New pictures of the rumored Nokia Lumia 830 appeared on Weibo, hinting at an aluminum frame with some other interesting features.
Microsoft's takeover hasn't affected Nokia continuation of the Lumia smartphones as rumors suggest three new handsets are in the pipeline this year. Besides the low-end "Superman" smartphone and the high-end "Mclaren" flagship, Nokia is expected to launch another Lumia smartphone based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1, which fills the gap for the mid-range category. Leaked photos on the popular Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo show the alleged Nokia Lumia 830.
China is the assembly point for most of the Nokia's high-end smartphones. As shown in the pictures, the new Lumia smartphone seems to have an aluminum frame with a polycarbonate rear casing with a LCD panel covering the entire front screen. WPDang speculates the new Lumia device could be the Lumia 830, while The Verge suggests it may be the "Tesla" smartphone, codename for a possible Lumia 730.
Besides the aluminum frame, one of the leaked photos shows a black housing for the camera. Though it appears to resemble the one found on the Lumia 1020, lack of bulge suggests the rumored smartphone may carry a trimmed down version of the Lumia 1020's 41-megapixel supershooter. Yet another interesting addition is the support for on-screen Windows Phone buttons, which respond to capacitive touch on the front side of the handset.
While the leaked photos could be a photo-shopped render of a fan, it is quite possible that the pictures bear some authenticity considering Weibo has given some leaked images of Nokia X and Lumia 1520 in the past.
Details on the high-end "McLaren" smartphone are promising and worth waiting for. According to WPDang, the rumored flagship smartphone is expected to carry a 5.2-inch 2K resolution display with 3D Touch features, a 41-megapixel camera and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor. Release dates for all three smartphones are not yet revealed but are expected to be launched sometime this year.
