Nokia Normandy engineering prototype spotted in the wild

Nokia is having a hard time hiding the fact they are developing an Android device, from the leaked renders Evleaks is pushing out to new reports almost daily regarding the device specs and news on what Microsoft is doing with the development process.

The Nokia Normandy, as it is codenamed, will be the Finnish company’s first Android device and will come to the low-end market later this year. Today, two engineering prototypes have been leaked, both showing the device outside of renders for the first time.

From a design standpoint, it looks just like the low-end Nokia Lumia smartphones available with Windows Phone. The rubber polycarbonate back and minimalist front reminds us of the Lumia 520, except this model has a soft-key back button in the middle.

We are not sure why Nokia has decided to only add a back key button and not home or multi-tasking buttons, perhaps they will be software keys or Nokia will integrate ways to swipe into multi-tasking in the new UI they have been developing for the Nokia Normandy.

The UI will apparently have a few Microsoft applications available, including Skype, SkyDrive, Xbox Music, Office for Android and Bing. This will be on top of Google’s required apps in order to be granted access to the Google Play apps store.

Other than that, the Nokia Normandy will apparently come at a cheap off contract price, to compete with the Moto G and other low-end Android smartphones from Samsung, HTC and ZTE, possibly breaking the $100 off contract mark.

It would be exciting to finally see Nokia on Android, but the dream may be over already. The prototypes do bring more realism to the fact the Nokia Normandy is a real device, but this may be a pre-Microsoft acquisition device, still in circulation but never coming to full production.

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