Normally, the launch of a carrier-specific variant of an HTC 8X wouldn't merit much in the way of celebration. It certainly wouldn't ordinarily be enough to rearrange our schedule, especially if it meant delaying the recording of the already-late Pocketnow Weekly podcast for another hour, or putting the on-time publication of our Nokia Lumia 1020 review in serious jeopardy. If this were a less-notable device, we'd have pushed it off until Monday.

But the HTC 8XT is no ordinary WP8 smartphone. It's Sprint's first Windows Phone 8 device, and only the second Windows Phone the carrier has ever offered, the first having been the ancient HTC Arrive back in 2010. And it's also the first Windows Phone 8 device to feature HTC's much-ballyhooed BoomSound feature, the front-facing audio innovation made famous by the HTC One and HTC One Mini.

The question of whether or not these attributes make the phone stand out from the pack will have to wait for our forthcoming coverage. For now, sit back, relax, and enjoy a quick-and-dirty unboxing of the first Windows Phone to hit the Now Network in quite a long while -- and raise a glass to all the Sprint customers who finally, mercifully get to ditch their Arrives as a result. less