partnered with Fatboy for the wireless chargers for the new Lumia line.

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• Pricing and release

  The most important thing for a smartphone to be a success is its pricing. According to a German blog, WinFuture, the price of an unlocked Lumia 920 will be around $760 USD. This price range is the home of high-end Android phones/phablets, not to mention the Apple iPhone. There are reports of a cheaper version of the 920 which will not have 4G LTE. Also, there are rumors that the rollout will be slow, just like the previous Lumia phones.

• No expandable memory

  The Lumia 920 comes with 32GB of built-in flash memory and has no expansion slot, which should be good enough for most users. But if you like to carry your entire music library with you, shoot 1080p videos and play a lot of games, add to that the potential 2-3 GB taken up by the OS, and you could be out of memory pretty soon.

• No OS updates?

  Although it's very difficult to say anything at this moment, since the Lumia 900 and 800 won't get the Windows Phone 8 upgrade, one might think there's a remote possibility that this new generation of Lumia phones won't be getting the next major update either.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is a solid phone with competitive features and should definitely be your next smartphone if you can afford it. If you just want a taste of Windows Phone 8, then there will be several less expensive alternatives, including the other new Lumia, the 820.

Image credit: Nokia