Nokia might be betting on Windows Phone but new details and leaked images show the company is keeping its options open with Android.
The Finnish company has been very loyal to Microsoft and Windows Phone. Unlike its fellow Windows Phone licensees such as Samsung and HTC, Nokia has kept its smartphone ambitions to a Windows Phone-only approach. The company already accounts for almost ninety percent of the Windows Phone market share and is in the final stages of being acquired by Microsoft. Newly released images paint another picture of Nokia's ambitions in the smartphone world and as you might have guessed, it's been playing with Android behind Microsoft's back.
Ever since Nokia released the Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7 in November 2011, many smartphone fans have wanted an Android-based Lumia. There have been rumors that Nokia has been secretly working on a smartphone running Android and now, thanks to a very reliable source, we're getting a look at Nokia's Lumia-inspired handset codenamed 'Normandy.'
Evleaks tweeted the above image and captioned it "Android on Nokia". The pictures show what appears to be a Nokia Lumia smartphone, complete with a brightly colored paintjob running a customized version of the Android OS. The regular Windows Phone Start button has been replaced with Android's Back button. It's not clear if the usual Android Home and Multitasking buttons are on the left and right sides of the Back button and not lit up in the images, although evleaks makes a mention of virtual buttons.
We get to see the 'Normandy's' lock screen, which shows a few notifications displayed, while the Android status bar shows the smartphone is a dual-SIM device. Another image shows the smartphone running Skype and we also get a look at the phone application, which is very reminiscent of Android 4.4 KitKat.
Soon after the images were leaked another source posted some new information and has confirmed the 'Normandy' is running Android 4.4 KitKat. GSMArena posted images of an AnTuTu test that shows the device listed as "Nokia RM-980 A110" and it has a 4-inch FWVGA (480 x 854 resolution) display. It's also packing a 5-megapixel rear camera, a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and, just like the dialer implied, it's running Android 4.4.1 KitKat.
It's unclear if the 'Normandy' will ever be released now that Microsoft is acquiring Nokia, but the fact that it's now running Android 4.4 KitKat seems to imply that Nokia is still keeping its options open in regards to its smartphone future.
