Photos of two Lumia smartphones leaked

Leaked photos of two new Windows Phone 8 devices from Nokia, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, hit the Web on Friday ahead of the handset maker's Nokia World event next week in New York.

Two high-resolution photos popped up on the around 7:30 a.m. ET, showcasing bright, slick phones which Nokia is expected to debut next Wednesday.

As The Verge first reported, the leaked photos likely display the "Phi" (Lumia 920) and "Arrow" (Lumia 820) devices (pictured below), both available in a number of colours.

The Lumia 920 phone will supposedly sport a 4.5-inch display, as well as a PureView camera, which has a 41-megapixel sensor and is meant to eliminate the visual noise found on most smartphone cameras. According to VentureBeat, Lumia 920 plans will be sold exclusively by AT&T.

The Lumia 820, comes in at least seven colors, has a 4.3-inch display, and will run on AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, VentureBeat said.

The mysterious @evleaks has posted only 10 messages in four days, including eight photos of an unknown HTC Android tablet, and already has almost 700 followers in less than a week.

Nokia has a lot riding on its Windows Phone 8 offerings and its tight relationship with Microsoft. The beleaguered Finnish handset maker, once a market leader, has struggled to keep up with competitors like Apple and makers of various Android phones in recent years.

"Nokia bet everything on Windows, and if this doesn't succeed the next step might be having to do what's best for shareholders, and that might include selling off key assets or selling the whole company," Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley said in an interview with Reuters.

Windows Phone 8 isn't expected to drop until Oct. 29, VentureBeat pointed out, so if they are revealed next week, the Lumia handsets will still have to sit on the shelf for almost two months before Nokia starts selling them.