What We Know About Nokia Normandy Release Date, Software..

What is Nokia Normandy? To explain it in one sentence, we should say it is a combination of Nokia Lumia series, Asha series, and on the software side, it is a combination of Windows Phone with Metro interface and Android Os with its great services. In other words Nokia Normandy takes advantage of Lumia design, Windows Phone features, affordable price of Asha, and having some Google services you usually find on Android devices.

What we know about Nokia Normandy Software Features so far?

Well, like almost any other rumor worth to look in to, @evlekas was the first to report about the new Nokia’s device, codenamed Normandy, suggesting it runs Android, as the first Nokia’s device to run the largest distributed OS for smartphones.

But on the other side, Microsoft had just acquired Nokia and it was odd and actually a paradox to see an Android device produced under the supervision of Microsoft. Remember all the buzz about Google pulling down the YouTube application from Windows Phone store?

We’ll discuss more about this Google and Microsoft battle at the end of the article, and now we are going to get you to know more about Nokia Normandy features and User Interface.

Speaking of User Interface, the first leaked image suggests a Windows Phone-like UI with those familiar live tiles and shortcuts. If we look closer, we’ll notice a 3x1 live tile which appears to function as a notification center for missed calls and unread messages. There are 2 more things we can conclude by looking at the image, the availability of Nokia Normandy in different colors (including Black, White, Green, Yellow, Red and Blue), and supporting 2 SIM cards at the same time.

The next leaked image, leaked by @evleaks as usual, shows Viber and Skype installed on the Dual-SIM Nokia Normandy, and the lock screen page and the way is shows next appointment, and missed calls and messages, is suggesting a new launcher or at least a newly designed lock screen page. It also seems that there are no physical buttons on the front panel and navigation are done via virtual buttons.

There is yet another leaked image, which reveals more about this Nokia, Android, Google, and Microsoft handset. According to these images from the UI, there seems to be a new way to show notifications and missed events, Nokia is still keeping the Metro style, and BBM, Facebook, Vine, Plants vs. Zombies, and Skype are some of the installed apps on the Nokia Normandy. The story gets more exciting when we know BBM has not been released for the Windows Phone based devices yet.

Another point in this latest leaked image, which we believe is suggesting a legit release date or Nokia Normandy announcement. The calendar tile is pointing at Tuesday 25^th, which is exactly during the MWC 2014 in Barcelona which is set to start from February 24^th and end at February 27^th.

What About Nokia Normandy Hardware Features?

There is not much about hardware features and there are just some leaked engineering prototype of Nokia Normandy, which doesn’t provide much info about this Android-based device.

There is just one benchmark result, leaked by Nokia Power User, and considering it to be to true, the Nokia Normandy will be reportedly running Android 4.4.1 KitKat, and here are some of the hardware specs of Nokia Normandy:

4-inch display, with 854 x 480 pixels of resolution
5 MP Rear Camera
Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (Possibly Snapdragon 200)
Dual-SIM support

Conclusion

We know for sure, that Nokia is working on producing an Android phone with the Windows Phone like user interface. But the details are yet to be revealed. At the beginning we mentioned about the issues between Google and Microsoft, but since it seems both Google and Microsoft services are sitting beside each other peacefully, there shouldn’t be any concerns or whatsoever. It reminds us of the successful experience of Kindle Fire tablets produced by Amazon, which although the main core is Android, but Amazon has implemented its own design on their tablets.

So, let’s mark the calendar for February 25^th to see the official announcement of Nokia Normandy at MWC 2014 in Barcelona. If you are wondering about the Price, there are literally no guess and we just expect Nokia Normandy to be targeted as a mid-end (or even low-end0 device with an entry-level price.

Update: Nokia Normandy Spotted on a Vietnamese retailer's website
Nokia Normandy (or as @evleaks says: Nokia X), was just appeared at the largest Vietnamese online retailer, The Gioididong, and was removed a couple of hours later.
We don't know yet, if it was just a mistake or they added the product on purpose, but according to the removed page (credit: WMPoweruser), the general specifications of Nokia Normandy will be:

4.0" FWVGA display (480x854 pixels)
1.2GHz Dual-core, Qualcomm Snapdragon 200
Adreno 302
512MB of RAM, 4GB of Internal memory, microSD support
5MP camera, 720p HD video recording
Dual-SIM support
Android 4.4 KitKat

Considering other features shown at the retailer's website, the Nokia Normandy will be able to run Google services, including Google Play, Google Search, Google Now, Map, Gmail, YouTube, and Calendar. Nokia Normandy (Nokia X) is just hard to believe, but it does exist!!

Update: Nokia X Specifications Leaked

According to @evlekas latest Tweet about Nokia X, we should expect the first Nokia' Android phone to have the following specifications:

4 inch screen with WVGA display quality
1Ghz Dual-core Snapdragon processor
512MB of RAM, 4GB of Internal Memory, microSD support
5MP Rear camera
Dual-SIM support
Nokia Store + 3^rd party apps
1500 mAh Battery
Available in 6 colors

We don’t know what type of applications this colorful Nokia X can run, and we should wait more to see if it runs all the Google related applications or not, including Google Play Store (which seems unlikely as Nokia X has reportedly access to Nokia Store instead of Google's own Store) .

Update: Nokia X Press Image Leaked
MWC 2014 will be started in a week, and we are eagerly waiting to see what will be the result of combination of Nokia, Google, Android, and Windows Phone in to one device. According to several reports and this new leaked press image (courtesy of @evleaks), Nokia X is the confirmed name for the Nokia's new device which is supposed to run Android applications.
Nokia X should be considered a mid-range device and it is still unclear how it is supposed to run Android application. Does it have direct access to Google Play? or Nokia has prepared an app store for downloading such 3rd part apps? What about Google Services and Windows Phone apps?

We'll update the article with the latest trusted rumors about Nokia Normandy..