On Wednesday, Nov. 14, Verizon Wireless announced that it would be offering the Windows Phone 8X by HTC and Nokia's Lumia 822 from Nov. 15. Previously, Verizon had only mentioned that the devices would be available prior to Thanksgiving, but had not disclosed a specific date.

"The Windows Phone 8X by HTC and the Nokia Lumia 822 will be available for purchase online and in stores starting tomorrow, November 15," stated Verizon Wireless' Web site.

However, the carrier noted that the Lumia 822's Gray variant and the red HTC 8X would only be available online and not in stores. Verizon is slated to offer three 4G LTE-enable smartphones that run on Microsoft's latest Windows Phone 8 (WP8) operating system. Two of the three devices (HTC 8X and Lumia 822) will be available from Thursday, Nov. 15, whereas the third one i.e. the Samsung ATIV Odyssey is expected to hit the shelves by year end.

The 4.3-inch HTC 8X will be priced at $199.99 on a two-year contract. The smartphone will be available in blue, red, and black models, and both the red and black variants are exclusive to Verizon.

The Nokia Lumia 822 too sports a 4.3-inch display and is priced at $99.99 (post a $50 mail-in rebate) on a two-year contract. The smartphone will be available in black, white, and gray versions.

Additionally, both smartphones support wireless charging, with this functionality being exclusive to Verizon for the HTC 8X.  Another area where Verizon scores over its competitors is having the Data Sense app.

"The Data Sense app, exclusive for a limited time, tells you how much data you have used in a given time period. It also allows you to set data limits and even reports how much data each app has used. Data Sense doesn't stop there, as it has a suite of features like Wi-Fi mapping to find hotspots and compressing images and HTML while browsing the Web to help reduce data usage," notes Verizon.

Out of the three major U.S. carriers, Verizon's WP8 devices are the last to hit the shelves. AT&T released the Lumia 920 (which is exclusive to the carrier) and HTC 8X last weekend, whereas T-Mobile's version of the HTC 8X went on sale on Nov. 14, a day prior to Verizon.

All three carriers have the same $199.99 price point for the HTC 8X. Verizon is expected to release the ATIV Odyssey sometime in December, and a company executive recently confirmed that the carrier would also be providing a WP8 device for free with a contract, which in all probability could be the ATIV Odyssey.

With the WP8 smartphones finally hitting stores, which carrier would you pick and which handset is your favorite?