Leaked HTC Elation with Windows Phone 8 looks more like a clever fake. Here's why.

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The HTC Elation is most likely faked

Rum: 1

Our inbox has been inundated for the last five hours or so with ‘tips’ on the alleged HTC Elation. The device was reported on Ubuntu Life early this morning and the image and details reportedly came from HTC’s own site—in essence, a URL popped up that revealed the device in all its glory.

In just under 72 hours, HTC will be showing off numerous new devices featuring Windows Phone 8, so seeing things “leak” early is to be expected, not to mention the ‘Elation’ somewhat matches the specs of the alleged ‘Zenith’ WP8 device that HTC has reportedly been working on.

Good to go, right? Not so fast…

There are some red flags that have caused us to consider this not real...

WP Central

New HTC phones witll have this double-wide tile

  • Bluetooth 4.0 – Even the top of the line Lumia 920 only has Bluetooth 3.1 and Windows Phone 8 reportedly does not yet support the 4.0 profile
  • Quad-core CPU – While quad-cores are abundant these days, they’re not with the Qualcomm S4 processor. The S4 is capable of doing quad, but it has yet to come out yet. It’s actually called the Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 and is just being readied to see the light of day. But LG is expected to be the first with it, not HTC. What’s more, that chip is between 1.5-1.7GHz, not 1.4GHz as in these specs
  • Front facing camera specs – 1.3MP? The mid-range Accord/8X has a 2.1MP—seems odd they would downgrade the spec here, but anything is possible we suppose.
  • Design – While that One X rip off may satisfy you folks who yearn for a top of the line Windows Phone, it does not match what the Accord and Rio look like in terms of design, colors and flare.
  • The image is wrong – The Office Tile is off and HTC’s new double-wide  Sense tile is nowhere to be seen. Our bet: you won’t see an HTC Windows Phone without their double-wide Sense tile in the product shot
  • Beats Audio – the logo is missing from the back. HTC’s new devices with Windows Phone 8 have the Beats logo place on the lower back just above the speaker grill. There is no ‘Windows Phone’ stamp on the other two unannounced devices.
  • Beats Audio II - No mention of the added amplifier for audio out? Tsk tsk...
  • Naming scheme – HTC 8X, HTC 8S and then there’s the HTC Elation? Call us crazy but something is not right there for branding
  • (New) Non-standard USB port - Windows Phone 8 devices have their port bottom, center. Not to the side.
  • (New) Nokia Drive icon - We think not...

So what about the alleged ‘Zenith’? There are two approaches on this that we’re taking:

  1. It’s not ready yet/never was/was just a rumor
  2. HTC will ‘surprise’ everyone Wednesday with it. But this above isn't it.

We only say that because as of right now, we are not expecting that device. For that reason and all the ones above, we’re calling fake on this story.

Sorry, folks.

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Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.