HTC has lifted the lid on a tweaked version of premium Windows Phone 8 handset, adding the company's own BoomSound speaker technology and an extra letter to the name. The HTC 8XT comes with much of the same featureset as the HTC 8X, although its 4.3-inch drops from HD to 800 x 480, and it now features front-facing stereo speakers to bring it more in line with the Taiwanese manufacturer's latest Android devices.

It still features the same size camera - 8-megapixels - on the rear, but reports say that it features just a 1.6-megapixel snapper on the front: the HTC 8X had a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera.

The processor is different - a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 chipset along with 1GB of RAM rather that the 1.5GHz older generation Qualcomm CPU.

Beats Audio processing is still included, but there is now 4G LTE connectivity, at least on the US Sprint version, which is all that has been announced so far. On board storage is just 8GB, but a microSD card slot is present for expansion by up to an extra 64GB.

A 1,800mAh battery keeps the whole thing ticking along.

At present, only Sprint in the US has declared it is carrying the new HTC 8XT, with a registration page now open if you want more information. It will be available on the network this summer for $99 with contract.

We aren't currently aware of any UK carriers who will be taking the device.