Microsoft planning a new 5" Lumia?



The world of Windows phones is pretty underwhelming at the moment.

There's no new flagship phone on the horizon...especially in the vital run up to Christmas. Instead, we seem to be swimming in a sea of low-end, entry-level WP phones but there's nothing in the entire range that's making waves.

The Nokia Lumia 930 has failed to create much interest, probably because it has no expandable storage and is seen as too expensive for what you get.

The Lumia 830 is good, but it's mid-range and it, too, has failed to generate widespread excitement.

The current flagships are getting a bit old. The Lumia 1020 has a great camera but is sluggish in operation. The Lumia 1520 ticks most boxes, but it's a six-incher and the pocket-bulging phablet market is still pretty specialised.

Anyway, both have been on sale for - in the smartphone world, anyway - a long time.

OK...there's the Windows Phone version of the highly successful Android-powered HTC One M8. But it's taking a long long time to be released. It's only out so far in the US and, again, there are no queues to grab it.

Microsoft was reported to be planning a new top-of-the-range Lumia - codenamed McLaren - earlier this year, but it now looks like the project has been scrapped.

That's what makes this photo comparatively exciting.

It's from a Chinese website and appears to show a prototype five-inch screen for a new Windows phone.

But it won't be out anytime soon. And, anyway, there's no way of knowing at the moment if it's going to be a blow-your-socks-off device of the future.

It might - just might - be a new flagship being planned for the launch of Windows 10, the next major update of Microsoft's smartphone operating system.

If it is, we don't expect to see either the new phone or Windows 10 until well into 2015.




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