A mysterious set of images of a handset bearing the Nokia brand name have popped up online, leading to speculation that it’s a new feature phone offering by the company. The device appears to be a trial product based on an inscription which states that it’s a prototype under the property of Nokia.
The pictures don’t reveal a lot about the potential specs of the Nokia handset. It’s clearly a basic feature phone given the keypad and non-touch screen. Two strips can be seen on the model’s rear surface, which could be antenna bands. This may also indicate the device will sport a metal body. There’s a camera unit with a LED flash module on top of it.
The Nokia stamp on the gadget (as seen on NowhereElse) is interesting since the manufacturer is not allowed to use its own name on feature handsets till 2024, as per a deal which it had hammered out with current owner Microsoft. However, the clause for smartphones expires in 2016. The brand had said it would be coming out with a new offering during the year, but did not give out any more details.
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Phone Arena speculates that the new images could either be of an old model which was not worked on after Microsoft took over Nokia, or it might just be a future feature device which the former is releasing under the latter’s name. The second scenario isn’t likely though, because of the reasons mentioned above.
The new feature phone resembles the Nokia 230 in terms of design. Microsoft had announced the phone back in November last year. The handset came with an aluminum back cover and featured a plastic body. We’ll just have to wait and see if the images which have been leaked are of a upcoming handset or not.