The Ativ Odyssey: what will this mysterious WP8 smartphone offer?

At Microsoft’s Windows Phone launch event, CEO Steve Ballmer showcased all the new Windows Phone 8 smartphones. While most people were interested with the Windows Phone 8X by HTC, we were intrigued by a mystery phone set to release in December 2012 on Verizon Wireless‘ network.

Dubbed the Samsung Ativ Odyssey, not that much is known about this WP 8 enabled Samsung device. It was initially believed that Samsung’s other device, the Ativ S, would be the only smartphone from the Korean giant to run WP 8.

Although not confirmed, rumoured specs on the device have been released by GSM Arena. The defining difference between the Ativ S and Odyssey is screen size, measuring 4.8-inches and 4.65-inches respectively. The Odyssey will also house a HD Super AMOLED touch display, powered by a 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon S4 processor. As far as connectivity is concerned, the Odyssey should be both 3G and LTE compliant.

The Odyssey’s impending release does however raise a couple of questions: most notably, why a smaller screen? Another concern is who the Odyssey will be targeted towards, with all the same features as the Ativ S, what need will there be for the Odyssey?