Nokia gave some of the finest and very interesting mobile devices to the world in its final years and by now we very well know they were working on many more amazing devices with crazy ideas which were waiting to be launched but never made it for various reasons main one being the sale of D&S division to Microsoft. Nokia was pushing Windows Phone to its maximum limits and in 2014 also launched its very first line up of Android smartphones running on the Nokia X Platform but this was soon dropped after Microsoft took over and with the new leak that has been shared today we can be sure that Nokia had many more interesting smartphones running on Android almost ready to be launched.
Dimitrios Vlachos who in the past shared with us his findings about the Nokia Kataya is back again and this time he brings us photos, information and a video of another cancelled Nokia smartphone running on Android. Nokia called it the Ion Mini 2 and it runs on nauOS based on Android KitKat.
As you can see in the image above, the UI looks familiar as it resembles
the Z Launcher we first saw on the Nokia N1 tablet and as per the info, the
Nokia Ion Mini 2 was supposed to launch along with the Nokia N1 but it
didn't happen for some reason. The Ion series was believed to succeed the
Nokia X series and by looking at the images we can see google apps like
Chrome installed on the Ion Mini 2 which was not the case with Nokia X
series that relied heavily on Microsoft apps and services. There's no way to
confirm if the device had GMS but it would have been the right thing to do
for Nokia back in the day.
[Thread/Exclusive] Presenting the Nokia Ion Mini 2, a cancelled 2014 smartphone, believed to succeed the Nokia X series (& the OG Ion Mini). It was supposed to launch along with the N1 tablet, but sadly it never made its way to the retail stores. But for now, let’s admire it: pic.twitter.com/d5elFFXDJ5
— Dimitrios Vlachos (@ileios) December 10, 2021
Coming to the design, the phone looks very nice and clean considering this is from 2014 when even the flagships like the Galaxy S5 looked like a band aid from the back and had physical buttons at the front while this device rocks gesture navigation with no physical/capacitve keys at the front. The most unusual thing about this phone is the back design. The phone is thick from the top and becomes slimmer as it reaches its slimmest point at the bottom. It is a nice slope but I really don't understand the reason behind this unusual design. The only possible explanation I can come up with is ease of operating the display when the phone is laying flat on the table. As the phone stays flat on the surface the display gets raised at an angle from the top which would make it slightly better to view and operate. The phone in glossy green has a camera at the back with no led flash suggesting it to be a budget device.
And the video I promised you. Keep an eye on my account since I am gonna post many cancelled Nokia devices over the next few days; including the legendary Kataya: pic.twitter.com/RHEGAeO0PG
— Dimitrios Vlachos (@ileios) December 10, 2021
The video demo of the Nokia Ion Mini 2 above shows the phone in action giving us a glimpse of the UI, Nokia N9 like full gesture based navigation system along with a fast and responsive UI on a phone that was made for 2014. This makes me wonder what would have happened if the things did not end in such an abrupt way for Nokia. With the ideas that Nokia had and their implementations I feel, the smartphone market of the present day would have been a lot more different. It also makes me a bit sad that many such products were never launched and have got cancelled.
What are your thoughts about this Nokia Ion Mini 2? Do share your thoughts in the comments below. :)
Source: Dimitrios Vlachos (Twitter)
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