Photos show prototype Lumia 950 successor that never came out

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Photos have emerged of a Microsoft smartphone that supposedly should have succeeded the Lumia 950. The phone has a metal design with antenna lines, where the Lumia 950 has a plastic housing. The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.

The phone calls itself id340-3, according to photos by Hikari Calyx. The code name would have been NorthStar. This ‘polar star’ would have a 5.2 “screen with a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. The Lumia 950 has a screen with the same characteristics. According to the software, the soc is a Qualcomm MSM8996, a Snapdragon 820. In 2016 that was the current high-end soc from the American chip designer.

The metal design with antenna lines and clean shapes is reminiscent of that of the HTC One M7 from 2013, which for the first time placed antennas in small lines of a metal housing. Later, the iPhone 6 and many other smartphones, among others, took over that design element.

The camera on the back is said to be a 20-megapixel PureView camera with three LED flashes, just like on the Lumia 950. That is the same as on the Lumia 950. This ‘Lumia 960’ was never released. Microsoft canceled plans for subsequent Windows Mobile 10 smartphones. The last Microsoft phone came out in March 2016.

The Lumia line came from Nokia, which sold its telephone branch to Microsoft. Nokia has now licensed its brand name to HMD Global, which has started making Android smartphones. The NorthStar that has now surfaced is fully operational. It is unknown if more details about the software will come out later.

It is not the first time that a prototype from the Lumia line has come out. Two years ago, extensive hands-ons appeared with the Nokia McLaren, with pressure-sensitive sides, such as are now found in the Google Pixel phones and HTC devices. That phone also had a screen that could be operated from a few centimeters away.

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