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Nokia Logo

Finnish tech company Nokia, who sold their Lumia and mobile handset business to Microsoft back in 2013, seems to possibly be looking at returning to handset market with images of a purported handset called the C1 showing up on the net.

The images, which clearly show the company name on the back of the handset, apparently shows a 5″ 1080p display display incased what could be a full metal body or at least a plastic look alike, though a metal body is far more expected given it would be following the same design look of its current N1 tablet. There’s a lot of rumours but there is speculation that the phone will be of a ‘budget class’ handset, using an Intel Atom (or possibly Y series) processor and 2GB of RAM along with the only standout feature of the C1, that being that it will launch with Android M (Marshmallow, 6.0). So, here’s what it looks like:

nokia-c1-leak

Now, is it real? Probably not, it’s most likely a prototype made by the division but will most likely not see the light of day. While phone fans would love to see a Nokia handset (though memories of the Nokia X have left a long-standing bad taste in the mouth) the terms of the Microsoft deal which saw their mobile division purchased outright very likely precludes making a mobile phone – the Nokia N1 tablet skirts this by a few factors, chiefly among which is that it’s not a phone.

If there is movement on any phones being launched out of Nokia, you can bet we’ll be interested to see what they have to offer. Nokia has a lot of good credit in Australia when it comes to recognisable brand names in mobile phones, so launching a decent mid-range Android phone could be a great way to re-introduce a mobile division once whatever deal with Microsoft expires.

Source: CNMO (translated).
Via: EngadgetThe Verge.