Hands-on Shows Kinect-Like ‘3D Touch’ on Canceled 2014 Lumia

History can only be written in retrospect. Microsoft canceled a high-end phone that was ready for release at the end of 2014. Now the first ‘reviews’ have appeared of this phone, which distinguished itself with 3D Touch, a way to operate the screen by hovering above it.

Nokia pioneered wireless charging, optical image stabilization, oversampling with the camera and screens that can be operated with gloves, but it had another innovation ready for the next Lumia: a touchscreen that is so sensitive that it can be operated by hovering over it with your fingers a few centimeters away.

The screen has sensors to detect if the user hovers a finger above the screen. This makes it possible to control part of the interface without touching it. The technology is somewhat like ‘floating touch’, a function of the Sony Xperia Sola from 2012. However, the Xperia Sola only supports touch with one finger. In addition, the Lumia also detects how users grip the phone.

There are various applications for the technology in the software, Windows Central writes. For example, there is a lock on the screen rotation as long as the user holds the device in the same way. The screen also remains on as long as the user holds the smartphone in hand. It is also possible to record a phone call by waving over the screen.

In addition, various apps would support the function, which would subsequently receive the striking name 3D Touch. The home screen shows how the tiles wave and as the hand gets closer, tiles can ‘explode’ and show up to eight different tiles. According to Windows Central, Microsoft canceled the phone because both users and developers did not understand the concept of the anomalous touchscreen.

The phone has a 5.5″ LCD with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The housing measures around 14×7.5cm. It has a camera with a maximum resolution of around twenty megapixels, but the software based on Windows Phone 8.1 shoots it at a maximum of eight megapixels.Despite the large camera module on the back, it does not have a xenon flash, unlike the Lumia 1020. That camera module is necessary for optical image stabilization.The design is largely made of metal, with a plastic bottom.

In December 2014, it became clear that Microsoft had canceled the McLaren, as the prototype was called. It only released high-end devices a year later in the form of the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. The name 3D Touch has since been used by Apple for the pressure-sensitive screen of the iPhone 6s series.

Walkthrough of all features of the prototype in a 13:37 minute video.