Is Nokia prepping an Android phone?

Nokia makes some pretty phones too... we just thought we'd remind you
Nokia makes some pretty phones too... we just thought we'd remind you

We at TechRadar often get asked how we get to bring you all the best and most innovative news, and we often give a knowing shrug and a wink before turning away enigmatically.

Well, it's actually because sometimes a spec sheet gets leaked detailing all the prototypes a company is working on, which has happened most recently in the case of Nokia over on Engadget Mobile.

While it's a long and extensive list, the last one mentioned has caught our eye, where it gives a list of specs for a phone codenamed Eitri, with the prototype due to be finished in Q2 next year.

Feature rich

It features a landscape candybar with QWERTY keyboard, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, tactile display with gesture recognition, 8GB onboard memory, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer and an integrated compass.

Hmmm, don't some of those features seem familiar? Why, they look like some of the specs needed to make a Google Android handset!

While it might seem a bit spurious Nokia would effectively walk away from its own baby in the shape of the newly purchased Symbian OS, perhaps the Finns are just hedging their bets and getting a compatible handset ready for when it's likely Android will be really taking off?

Check out the full list of all the prototypes over on Engadget Mobile, but be warned, it's pretty long!

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.