Nokia is definitely one of the more interesting companies around. This Finland-based company was once the number one cellphone manufacturer in the world. Nokia was well-known for the quality of their handsets, and was more or less the most popular cellphone brand in the world at one point. That all changed over the years as the company was unable to adapt to the ever-changing world of mobile technology, their Symbian and MeeGo operating systems failed, and then the company made a huge mistake when they signed an exclusivity agreement with Microsoft. Nokia ultimately sold their Devices and Services businesses to Microsoft, and it seemed like the company is done for. Well, that was not the case, Nokia was able to release their first true Android-powered device, the Nokia N1 tablet, which was well received even though it had limited availability.
That being said, we’ve been hearing rumors regarding the Nokia-branded smartphone for quite some time now, and even Nokia’s officials confirmed a while back that the company has huge plans, and that they might release and Android-powered smartphone at one point. We’ve seen a number of clearly fake leaks thus far, and were waiting for one that might look at least somewhat believable. Well, a new render surfaced quite recently, and even though we can’t confirm if this is legit or not, it’s here, and we’ll let you decide whether this is fake or not. The phone sports really thin bezels, as you can see, and interestingly enough, the menu buttons is also located below the display, alongside the home and back capacitive keys. Less-known Chinese OEMs still use the menu button in their smartphones, so it seems a bit weird for Nokia to opt for it, but there you have it. This is not the only odd thing when it comes to this device, you might notice Samsung’s icons are used here, and also the Titanium Backup app. This render seems more fake than real to be honest, but make of it what you want.
The source claims this device will be called ‘Nokia A1’, and it is expected to ship sometime this summer. As you can see, Nokia’s Z Launcher is running on this device, and even though we don’t know which Android version is installed on it, we’re hoping Android Marshmallow will come out of the box here. The phone will, reportedly, ship with a 5.5-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) display, and the Snapdragon 652 will fuel it, which means this will be a mid-range handset, not a flagship. We do hope that Nokia will introduce a flagship phone sometime this year as well, though it makes sense for them to release a mid-range offering considering the markets they’re currently active in. That is pretty much it, all we can do at this point is wait and see what happens.