Nokia is planning to release a lighter, thinner phone with aluminum casing in its Lumia line during 2013, according to a report from The Verge. The aluminum would replace the company’s signature polycarbonate body for its flagship Windows Phone handsets in pursuit of competing with companies putting out sleeker phones.
Nokia has now released two flagship phones, the Lumia 900 and Lumia 920. Both have shells cut from blocks of polycarbonate with a texture luxurious enough to make even the most discerning of consumers covetous. Nokia partially departed from the material with a handful of Lumia 920s rendered in slick red and yellow plastic. But the Lumia flagship feels increasingly bloated in size compared to its competitors, especially its contemporary, the HTC 8X.
The aluminum Lumia number is codenamed Catwalk, according to The Verge, and would maintain similar hardware specs to the Lumia 920 but with a slimmed-down profile. While the polycarbonate bodies have always met our approval, we wouldn’t be sad to see the shiny plastic models booted out the door in favor of aluminum ones. If they all must go in favor of a sleeker phone, so be it.
The Verge provides no time frame for the device’s launch other than “later this year.” It’s not impossible Nokia will demo the device at CES next week, but we’d hold out for a launch during smartphone season in the fall.
